I have been practising yoga for the last 23 years and teaching for 8 years. I began hatha yoga with my first teacher Janny Wieler and then my love affair with yoga began. I was young and enthuasiastic and very dedicated. Then I headed off to UCC to study and I was lucky to get another inspirational teacher. He was an elderly man, maybe in his seventies or eighties dressed in a suit and instructing us into the postures. He had began his own practice at nineteen years of age and he had a real passion for yoga and health and he shared a lot of wisdom with his students.
My next teacher was an Iyengar teacher in Bantry. She introduced me to the use of props in yoga. For me this was amazing and opened up so many new possibilities in my practice. She also taught me a lot about alignment which is a big part of Iyengar yoga. Unfortunately this teacher left Bantry and I was without a teacher for a while. For a short while their was an Asthanga teacher in the area and her classes were good fun and physically challenging.
Then I found my main teacher Esther Ekhart who has taught me so much about yoga and how to live. She inspires me to have fun with yoga, to achieve the seemingly impossible, to be happy in my own skin. On the physical side she made me very strong and energetic. She was the first one who helped me really get into meditation. She introduced me to Yin Yoga and restorative yoga both of which I absolutely adore. I went on my first yoga retreat with Esther and have been on more since with her. I highly recommend them Then I took the plunge and trained as a yoga teacher with her which was the best experience of my life so far, not the easiest but the best all the same.
I have continued my training through taking workshops with the two main authorities on Yin Yoga, Sarah Powers and Paul Grilley. I have been on silent retreat with Sarah Powers and completed a teacher training with her in December 2015. I have completed a Yin Yoga teacher training with Josh Summers. I got to train with the with Amy Matthews who has a wealth of information on movemenet patterns and anatomy and is world renowned. I qualified as a Yoga Tune Up(tm) Therapy ball Practitioner. Last year I trained with Lisa Petersen to become a Somatic Education coach. This has really changed my practice and teaching and I'm seeing great benefits in myself and my students. In summer 2018 I trained with the Senior yoga teacher Leslie Kaminoff. In 2017 and again in 2018 I was also lucky enough to train with the internationally renowned yoga teacher Jason Crandell. He is such an inspiration and has reinspired my love of Vinyasa yoga. The great thing about yoga for me that there is always new things to learn, new ways to look at poses or practices that I think I know.
In 2021 I trained in TRE, trauma and tension releasing exercises to become a TRE provider. TRE is a seven simple exercises that help you to reset the nervous system. It takes us from stress response of fight, flight or freeze back to socially engaged. This helps the basic functions of the body such as sleep, digestion, heart rate to run at an optimal level. It helps us connect to our bodies, the people around us and the world around us. It is such a simple joyful practice which has amazing benefits. Personally it helped eliminate my migraines.
I am currently completing a 300hour yin training with the wonderful Josh Summers and Terry Cockburn.
Also I am in the middle of my 300hour Vinyasa training with Jason Crandell.
I feel so fortunate to have these great teachers and the oppurtunity to continue my education.
I look forward to sharing this passion for playing with yoga to each of my students and I hope that they get as much joy and more out of yoga as I do.
Deep gratitude to all my teachers so far and the ones I have yet to meet and to all my students for you are my best teachers.
My next teacher was an Iyengar teacher in Bantry. She introduced me to the use of props in yoga. For me this was amazing and opened up so many new possibilities in my practice. She also taught me a lot about alignment which is a big part of Iyengar yoga. Unfortunately this teacher left Bantry and I was without a teacher for a while. For a short while their was an Asthanga teacher in the area and her classes were good fun and physically challenging.
Then I found my main teacher Esther Ekhart who has taught me so much about yoga and how to live. She inspires me to have fun with yoga, to achieve the seemingly impossible, to be happy in my own skin. On the physical side she made me very strong and energetic. She was the first one who helped me really get into meditation. She introduced me to Yin Yoga and restorative yoga both of which I absolutely adore. I went on my first yoga retreat with Esther and have been on more since with her. I highly recommend them Then I took the plunge and trained as a yoga teacher with her which was the best experience of my life so far, not the easiest but the best all the same.
I have continued my training through taking workshops with the two main authorities on Yin Yoga, Sarah Powers and Paul Grilley. I have been on silent retreat with Sarah Powers and completed a teacher training with her in December 2015. I have completed a Yin Yoga teacher training with Josh Summers. I got to train with the with Amy Matthews who has a wealth of information on movemenet patterns and anatomy and is world renowned. I qualified as a Yoga Tune Up(tm) Therapy ball Practitioner. Last year I trained with Lisa Petersen to become a Somatic Education coach. This has really changed my practice and teaching and I'm seeing great benefits in myself and my students. In summer 2018 I trained with the Senior yoga teacher Leslie Kaminoff. In 2017 and again in 2018 I was also lucky enough to train with the internationally renowned yoga teacher Jason Crandell. He is such an inspiration and has reinspired my love of Vinyasa yoga. The great thing about yoga for me that there is always new things to learn, new ways to look at poses or practices that I think I know.
In 2021 I trained in TRE, trauma and tension releasing exercises to become a TRE provider. TRE is a seven simple exercises that help you to reset the nervous system. It takes us from stress response of fight, flight or freeze back to socially engaged. This helps the basic functions of the body such as sleep, digestion, heart rate to run at an optimal level. It helps us connect to our bodies, the people around us and the world around us. It is such a simple joyful practice which has amazing benefits. Personally it helped eliminate my migraines.
I am currently completing a 300hour yin training with the wonderful Josh Summers and Terry Cockburn.
Also I am in the middle of my 300hour Vinyasa training with Jason Crandell.
I feel so fortunate to have these great teachers and the oppurtunity to continue my education.
I look forward to sharing this passion for playing with yoga to each of my students and I hope that they get as much joy and more out of yoga as I do.
Deep gratitude to all my teachers so far and the ones I have yet to meet and to all my students for you are my best teachers.
