For almost 20 years I’ve dedicated my life to teaching the self-care practices of yoga, mindfulness meditation and physical activity because it’s good for the body, our mental health and the planet. Personal experience and working with diverse groups of students and patients has taught me that when we truly understand the wisdom of taking good care of ourselves, that care naturally widens to include our family, friends and co-workers, the natural environment and the wider world.
My work today is varied and I absolutely love it: from running a clinic working therapeutically with patients referred for psychiatric care in a team of psychiatrists, psychotherapists and others; to teaching public yoga and mindfulness classes, courses and retreats for all ages and abilities.
I’ve been fortunate to be invited to lead programmes in partnership with local government agencies, GPs and clinicians in mental health, academic institutions and schools, as well as corporate organisations that: improve mental health for stressed, depressed and anxious patients; boost resiliency of teachers and school children; and coach staff in employee health and wellbeing programmes.
I have enhanced DBS and teach either group or one-to-one sessions online or in person:
- Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) – the original eight week curriculum created by Jon Kabatt-Zinn for those wishing a structured course of meditation and life coaching for greater resilience, creativity, health and balance
- Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) an eight week curriculum developed by Professor Mark Williams and team at the Oxford Mindfulness Centre specifically for depression and anxiety with shorter meditations and life coaching (is suitable for anyone wishing to learn to meditate and be happy)
- Hatha yoga – a gentle style suitable for beginners or those preferring to ease into the body, and develop breath awareness to calm the mind
- Sivananda yoga – a classical style suitable for those preferring a more dynamic pace and traditional range of practices based on the teachings of Swami Sivananda
- Therapeutic or remedial yoga – one-to-one sessions to help those with specific health conditions
- Pawsb and Mindful Schools courses for children and young people
My own practice began long before the work began: 47 years ago yoga originally began as a way to care for my sore bones and tender tissues traumatized by a childhood fall, and taught by a gentle, specialist teacher, practising what was then known as remedial yoga, today commonly referred to as yoga therapy.
I know, without a doubt, that yoga and mindfulness meditation can heal the body, centre and focus the mind and restore sagging spirits.
But being human and subject to the pressures of life, I didn’t always listen!
I once believed that one way to feel worthwhile was to use my innate gifts and talents chasing a career: from teaching to working my way to senior roles alongside the great and the good in global Public Relations and communications for various not-for-profits and humanitarian organisations. The stress levels were stratospheric though it provided a dubious kind of glamour!
Then one day I was diagnosed with a TIA (a stroke).
And I listened.
To support you in living a healthier and more fulfilling life I offer the following:
- Weekly group yoga and mindfulness meditation classes (currently online)
- One-to-one sessions and courses (currently online)
- Yoga and mindfulness courses & workshops for all levels (currently online)
- A blog and social media posts to inspire and provide resources to oil the wheels of your week
- A few retreats a year where you can immerse yourself in learning body wisdom and mind craft among kind, friendly and welcoming groups of like-souled people.
In my free time I enjoy travel or watching travel documentaries, learning languages, walks in Mother Nature, the gym (not really but I do resistance exercise), music, art and dancing – Argentine tango and historical dances from the Baroque and Regency periods with the Winchester Baroque Dancers and Duke of Wellington’s Dancers.
I am a Jane Austen superfan or Janeite and appear in a BBC documentary commemorating 200 years of her death in 2017! I have twin nephews and a niece, who all started practising yoga while very young. I’m hoping to add a rescue pug to the family very soon.
