I'm Maria Coleman - a Yoga Teacher, Mental Health and Positive Birth Advocate, Community Worker, Researcher, Artist, Musician and Writer. I have teaching experience in yoga, art, music and  technology in early years, special needs, child, teen and adult settings. I have a degree in Fine Art (Sculpture) from LSAD and an M. Phil. in Music and Media Technology from Trinity College, with PhD research conducted at D.I.T. I'm a 200 hr level Hatha Yoga Teacher trained by Skyblue School of Yoga and also an 85hr level  Prenatal / Birth /Postnatal Yoga Specialist, trained by YogaKidz/ Sarah Swindlehurst Yoga. I work through my company Comhcheol Arts and Wellness, and Donegal Yoga Retreats. Yoga plays an important role in my life, and has done for over a decade. I first came to it to heal body and mind, I went on to use it to naturally birth my two children. I now share it through my teaching.

I am passionate about mental health advocacy and have co-founded a community wellness initiative based in the West Donegal Gaeltacht called 'Lámha - Life Affirming Mental Health Action'. Through LÁMHA  I are currently collaborating on 'Beoga' a teen wellness programme that blends wellness workshops and yoga. A positive birth social enterprise is also in the pipeline as of autumn 2017.

I work in the community voluntarily (eg. LÁMHA, Maghery Women's Week 2016, Maghery Toddler Play Group and Rosses Community Health Forum) but I have also been employed in the sector as an 'Oifigeach Ceoil agus Cultútha'/Music and Cultural Officer and coordinator of a cross-community project 'East Meets West Donegal'.

My PhD research within the School of Art, Design and Printing at DIT led to publications and conference presentations, notably a chapter about my work being published in a Palgrave Macmillan book called 'The Performing Subject in the Space of Technology' (2015). The work involved me designing an interactive multimedia system called the BRS (Body Response System), which reacts to physical movement with audio and video responses. I used the system to collaborate with performers and audiences to make improvised, live art works. My research centered on the improvising, moving body being an antidote to Cartesian dualism. Yoga of course is the ultimate antidote to this!

As an artist my work has been supported by numerous Irish county councils and as a musician, I perform and write with 'Wee Small Gods', and formerly 'Fracas' and have supported acts like Jerry Fish, Kila and Dervish. Aside from research, I have had articles published in numerous publications.  Currently, I am a citizen journalist on the European Ladder Project. (Articles here)

My background means that music plays an important role in my yoga class, as does a sense of creativity, playfulness and improvisation. My passion for mental wellness and positive birth also deeply inform the yoga I teach.