Classes Face to Face

(With home practice support via practice Sheets and Vimeo )

New Term Registrations

Thursdays 6.30 p.m. Foundation Face

and 8 p.m. Continuers

All Saints Junior School Brownlow Rd RG1 6NP

Thursday February 22nd-March 28th 2024

(6 weeks £63)

Enhancing our energy part two the Sun

New Term Registrations

Thursdays 6.30 p.m. Foundation

and 8 p.m. Continuers

All Saints Junior School Brownlow Rd RG1 6NP

Thursday February 22nd-March 28th 2024

(6 weeks £63)

Yoga is both a practice and tool box for improving our well being as well as a  path of self realisation. It works with practices for the body, breath and mind. This may involve improving how the body moves, centring our mind through breathwork, or changing how to react to our thoughts through meditation.  Ancient yogis formed methodologies to work with energy- our life force, known as PRANA. The dichotomy of this being the sun and moon energies. Ida (moon) and pingala  (sun)  energies.  Through our yoga practice we restore balance by recognising and working with our relationships and manifestations of both. When we practice  yoga we are helping to bring balance to these two opposing energies.

With the foundation of rest and care for both our body and nervous system being established through the monthly cycle we turn to the daily rhythm of sunrise and sunset. We will work with practices to rise and then contain our energy to greet the day but also help us to close the day. Sun salutations will provide a constant touchstone and in turn be explored to both modify and develop how different rhythms of movement, breathwork, sound and mantra  can provide the right balance for us on any given day. Working with our fire chakra, Manipuri, we can use certain postures and breathing techniques to move away from feeling sluggish or lethargic to build heat and generate more energy.  Our practices will be expansive, exploring taking up space both physically and energetically.  The practices of the sun will be safeguarded and nurtured by the moon energy.  By being in relationship with both we bring the third energy of balance.

Recent themes

Enhancing our energy part one, the moon

SThis time of year really is my favourite time to work with people establishing their yoga practice! Everything begins to shift around us, growth is seen, the day lengthens and sunlight begins to warm us again. This energy provides a slip stream for us to practice yoga. This term we will be looking at stabilising, rising and balancing our energy as we move in to the spring. We will be using the chakra energetic model. There are seven chakras areas following the direction of the spine that can create a focus for movement to release and strengthen. To unlock stagnant energy and to create mental and emotional focus. Each week focusing on a different chakra, starting from the base of the body, working our way upwards through the weeks to create change. Through movement, pausing, breathwork, imagery and mindfulness we will go on an energetic journey of sensory discovery which will create balance and holistic integration.

In foundation there will be ample explanation and demonstration for complete beginners as well as interest for those growing their practice, in continuers more challenge and depth with be available.

Functional movement and breath

Our postural and movement patterns are the result of a lifetime‘s worth of habit, interest, injury and how we take up space in this world. This creates the landscape of our body like a map that we can zoom in and explore. We can experience gravity and alignment seeing its relationship and connection to other areas and the body as a whole. The body as a living breathing map that the breath itself creates both the bridge and the lens for this exploration.

For example thinking about our feet. How gravity and the weight of the body falls through the feet. How we become aware of that in stillness and in movement, how we shift and then that ripples to the body affecting the position of the pelvis and the shoulders which intern affects the position of the spine. By exploring and bringing a lens of awareness through movement, meditation and breath work onto the feet we can begin to explore these connections through the body and find healthy ways of standing on our feet and moving from our feet to unravel and bring the body back into harmony.

In foundation class the practice will be accessible for all offering supportive demonstrations and modifications so that you can enjoy the practice at every level. In continuers class there will be an assumption of connection to the breath and the body to allow us to explore deeper.

I look forward to exploring with you!

Good Space

I need space. We all do. Especially now. Let me support you to move and breath into a better space through a yoga practice.

Our relationship with yoga is underpinned by some key vocabulary and philosophy which can be really fruitful to explore on the mat to create change and well being.

This term we will be exploring sukha and dukkha in relationship to the context and feeling of space. Sukha: good space and Dukkha: restricted space. Bringing into awareness and then challenging space that is unpleasant within the body, breathing and mind. From there being guided and supported to create an alchemy of good space through yoga practice.

