Becky is teaching the Friday 10am class. She has over 12 years experience of working in both caring and teaching roles. Her background is working with people who have learning disabilities, using dance and drama to develop creative communication opportunities.
More recently Becky has been drawn to work with holistic therapies and is trained in massage, Indian head massage and reflexology. She works intuitively enabling people to access their own healing ability.
Becky has been practising yoga for many years, which has brought her much inner peace and stillness enabling her to deal with the ups and downs of life more consciously. This path has led her to complete the Sivananda teacher training programme in 2009, where she was given her spiritual name Saraswati.
As a yoga teacher she works intuitively aiming to allow people to unlock their potential through a deep meditative practise, which allows one to enter into a place of stillness and inner knowledge.
Melinda
Melinda teaches at 10 am on Tuesdays. She first started doing yoga in the 70's as a child with her mum, going to classes and learning from a record at home! At 19 she discovered Iyengar yoga, and started learning yoga in depth in her own practice. She healed her back problems through yoga and no longer needed to attend expensive therapists.
She has developed her understanding of yoga through practice and a personal spiritual and emotional exploration. In 2000 she discovered Inner Yoga, which she experienced as forgiving of her imperfections, more joyous, fluid and creative practice compared to Iyengar. She trained to be a teacher with the Inner Yoga Trust for over 3 years, and qualified with a British Wheel of Yoga accredited course in 2006.
This is a general class for people with none or some experience of yoga. There is a practise of a combination of energetic and relaxing postures. With a focus on moving from deep within the muscular system, creating strength and stability in the core muscles of the back , the joints and the pelvic area.
You will feel a loosening and freeing up with more movement in the legs, hips, shoulders and spine. The class is small so that the teacher can give individual attention to each student.
Abhaya's classes are at 11:30 on Mondays. She started practising yoga in 1978. She took mantra initiation in 1997 and completed her Integral Yoga Teacher Training in 2001. Since then she has taught Extra Gentle Therapy Yoga classes at Doctor's Surgeries and in the community, for students with health problems such as Arthritis, ME, Fibromyalgia, and Bad Backs. She also teaches beginners classes in Gyms and Sport Centres.
Abhaya teaches with Love and Compassion, and, having had health problems herself, has a lot of empathy with people. She is committed to helping other people and her gentle nature inspires and motivates her students. "I learn as much from them as they do from me".
With Extra Gentle Yoga, yoga poses are adapted and modified to help people with specific or persistent health problems. The postures are kept very simple. Most postures are done lying down on the floor to encourage the whole spine to release and relax.
Sitting in chairs is encouraged for those who cannot sit on the floor with ease. Cushions and blocks can make poses comfortable so that people can relax and feel an easeful, gentle stretch.
Emma teaches 7:30pm on Mondays and Wednesdays and the pregnancy classes on Wednesdays at 6pm, as well as the general 10am class on Wednesdays.
Emma is a Sivananda trained yoga teacher with a background in Iyengar yoga. She started practicing yoga regularly in her twenties for the stillness it gave her and the way it was accessible to all abilities.
Her background as a singer and flautist helped steer her interest in breathing and a yoga practice that integrates the breath with every movement and moment. This love of the breath led to a career as a freediving instructor and Emma has spent the last ten years teaching people of all ages and physical condition how to breathe more deeply, more freely, and more peacefully.
Emma's classes follow a Sivananda structure with the Iyengar use of props, attention to alignment and a variety of postures. Emma welcomes everyone to her classes to share the peace and joy of yoga!
Sushi teaches the mums and babies class on Thursday mornings. Sushi’s love for yoga began with asana practise over 15 years ago and has been evolving ever since. She studied Hatha, Iyengar and Ashtanga before completing the teaching diploma with the Sivananda organisation in 2004 in Montreal.
She is also a qualified Shiatsu practitioner and enjoys integrating yoga with Shiatsu, looking at an individual’s anatomical, physiological and energetic presentation to gain most from their yoga practise.
Sushi also trained with Birthlight Baby Yoga and Birth Preparation in 2006 and 2009, where she uncovered a deep interest in nurturing the pregnant and post-partum woman. When not practising or teaching yoga, Sushi loves to garden, walk, sit, swim, dance, knit, sing, fiddle (wooden string variety) and be.
