I just realised as I turned 54 that I’ve been teaching yoga for about half my life. I think began teaching when I was about 27! Here’s how it happened. 

Back in 1998, I had a work I loved in London, running a garden therapy project with traumatised refugees. But when the relationship I thought would last forever broke down, everything shifted and I knew I needed to get away and reassess everything.

I already loved yoga, so I quit everything and travelled to India- for the second time. I had already been once aged 19 which had been a bit too intense to be honest, so I was wary but ready! So I headed to the Himalayas. I walked in the mountains. I stayed in ashrams. I practiced intensively with different teachers, until one traditional hatha teacher persuaded me I should join a yoga teacher training with his guru. I didn’t know exactly what it would lead to, but I knew it was for me.

I loved the rhythm of the days: full practices, philosophy discussions, chanting, silence, meditation. There was depth, rigor, and a kind of devotion I hadn’t known I was craving. But it was not the sort of training that really guides you to teach. More like an in depth retreat. 

I continued to travel and started teaching friends, so by the time I returned home, I knew I wanted to share this practice. That’s where my teaching journey began.

Looking back, I can see the clues were there!

The hours on my head in the hallway as a kid! The teenage philosophical musings, that just as the seasons and the ocean always circle around so must life! The pilgrimage I somehow found myself on at 20, walking with a Buddhist monk! I had also already spent time learning with Thich Nhat Hanh and the Zen community in the South fo France for months one summer. I even ended up house-sharing with yoga scholars and teachers in my 20s (Jim Mallinson). Yoga had been calling me for a while. 

Recently I’ve started thinking about my yoga experience as various personal and yoga eras! Because this is not a practice stuck in time, but something that is always evolving and that adapts with us as our lives change. So here are my eras- love to hear yours!

The Discovery Era- Iyengar + restorative (1990, age 19): 

This was when I started to practice Iyengar yoga at university, plus some restorative which I loved! I was curious, searching. I practiced for the precision, the alignment, the clarity it gave me. I had already struggled a lot with my mental health and yoga gave me the ability to land in my body, to stop feeling like I was floating! Although I was hungry for something more than the asana I couldn’t quite name it.

The Striving Era- Hatha & Ashtanga (1998): 

After my first training in India, I returned totally focused on yoga. My training was in Hatha yoga but having discovered ashtanga at the end of the visit I started my morning with the dynamic flow every day. I moved to Wales to be nearer my cousins and started my own classes and classes in day centres with people with autism/ ADHD. I had already worked for many years with diverse communities and loved that work. My teaching began and as for all of us it was a steep learning curve, suffice to say I do not teach in the same way now. 

I have always loved diverse yoga traditions and in this period as well as strong asana I continued to practice restorative yoga and also study yoga nidra in the mandala ashram in Wales. I also practiced pranayama which helped me be able to sit for meditation (hard for me).

I taught for a few years, and my classes thankfully went really well, but I was restless to return to India and explore more about Ashtanga. So I signed up to my second 200 hour training in 2002 or so and headed off to Goa this time. I loved this time so much, tootling about on a scooter, meeting wonderful friends I still know today. This training was more focused on actually teaching yoga and on returning I decided to face life head-on back to London.

The grounding era. Full time teaching! (2001)

Having started teaching when I already had years of practice behind me and now a few trainings in I felt like a pretty experienced teacher already. I figured it was the perfect time for Triyoga one of London’s prestigious studios to hire me. So I spent my last few hundred pounds on a monthly membership for 3 months, hoping it would be enough time for them to know and trust me enough to hire me- which worked! So for the second time I set myself up as a teacher with my own classes and studio classes. I also found 2 agencies to hire me to teach private and corporate yoga classes! So for the first time I made my full income through yoga. I was so happy!

One of the most fantastic things at this time, especially the beginning was going to class in London. Exploring yoga with so many wonderful teachers. I know we are meant to love the yoga in India- and I often do. But I have learnt so much also from teachers in the UK and travelling teachers too.