What is your experience of space and how can we in our yoga practice move towards cultivating good space and reducing restricted space? When there is tightness and reduced range of movement in the body; pain and restriction, influence how our body is held in space and how it’s internal space is experienced. This holds a key to how we move through the world. Holding tension, muscular and joint pain, influences our nervous and endocrine systems and in turn our immune function. Our bodies posture, through habit and lifestyle, adds to this internal experience but also communicates something valuable about how we occupy space to those around us and in turn influences how they interact with us.

How space is experienced in our breathing and the restoration of it, in both the rhythms and stillness around breathing, has a profound effect both on our body and on our thoughts.

We will work to explore specific parts of the body and create awareness and connection there. Discovering where the restrictions are to our space, and shift it so it supports good space both there and for the rest of the body. Challenging habits and patterns creates a deep feeling of openness and ease in the body. Whether that be unlocking our shoulders or freeing space between our toes. Using breath work will will ease the boundaries around our breath and restore functional breathing and through this explore the different parts of the cycle of a breath to sustain good energetic space. Through this practice and focus, though mindfulness, we will create an opening of space and reflection around our thoughts so that clarity and compassion become more readily available. As we move and breath into the right space for us.

In foundation this experience will be supported by learning in a clear and accessible way the core skills of a yoga practice, with simple explanation and demonstration. Whilst in continuers there will be room to develop and take the practice deeper.

Past themes

Spring

The Sap is rising and the seasonal shift calls us to open the windows, let the air in on our practice and begin the work of renewal and change. Both growth in the physical goals for our bodies but also in how we support our energy through breath work. These conversations and practices around growth and change on our mat, in turn are guided by meditations to support attitude and vocabulary. This is key.

We will explore adventuring in our variations of asana as well as trying new postures. Breath work that reduces apana to open up and create a vacuum for more prana to come into our bodies. Bhandas (energetic locks) that support an intensifying of this energy work. Exploring this interplay between prana ( life force), Agni ( fire and change) and apana (detoxification). As always this work is best supported by our knowledge, understanding and respect for aryuveda. We come as a group of individuals to our practice and the more we understand what our constitution or dosha type needs, in this seasonal shift, the more we can reflect on our yoga practice, diet and dinacharyas ( self care practices) that can support us to leap, with energy, into this new season and year. All the more relevant for us now. Just as nature shakes of winter to harness energy we can work towards rebalancing and clearing our bodies from what we have experienced. In foundation this will be explored with teachings to understand the fundamentals of this seasonal shift in our practise whilst in continuers there will be more appropriate physical and mental challenge from this foundation already being in place.

Wintering

This term our practices will honour the strength of slowness and rest, deeply exploring the shedding of tension using the breath in held asana. In held postures we will focus on strengthening the core with bhandas to sustain this stillness and in turn allow risks in our movement to come with the spring. There will be an emphasis on energy work, translating wintering into the breath both in asana (postures)and pranayama (breathing) practices. The discipline of a slow cook in our practice to nourish deeply. Recognising that our own particular constitution and dosha types support or create risks in wintering and becoming sensitive to that. I will guide meditations for daybreak and dusk, practices to move by candlelight, recipes to nourish and abhyanga to preserve our bodies. Let’s winter together as a community.

Pause the body, slow it down and hollow out a space with the breath, a space for knowing and a spring for adventure to bubble forth. Wintering is hearing, listening rather than talking. Simplifying into here, now.

Stripping back our breath work without distraction, learning both to sensitise, recognise and stabilise our breath.

Whether you are a beginner, establishing a practice or working to deepen your longstanding yoga practice, teaching will create what you need to take us from here now, in winter, to spring. Learning both the core skills of a yoga practice whilst keeping it alive and relevant

Touchstones

This term we will be using the different aspects of a yoga practice as Touchstones. A Touchstone is an element of how our body, breath or mind works that holds the key to finding stability. Change is a challenge and an opportunity. When we navigate it from being firmly anchored in stability we can find well-being.

Soma. Our body. We will explore coming home to the 'ground beneath our feet', 'the courage of our heart' and 'space within even when we are without.'

