Debbie

My journey onto the mat…

Debbie’s yoga & meditation practice really came into focus between 1982-1986 when a series of seizures left her unable to focus, with slurred speech, finding once simple movements difficult to coordinate. Debbie used yoga to reclaim her focus and relearn lost movement, speech and behavioural patterns. It was then she started to realise how therapeutic yoga could be.

Debbie put the healing powers of yoga to use again in 1993-94 when she used asana practice to rehabilitate a herniated disc, and in 2011 to recover from urinary incontinence, after her doctor told her she was at ‘that age’ (40?!) when she needed to start using tena lady. More recently Debbie used pranayama and bandha practices to recover from a hiatus hernia, and covid related breathing difficulties.

Debbie’s classes and trainings are much more about inclusivity than exclusivity & offer a safe, accessible & supportive framework which each individual can use to facilitate their own exploration of self. Although the Dynamic Yoga classes can still be a little, erm, dynamic, they are based on functional movement patterns and prioritise the health of our joints.

Both styles of class operate within the parameters of functional movement and can be used for joint rehab & relaxation, but if you’re not sure which class is right for you, start with a therapeutic class and see how you get on.

This direct personal experience, backed up by decades of research into using yoga as a therapeutic tool, has helped so many,

Debbie’s Yoga Training

Debbie started teaching yoga in 1999, and completed her 4 year yoga teacher training with the late Swami Satyapremananda of the British Wheel of Yoga in 2004. In 2009, she left her career as a secondary school science teacher to teach yoga full time.  

She studied Pranayama with Philip Xerri from 2009-2010, Yoga Philosophy, Tantra, Vedanta, and Ayurveda with Dr David Frawley and Yogini Shambhavi Chopra from 2011-2013, and Dynamic Yoga with Godfrey Devereux from 2001-2022.

She travelled to India for a month or 2 each year, spending extended amounts of time in various ashrams, much of it in silent meditation and study.

Yoga Teacher Training Experience

From 2007-2014 Debbie delivered Yoga Foundation Courses for the BWY. From 2014-2022 she delivered Yoga Teachers Trainings through the Independent Yoga Network, and from 2023 onwards she moved her trainings to Yoga Teachers Together CIC, with whom Feel Now Yoga’s current courses are registered.

Debbie has taught the Anatomy & Professional Studies modules on the Mandala Yoga Ashram’s Teacher Training Course in Wales, Philosophy on Proper Northern Yoga’s Training in Kendal, and delivers regular CPD days and workshops for all yoga organisations around the UK.  

Karma Yoga

Debbie is a Karma Yogi. She has been an active member of the UK yoga community, organising and speaking at yoga conferences in Preston and Wolverhampton, teaching at the World Yoga Festival in Reading regularly and serving as a BWY County Representative & Regional Training Officer, IYN Acting Chair and Events Coordinator, YTT Chair, and editor of the magazine Yoga The World Over for 14 years from 2000-2014.

Jnana Yoga

Debbie is a Jnana Yogi. In 2009 she started work on her own translation of the Yoga Sutras. This work is forms the basis of her own self enquiry or svadhayaya, and the philosophy behind Debbie’s teaching, which is bolstered with up to date anatomical research and clarified by each individual’s interoception, or inner felt sense, to produce a sensitive, sensible and somatic approach to asana.