About me

I love connecting with new people

I'm told I'm very welcoming and as you can see I've usually got a smile on my face! 

Come and say Hi

trauma sensitive yoga
trauma sensitive yoga facilitator
soraya yoga TCTSY
Teen yoga berkhamsted
yoga retreat french alps

My Story

Someone recently asked me why I practice yoga?  What came to me was... to understand myself more fully. The character traits that I naturally have, the traits that I have inherited, the traits that I have inhabited like clothing, that I've even forgotten that I'm wearing and the traits encouraged by society.

It's been a long journey yet by more deeply understanding myself, I begin to open up choice in how I choose to react to situations; whether these are positive or negative, I get choice!! This opens up space for my life to change and become a life I want to live, I choose what I wish to experience rather than operating from habitual ways. This includes not only choosing what thoughts to think...or not, but also habitual ways of holding my body that causes stress and eventually causes feelings of tightness or even pain. Inhabiting my body and understanding at a deep core level that I always have choice...has been inspirational. To me these are the stepping stones to consciousness.

From my very first class I found a place of such peace and stillness that lasted for days after, even amidst the craziness of London. I felt I'd been away on holiday, little did I know back then that I'd been on holiday to myself. I remember as a child trying to copy the poses that my mother practiced and when she died, in my early 20's, yoga gave me a way of remembering and connecting back to her. When I was pregnant, yoga gave me a growing connection to my baby and to my changing body - a sense I was nurturing both of us. Years later when life became very challenging, I used yoga as a refuge, my mat became a small rectangle of peace where I moved and breathed. Little did I know then, that my connection to my body through yoga was helping me stay embodied, even if it was only for a short time. Back then I would never have described myself as suffering from complex post traumatic stress disorder, I just got on with life. I now realise that I spent much of my life developing complex coping strategies to help me engage with life and hide my fear. For sure on the outside I was semi successful; Stage Designer, Silver Gilt Chelsea Garden Designer, mother of two adorable boys, Yoga teacher....but I was trapped inside a cleverly built tower that separated me from the world and kept me safe.

I began my journey to teach in 2004 with children's yoga and then in 2008 with a general Hatha yoga training culminating in Trauma Sensitive Yoga. After practicing yoga for over 3 decades, I am beginning to understand the real truth and meaning behind yoga, it is giving me a growing connection to myself and the tools to navigate situations in daily life with care, authenticity and spontaneity.

The practice of yoga inspires me to be more open, real, compassionate, truthful, mindful and balanced every day. I don't always manage it in every situation but yoga allows me to get it wrong, pick myself up and try again. Yoga offers me the support, structure and foundation to reveal myself and show vulnerability without my armouring and masks.

To become authentically me and know why and when I am not.

and this is why I teach yoga, I hope to inspire you to go on your own journey of self discovery and experience the relief and joy when you can just be you. To connect with others, to inspire and be inspired and to reveal, so that others can reveal themselves too. 

 

About me

I have been practising yoga for over 30yrs and teaching for 15yrs. Yoga for me is a way of living..of being, not something I "do" I look for ways to embody the practices of this ancient system in everything I do, which sounds a bit woohoo, spiritual, not living in reality, too good!! but you know...I drink coffee!!! and wine!!! ok I don't eat meat but I can sometimes binge on Netflix etc....Yoga teachers are human beings, we are not to be put onto pedestals, we are not all sorted. But I truly believe that this amazing practice helps me to see more of myself, others and the world every day.

  • 300hr Trauma Sensitive Yoga - TCTSY
  • 200hr BWY & Yoga Alliance accredited Teacher Training - Yogacampus, London
  • 200hr Yoga Alliance Kirtan Trainning - Nikki Slade
  • Additional 200hrs+ hours yoga trainings including:
  • Yoga Nidra - Rod Stryker (Para Yoga)
  • Various trainings with Rod Stryker (Para Yoga)
  • Yin Yoga - Norman Blair
  • Relax & Renew Restorative Yoga - Judith Hanson Lasater
  • Children & Teen Yoga - Jo Manuel (Special Yoga)
  • Pregnancy Yoga - Uma Dinsmore Tuli
  • Pranayama - Judith Hanson Lasater
  • Experiential Anatomy - Judith Hanson Lasater
  • Sound Healing (Anne Malone)
  • Super Sleep (yoga for insomnia) - Lisa Sanfilipo
  • DPD Certificate
  • Fully Insured

 

I have immense gratitude to the amazingly insightful and knowledgable teachers that I have and continue to study with and whose influence inspires the way that I teach.

  • Yogarupa Rod Stryker
  • Nikki Slade
  • Facilitator's at TCTSY
  • Judith Hanson Lasater
  • Jason Crandell
  • Tia's Little
  • Shiva Rea
  • Norman Blair
  • Anne Malone