Prana. Our lifeforce, energy. The breath. We will explore coming home to the 'stability offered on the exhale', home to the 'stillness in the breath that supports strength'.

Citta. The mind. Coming home to moving from 'fear to Here:Now' and the 'Gratutude of the heart'

putting together the jigsaw of good posture.

Pelvis

Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes

1-1 tuition now available both face to face and on line email for details.

Group classes are a great way of being introduced to yoga. However, they are limited in their ability to ensure yoga suits your particular health needs and interests. Traditionally yoga is taught on a one-to-one basis. Learning yoga on an individual basis can allow you to practice yoga tailored to your health, interests, individual needs and aspirations. Your age, health, lifestyle, occupation and culture will be reflected in a practice given.

People come for many reasons including physical rehabilitation, support for depression and anxiety, support for living with chronic illness such as M.S., pregnancy and in preparation for childbirth, stress related health problems or for a more in-depth study of Yoga to support teacher training or personal interest.

First consultation

In the first consultation, you will learn more about the process and we can discuss your reasons for coming. During this session, a health questionnaire will be completed and some simple movement to assess how your body moves. These meetings are confidential.

In addition, during this session, a personal practice will be designed and tried. The approach is client-centred and will be guided by you. An achievable practice will be given which you will need to aim to practice 3-4 times a week to experience benefit.

Through on-going meetings, your practice will be developed and refined through feedback, discussion and observation of your experience. It is usual to aim to meet for at least six sessions. After this, you can review your progress. Some students feel that this is enough for their particular needs whilst others continue to come to individual sessions for years.

The cost of the initial meeting is £85

On-going consultation rates are £60for up to an hour and £85 for up to an hour and a half. 

If you wish to rearrange or cancel a session, 48 hours' notice should be given or normal charges apply.

Creating inside: Creating outside.

Pregnancy Yoga Day retreat.

Next Date TBA

A day to retreat into your Yoga Practice, Meditation, Deep Relaxation and Making Meditations to empower you in this time of change and waiting.

Escape with me for the day to immerse yourself in yoga, meditation, deep relaxation and creativity.  Birth itself is a powerful meditation where you loose sense of time and become consumed with the energy of birthing your baby.  It is the ultimate climax to a period of creativity in your body.  Pregnancy shifts things emotionally as well as physically and we call for courage as we approach birth and mothering.  On this retreat we will deepen our self awareness through yoga, ayurveda, and through creative experiences inspired by our practice. Pieces of creativity that can become art for your birth.  Working together, playing together; finding support as a group of women  as you move into motherhood.

No artistic skills are needed, very simple creative exercises to create stillness, opening, play and connection.

Cost £75 Including all materials and delicious Ayurvedic drinks, snacks, lunch and afternoon tea.

Limited to 5 people. Email to book your space!

Day Retreat Summer 2018

'Conversations in Self Care'

9th June 2018 11.30-4.30 p.m.

All Saints Junior School Hall, August House, Brownlow Road, Reading RG1 6NP. 

£60 including tea snacks, lunch and afternoon tea and cake.

Join me and our yoga community for a day exploring a beautiful and supported journey into self care.   The day itself will be a mixture of practical action and exploration through yoga, meditation, creative exercise, Ayurvedic practices and writing.   In community; making an individual manifesto and map for your self care Journey.  My aim is to create a starting point of relationship that becomes mandatory in your life. 

Yoga philosophy and Ayurveda explore in texts and practices, self care.  They hold great respect for rhythm and rituals; normalising practices that care for body and mind.  In the same way we brush our teeth, practices are embodied as essential and valuable.  There is an increasing realisation that our experience of health and disturbed health can not sustain the call for increased efficiency, productivity and even the expectation of living a 'full and meaningful life'.   We will look away from thoughts of time management and the expectation that if we could just find the right rountine or job/relationship we will feel better.  We will look at how to care for ourselves despite the challenge of modern life.  Heralding a call to do less, achieve less, and be bored more! Culturally we resist boredom to our downfall.  Stillness is an essential part of our biology.   We will look at nudges and interventions to begin a change in conversation to normalising a revolution of relationship to self care or Dinacharya.  Dinacharya practices should be held within solid yoga philosophy, which we will explore, otherwise they become vulnerable to becoming another area of our lives we feel we are failing at.  Let self care be a wobbly, heart felt but a continuing Journey together. 