The Mama Era (2006):

A few years into my daily ashtanga practice, which also involved cycling miles across London to class, the excitement wore off as my body started to ache! I now understand that repeating the same movements daily is NOT a varied enough movement diet. So I had stopped taking ashtanga class so often when I decided to try for a baba with my partner.  

Pregnancy of course changed everything. What used to work in my practice didn’t anymore. I started to listen in new ways, to my body, to my breath, to the inner teacher. Slower, gentler movement. More rest. More surrender. This was the beginning of a whole different kind of wisdom. Women’s health and wellbeing has always had a massive place in my work but now it started to take centre stage with trainings in pregnancy yoga, postnatal yoga, family yoga and baby massage!

I had a young son in 2007 but I did not have the luxury of a long maternity leave. We moved to a different area of Wales so I had to start my teaching all over again! Once more it went well but then I heard of a studio up for grabs in Bristol, and it felt like the perfect place to really evolve my own teaching and give a yoga home to other mums and people needing a supportive yoga space. 

My marriage ended. Life fell apart again. But I kept teaching. And in the ruins, something new began. My yoga wasn't polished, but it was real. Raw. Tender. Teaching became about holding space, not performing. 

At this time I started writing my own teacher trainings. It felt right, to help others find their way through the messiness of practice and life.

The Training Era (2010s): 

This was the decade of becoming a teacher of teachers. I poured myself into learning, mentoring, refining my voice. It wasn't just about what to teach, it was about how to hold people through big change. How to teach presence.

This era was also shaped by parenting. My child, born in 2007, was later diagnosed with autism and ADHD. That brought a whole new layer of learning, about sensory needs, nervous system regulation, advocacy.

To be totally honest, I would not wish the combination of having a studio and a kid whose needs are not met by mainstream school on anyone. And I won’t pretend it’s been anything other than awful at times! But the yoga is so adaptable that it has helped me rest when that's what I need, or connect to fierce mama power (thanks Kali) when that was called for.

Meanwhile I have had 17 years of teaching teachers which has been the most incredible honour. To see the difference so many teachers have made in sharing their wisdom and supporting others. 

The Integration Era (2018- present) 

These days, my work brings together everything I’ve lived and studied: ancient yogic wisdom and contemporary neuroscience, creative movement and fascia research, subtle body awareness and biomechanics. 

The last 5 years or so have seen me totally revise all I share. Integrating trauma sensitive teaching, my knowledge of the nervous system and neurodiversity and exploring movement science. Where there used to be more fear based language or discipline based thinking, now my courses explore deeply nurturing practices that allow each of us to find exactly what we need. The 200 hour gives a really solid foundation, the online courses offer a slice of specialist knowledge and the 300 hour course creates expert teachers who are able to share yoga deeply an create unique offerings. 

I have so much gratitude for the tradition and my teachers- many of whom are of course also my students! I feel that this yoga path gave my life the meaning and depth I really needed. 

Gratitude

Some of the most meaningful influences on my path came from my teachers:

My time with Thich Nhat Hanh deeply shaped my understanding of presence—embodied mindfulness in the everyday, not just on the mat.

My years of Iyengar study gave me a framework to develop more playful creativity from.

Ashtanga- I still love for the mental clarity it can bring.

Restorative Yoga- I practiced for a long time including work with Anna Ashby which I loved. 

Chakras - I studied with Anodea Judith, a few times in intensive which gave me a language for the energetic and psychological patterns we carry. 

With Tias Little, I explored subtle body teachings, not as abstract ideas, but as felt experience. 

There are many other teachers who came before. These teachers reminded me that yoga isn’t just technique. It’s something we live, that we have the privilege to pass on by becoming part of the flowing river of transformation and change that is yoga!

Are you seeking more?

If you are looking for a deeply nurturing training course that supports you to deep your inner knowledge, your asana and pranayama and shares  philosophy and inclusive creative yoga- then the 300 hour teacher training is ready for you! Download the prospectus, organise a call our come to our Open evening.

For a shorter, in-depth specialist yoga training, check out the online courses.