I am a registered Senior Yoga Teacher with the Yoga Alliance Professionals, I am also a qualified yoga therapist. 

MY STORY:

Yoga Ocean was born after my husband passed away from cancer. He and I had run our business, Yogacare, together for eight years. During which I taught yoga to thousands of people from the age of 2 to 92. I specialized in yoga therapy and worked extensively with victims and survivors of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, people with physical or learning disabilities and mental health groups. 

After his death I tried many different activities to help channel my grief into something positive and I discovered surfing – it swept me away, both literally and figuratively. Surfing became my release and it helped me through those difficult times. It resonated with me, much in the same way as when I first found yoga. 

Unfortunately, I was totally rubbish at surfing! 

Fortunately, that didn’t matter. 

What I wanted to learn was, not so much how to surf, but how to be. There were many times when surfing that I felt inept, foolish, anxious or scared. However, I persevered because I love the sense of freedom that surfing provides. It is easy to feel shackled by grief or anxiety but I felt braver and more able to face everyday challenges from my experiences in the sea.

I realized that you have to have strength in the storm.

I meet a lot of people through my yoga teaching and see that we all have our burdens, physically, mentally or emotionally. I admire the people I meet through the yoga and yoga therapy classes and the bravery they show everyday. I found that being a beginner in surfing and the inevitable humility that comes from learning something new, helped me become a better yoga teacher: for we are all beginners in some way, and we are always learning how to live better…

It is my hope that my experiences as a yoga teacher and therapist, combined with what I have learned from the sea and facing my own personal fears, may be of benefit to you. 

“You are not a drop in the ocean, but the entire ocean in one drop” 

– Rumi

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

 I have been teaching yoga full time since 2007. My qualifications include:

• Yoga Therapy Diploma, Yoga Therapy Ireland, 2016
• Yoga for Pregnancy, Yoga Therapy Ireland, 2011
• Diploma in Diet and Nutrition, Oxford College, 2011
• Advanced Yoga (500 hour) Yoga Vidya Gurukul, India, 2010.
• Anatomy / Physiology and Holistic massage, ITEC, 2009
• Introduction to Ayurveda, Yoga Vidya Gurukul, India, 2007. 
• Yoga Teacher Training (200 hour), Yoga Vidya Gurukul, Nasik, India. 2007
• MA Public Archaeology, University College London.

I strive for continuous professional development and have undertaken workshops and training with many well respected yogis and teachers including:

Brian Cooper: Yoga Adjustments
Michael Gannon: Ashtanga yoga
David Sye: Yoga Beats
Swami Satyasangananda Saraswati: Exploring the Chakras
Maya Finnes: Kundalini yoga
Uma Dinsmore Tuli: Feminine yoga 

I have also undertaken Zen meditation / mindfulness training sessions with Ryoshin Paul Haller Roshi.