I'd love you to walk this path with me.

Women's Day Retreat

                                                                                    Seasons in our Practice
Saturday January 27th 2018 11.30-4.30 p.m.

All Saints Junior School Hall, August House, Brownlow Road, Reading RG1 6NP

Escape for a day with other women who share your love of yoga and are looking for support to balance their well-being.  Through asana, pranayama and meditation practice we will look at how we can theme our practice to meet our changing needs; physically, energetically and emotionally.   In between practices I will share some principles of Yoga and Ayurveda.  Through discussion, eating, drinking and self-massage we will explore and deepen our knowledge of yoga and our relationship of self-care as women.
I will be using the model of our menstrual cycle and the changing rhythms of a lunar month to explore this theme, but it can be applied to any rhythm of your life for example the energy rise and fall within the working week or the fluctuations of the climate and weather and how it affects us seasonally.   We will look at Ayurveda and how diet and lifestyle practices in line with our dosha type can promote well-being and help to balance out fluctuating energy levels and moods.

 £55 including ayurvedic themed lunch and refreshments in breaks.

Courage and Creativity In Yoga
Embodying Yoga on and off the mat.

Saturday 8th July 2017 11.30 a.m.-4.30 p.m.

All Saints Junior School Hall, August House, Brownlow Road, Reading RG1 6NP

£55 including all materials and Ayurvedic Vegetarian/Vegan lunch and Afternoon Tea.

There are many ways to reach a state of yoga, connection and stillness.  A feeling of authenticity and being whole.  In this summer retreat we will be using asana practice to connect us to the five elements.  Using our relationship with the 5 Bhutas or elements; space, air, fire, water and earth,  we will explore asana practices that respond to these qualities in all of us and in turn connect us to nature.  We will form and breath the elements exploring a knowledge of ayurveda and how this can help us to balance our dosha type.  Perhaps you need grounding to develop your earthed relationship?  Or to cultivate a liberating sense of space in the body and mind.  Are you stuck and need to fire into transformation?  Are you rigid and would like to feel more creative and fluid?  Would you like to move through the air to find stillness at the deepest level?

From each practice we will in turn use this energy; translating it and inspiring creative exercises off the mat, helping us to distil and our love of being on the Mat and Yoga off the mat and into our lives. Through creative exercises, we will evolve mediations of making,  finding pathways to courage and a movement to living a life that feels true.

What is instinct as children; exploration, creativity, courage and a self knowing  sureness can become lost and distorted with how our experiences shapes us.  This workshop will be for ALL irrespective of perceived ability.  Take support from this yoga community, coming together, stepping for some of us, outside our comfort zone to explore mark making, clay and colour we will deepen a relationship of playfulness, creativity and courage to ourselves and nature and create a meditation to manifest off the mat.   No artist skills needed!! 

Around our work and play during the retreat we will be nourished by food that restores us through balancing our dosha and feeding our senses. Feasting body and mind and Soul!

Spaces are limited and fill quickly. To book on please email me and secure you place with £20 deposit.  Balance due (£35) beginning of June.

Space to Celebrate and Support your Pregnancy.

Pregnancy Yoga and Birth Preparation Classes

Tuesdays 9.30 a.m. and 7.30 p.m.

Live Classes now Face to face at home studio and online via Zoom

Content to support you in this time available on instagram channel

email for details

Home Studio on Castle Hill, Central Reading.

£15 per class.

You are entitled to paid time off to attend these classes.
https://www.gov.uk/working-when-pregnant-your-rights

 PREGNANCY DAY RETREAT register your interest

The class offers a unique opportunity to come together, in a beautiful home studio within a period Georgian townhouse, to practice yoga. To ease your body and grow accustom to the transformation. A personal class and space that will celebrate the wonder and joy. At the same time remaining grounded in nurture, care and laughter to support the challenges.

