I was born in Jersey and my childhood was FAR less exciting than Manju’s.

I visited India for the first time nearly 30 years ago when, as part of my undergraduate studies (BA in Asian Religions and Philosophies), I took a module called “Understanding The Indian Mind” at a monastery where we lived for six weeks which turned out to be very useful when I met Manju!

Although I have practiced yoga since my early twenties, I did not feel called to qualify as a yoga teacher until many, many years later! I had considered training during a stay in an ashram in the South of India in 2004 but in the end the allure of travelling around India for six months with no fixed agenda proved too strong. Finally, in 2015 I travelled to the foothills of the Himalaya and embarked on a teacher training course. Manju was not convinced that I would stick with it and half expected a phone call saying that I had escaped and was on a new adventure in some far flung corner of India but this times I stayed true to my word. Here is is a picture of me on the banks of the River Ganga in the foothills of the Himalaya when I graduated from “yoga school”.

In recent years, I have been more and more drawn to Yoga Nidra (breath work and meditation) which is often described as the “meditative heart of modern yoga”. Between 2015 and 2019 I took five additional teacher trainings specifically in Yoga Nidra, including Level 1 and Level 2 I-rest which is the form of Yoga Nidra taught in the American military. I am so very grateful to have had the time and opportunity to understand the full depths of this practice.

During my university years, I studied with leading academics, (often 1:1 as back then hardly anyone was interested in these subjects) and since graduating all those years ago, I have taken countless other courses in yoga philosophy. It is a vastly complex and endlessly fascinating field of study that I can only hope to begin to understand in this lifetime. From time to time, I also offer short courses in yoga history and philosophy.