Teacher Details

HISTORY AND INSPIRATIONS

I first began practising Yoga back in 1984 when as a postgraduate student with two small children my life felt like it was running out of steam! Stressed out and sick I found my way to a Yoga class. Lying on a mat in a relaxed soothing environment I felt like I was returning to a safe secure place after many battles and bouts of confusion.  I never really wanted to be anywhere else, and I can honestly say 25 years later Yoga has never disappointed. It is like a best friend who is always there to welcome and refresh with new inspiration and familiar comfort. 

I began teaching in Belfast after a two year training period with Northern Ireland Yoga Fellowship. In 1987 the ‘Troubles’ were very much an everyday reality and in the early days it felt like pioneering work going into the schoolsl and community halls to teach a very basic Hatha Yoga practice as an antidote to the violence and uncertainty of those times. 

Later I moved to New Zealand and continued my studies with the Yoga Academy and various Iyengar teachers in Auckland.  I also became attracted to Astanga Yoga with its faster pace and more dynamic use of the breath. At a philosophical level I read ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ by Paramahansa Yogananda, the father of Yoga in the West who brought the ancient teachings of Kriya Yoga to California in the 1920’s. His teachings are very special they are imbued with a love and a personal devotion to God that is hard to find in our materialist and more sceptical world. 

So while continuing my practices of Astanga and Iyengar Yoga I also pursued a more spiritual path in terms of travelling to Encinitas in California where it all began, and also to Sweden to study meditation and the Kriyas with Swami Janakananda at the Scandinavian Yoga School and to Italy to the Ananda Yoga Centre near Assisi.

I also completed my Astanga Yoga Teacher Training course with Brian Cooper at Union Yoga in Scotland in 2006. I was very impressed by Brian’s rigorous approach to teaching. His knowledge of the ancient Yoga texts as well as his outstanding physical abilities won my respect and admiration.