This class uses the tools of yoga; asana, breath awareness and control, meditation, sound and relaxation to support your body and mind to be strong and healthy whilst also allowing you the heart space to relax and explore your journey, connecting with your growing baby. The class is structured to allow time for you to informally share your experience and thoughts on different aspects of pregnancy and the beginnings of motherhood. Class is followed by tea and refreshments, time to talk and get to know each. During this time, you are encouraged to visit us after you have had your baby!

Why practice yoga during pregnancy?

Birth Preparation Night with your Partner

Private birth preparation and doula support sessions in your own home from £120

Friday 7-9 p.m. TBA June 2024

(£60 per couple)

Partners night is a practical workshop to help your partners understand and practice supporting you in labour.  We will look at skills such as breathing techniques, movement, positioning, sound, language and massage.  We will look at how we can create an optimum birth space, managing transferring from home to hospital, what labouring women look and act like and how to support them but also common things that partners sometimes do that aren't helpful!!  How to advocate for the labouring woman and the sort of decisions that might need to be made.  How to look after themselves and an opportunity to ask questions they might have too.  It creates a useful space to look at thoughts and practicalities, to build a great partnership to take you into parenthood.    For those who are looking forward to a second or more birth, it can be valuable for looking at what worked and any challenges from last time and how to look to this birth in the most empowering way.

There is opportunity to make what I teach very specific to those in the group, so come with questions and your own particular needs!

This class is here to support you and your baby in your post-natal period. After much expectation your baby is finally here!

11:15 am -1:15 pm mother and baby yoga with lunch £20

2:15 -4 pm with afternoon tea £16

Lunch/Afternoon tea.  Home Studio Castle Hill, Central Reading

Maximum 6 mummies and babies, followed by chat and home made morning tea.

A weekly retreat!
£20/£16

From six weeks post-natal.

This class is a time to turn off the phone and avoid the never ending list of jobs and increasing demands on you as a woman and mother. It is a space for you and your baby to recover, restore, relax and discover each other.

Babies do not run to a time table or a class plan, so please feel free to stop and feed, change, be with your baby, when they need you. The class will focus on your needs but also your babies. Yoga together rather than trying to do yoga with your baby tagging along! The class will provide a mutually supportive environment. The most important thing to learn is to go with the flow, by not having too many expectations. Participate as much as you can during the class and take away with you the philosophy to cherish and nurture yourself within each day that presents-sometimes magical, sometimes frustrating, tiring, and boring!

Why do yoga together?

I have worked in partnership with Reading Borough Council's Healthy Workplace Initiative offering early morning classes at Reading Museum.

Colleagues are brought together through yoga. Each individual will learn to use yoga to increase their flexibility and strength whilst learning to engage with their breath to focus their minds. This helps reduce stress and aids clarity of thought. Practicing together brings cohesion to a team.

Courses for staff can be general or designed to meet a specific need such as stress reduction, motivation or supporting the effects of desk based working. Please contact me for more details.

Yoga for People Living with and Recovering from Cancer

on hold please request
Home Studio Castle Hill Reading RG1

Suggested donation

Please register by emailing before attending to receive further information and a health questionnaire. Accompanying friend/family member welcome, space permitting.

A restorative and gently strengthening class creating a space to use simple movements, breathing and mindfulness to increase your well-being.

In the class we will work to

reduce muscular tension
improve and maintain your range of movement
help maintain physical and emotional stability
lessen anxiety
improve sleep quality
restore and reduce fatigue
aid lymphatic flow
aid digestion and appetite
help manage pain

Your experience and the effect of cancer is individual to you and I will endeavour to work with practices suitable for you, however if this is not feasible in a group setting individual tuition is available outside of the class.

Yoga with the elderly uses yoga asana, breathing practices and led meditation to help maintain physical and emotional well-being, to maintain quality of life and independence for its participants.

Classes can be taught entirely based in a chair if necessary.

Many community groups can benefit from yoga. In partnership with organisations I can offer physically, mentally and culturally appropriate yoga classes.  This can be a tailor-made yoga class for community groups such as yoga for the elderly, for people with learning difficulties and for adults with mental health issues.