Contemporary Yoga was founded in 1999 by Charlie Stevens and Marianne Gabriel primarily as a way to train yoga teachers. 

FACULTY

  I was born and raised in England and have spent most of my life in Ireland having moved here in 1975. I have taught yoga and meditation and trained yoga teachers firstly with the British Wheel of Yoga in the 80's and then in Contemporary Yoga which I founded with Marianne Gabriel. I've had a long interest in personal development and this led to counselling and psychotherapy. I took an H dip in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy in UCC and then a Masters in Integrative Psychotherapy there. I am trained in Family Constellations and have held workshops in this for the last 20 years.  I'm also an accredited supervisor. Both my accreditations  are with IAHIP. I also have training in Collaborative Practice to help divorcing or separating couples, this came from my own experience of divorce. I'm in a long term relationship and have two children and two grandchildren. I like sailing and playing music when I'm not working. I see my yoga and psychotherapy work as a process of accompanying the soul.

   In the last twenty five years I have worked in the healing arts fine-tuning my access to the imaginal, the creative and the embodied feminine. I qualified as a Community Arts Facilitator at the Cork Crawford College of Art & Design .   This enabled me to worktherapeuticallyand creatively with community projects for young people with disability, addiction, and mental health issues.

 I am a qualified Yoga Teacher both with British Wheel of Yoga, and Yoga / Movement teacher with Kripalu Yoga, USA.   I am co-creator of Contemporary Yoga Teacher Training here in Ireland where I have been involved in training teachers in the past. At present Im offering Yoga Practice & Study groups (not more than 4 people) 

I teach dance and ritual through Souldance an innovative movement practice that came out of my training with Shiva Rea in Trance Dance, together with other creative forms of awareness through movement.  I have co-facilitated workshops in Family Constellations, and Self-Awareness through Movement for many years.

      My work is a synthesis of several approaches Yoga, Somatic Movement, Meditation, Relaxation, Witness Movement, Movement as Contemplation.  All of the above inform the way I work as a Core Process Psychotherapist.   I have an MA in Core Process Psychotherapy  and accredited with UKCP working in private practice here in Ireland.

 I first began practicing yoga seriously in 2000 when I returned from a year in Australia. My first teacher was Marianne Gabriel and for that I am eternally grateful as she ignited a love for yoga in me. Marianne gave her students the freedom and permission to explore the yoga asanas in a creative and authentic way. Her classes taught me to have a sense of enquiry about yoga which has never left me. I completed my yoga teacher training in 2005 with Marianne and Charlie Stevens, co-founders of Contemporary Yoga and I have been teaching yoga since then.

     I have also been studying Iyengar Yoga with Laurence O Toole for a number of years. Working with Laurence has furthered my understanding of the yoga postures and breathing practises. Iyengar Yoga also taught me how to work with props and supports to help prevent injury and to support those of us who do have injuries. Since 2000, I have travelled to India and Austria to study Sivananda yoga, I’ve undertaken Iyengar workshops in Germany and I travelled to Virgina, USA, where I stayed and worked in Swami Satchidanandas ashram.

I consider myself a student of yoga as much as a teacher of yoga and my relationship with my own practice is constantly changing and evolving leading to a deeper connection to the practise and philosophy of yoga. It is my experience that with commitment, practise and faith, yoga has the power to transform, to bring balance to our lives and to lead us to a deeper connection to our true nature.