my story
I started my yoga journey in my early 30’s where I started out trying different forms of Yoga from Hatha to Yin to Vinyasa and then a home practice using different online classes. In 2013, after what I now know was a burnout, I was advised to take up yoga and meditation by my doctor. To be honest it didn’t go well, I went to yoga classes and came away feeling worse than when I went in and meditation just seemed so alien - I put it on the back burner and concentrated on doing more exercise and some yoga when I had time.
In 2016, I went travelling with my husband and after a couple of months in New zealand, we spent a month in Bali where we did a fair bit of yoga which I found to be in tune with where I was at that time and I came back feeling that I wanted to do more of it. I joined a studio in Amsterdam and started going 3-4 times a week.
After a few months I decided to deepen my practice and learn more about what yoga is about and how I could really integrate this into my everyday life and started a 10 month long vinyasa teacher training programme under the guidance of 2 wonderful teachers, Lana & Mercedes. It was during this time, I discovered and fell in love with Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga which has now not only become a daily active practice but has been the constant in my life to keep me grounded.
However, I have always felt that some modern yoga practices are not suitable for everyone and I wanted to learn and do more - whilst yoga should be for everyone, not everyone can or wants to do handstands! Going back to when I had burnout and turning up to classes that quite frankly were not right for me - I know now there would have been some yoga practices that would have been perfect for me at that time. And this brings me to Yoga Therapy - Since starting this period of study, I truly feel I have taken myself through therapy and I have learnt so much about myself and what impact certain things that have happened in my life are having now or have done before. I am now more mindful in my approach to myself and while I still have a daily practice, sometimes it’s an Ashtanga mysore practice, sometimes it’s a combination of Ashtanga mysore and yoga therapy, or sometimes it's just mindful movement and breathing focusing on what I need at that moment.
The practice of yoga cannot be learned from a book, it needs experiencing and as a Yoga practitioner, Yoga teacher and trainee yoga therapist, this is what every student and client will get when working with me - A practice that I have experienced myself, not just something I have read or learned from my hours of study.