Hi everyone,

I am Florence and I am based in Maynooth, Ireland, a University town about 25kms to Dublin. In 2018, I completed my 200h Teacher Training certification with Naomi Sturdy & Sybille Dalman called the Art of Teaching. I have since been teaching group classes for other yoga studios and teachers. It has been important for me to work in various settings and expose myself to different classes and situations in order to refine my teaching skills and birthing the yoga teacher in me. 

To me, Yoga is a beautiful introspective Practice where you find through your own movements your own person. While on your mat the invitation is for you to be at play while searching and finding what works best for you so your movements can reflect the transformational process happening in your inner landscape. Seen this way, Yoga is the process of Alchemy which begins on the mat but can expand to the rest of your life off the mat. This explains why I chose to call my Yoga ''the Window Within''. There is also a practical end to my teaching in understanding what part of you is stable, what part is mobile or to call on your pillars of support in order to reach out there before coming back to your centre. All of this invites us to move with grace, with ease keeping in mind the importance of functionality in moving especially as we age. My yoga pays attention to Transition from one pose to the next and how one can negotiate his/ her own movement patterns in his/her own Body.

My own Yoga started in 1996 in the U.S. and my practice has undergone many transformations and variations throughout the decades and season cycles in order to satisfy my needs and curiosity. This brought me to explore diverse practices ranging from Power-Yoga, Kundalini & Astanga and to settle to Hatha in which I certified. Life being made of perpetual Movement and Changes, my teaching and practice reflect this organic flow. 

I have been training since January 2019 with Lisa Petersen towards a 500h Yoga Advanced Living Teacher Training which is  based on Donna Farhi's Teaching, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen's BMC principles and Thomas Hanna's Somatics. In other words, my practice and teaching are more and more infused by Sensory Awareness, Authentic Movements coming from within and an Awe for the amazing Beings that we are. A practice and a Teaching whose intention are to celebrate both our individuality as well as our interconnectedness. 

For over a year now, I teach a Chair Yoga class for Arc Cancer Support in Dublin. This class is very significant for I belong to this community being diagnosed and treated with Cancer in 2016. I have also very much enjoyed teaching Restorative classes as I am always blown away to observe my own nervous system dropping to a minimal of activity even when I teach a Restorative class. In my Hatha classes, my tendency is to cultivate Slow Controlled Movements as  a way to redefine Strength and Power as I hold dearly that one has to be strong to be soft and to be kind.

I am also part of a Self-Compassion Meditation group following the teaching of Kristin Neff and Chris Germer and I have begun a Chakradance facilitator training in order to introduce a more spontaneous, creative and energy-based practice into my life and hopefully in other people lives as well. In my own Path presently I am endeavouring to cultivate and harvest Joy and Contentment.

With the same amount of love, dedication and frustration as i may find on the mat, I am also a Wife, a Mother of 2 lads (16 & 18) and a Dog, a Friend and Family member. I write poetry, I read, I love dancing and enjoy partaking in most outdoor activities. 

Thank you for taking the time to read my presentation.

In Light and Joy,

Florence