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Sara Jobling: YogaWellbeing Ltd.

Sara Jobling founder and director of YogaWellbeing and Great North Yoga. Qualifications-B. Ed (1st Hons), Adv Dip Ed., LLB, Senior Yoga Teacher and Yoga Teacher Trainer – Yoga Alliance Professionals, Yoga Teacher – (RIMYI) and Qualified Yoga Therapist – British School of Yoga. I’ve been teaching yoga for 40 years.

As a teenager I longed to become a vet. However, life doesn’t always go to plan so I began practicing yoga at the age of 18 while at university studying ecology. During my early years of teaching biology in secondary schools I trained as an Iyengar yoga teacher and qualified at the age of 26. I have worked with world-renowned yoga teacher and guru B.K.S Iyengar.

Originally, a biologist, I taught science and health education to A’ Level standard for 22 years and worked as a health education specialist for the National Healthy Schools Award. I am also qualified as a lawyer and lectured at universities in science, health and law.

After teaching yoga part-time for 24 years I finally took a leap of faith and began my full-time yoga teaching and yoga therapy business in May 2011. I have loved every day since. I am teaching what I love and it’s a great pleasure to watch my students get fitter and improve their health. Seeing my students transform into stronger, healthier, calmer people is a huge reward that brings a great sense of satisfaction.

I also qualified as a professional yoga therapist, having gained a Level III Professional Yoga Therapist qualification through the British School of Yoga and qualified teacher status with the Institute of Yoga for Healthy Lower Backs UK. I currently run 200 hours accredited Yoga Teacher Training Courses. I didn’t manage to become a vet, but I still love all creatures great and small.

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Adrianne Nightingale: Indyoga

Adrianne trained as a professional ballet and contemporary dancer, but following a serious back injury during her five-year full time training she was forced to give up dancing and seek an alternative career path. While working as a Freelance Event Director in a demanding corporate and stress-filled environment for 30 years, yoga became part of rehab to manage chronic back pain along with general well-being. Adrianne’s love of movement was discovered once more and the back pain diminished!

Now, as a ‘Real Flow Yoga’ trained Vinyasa, Hatha, Yin, Restorative, SUP Yoga, Paddleboard instructor and a Reiki Usui II Practitioner, her approach to life and teaching is fun, energetic and refreshing. Bringing free and functional movement using breath control, introducing the chakra system and adopting positive psychology to give a balanced yoga sequence to any level of practitioner wishing to find their ‘Flow state’ through Yoga on and off the mat with her yoga company ‘Indyoga’.

Caroline Sheilds: BreathandBalance Yoga

Donna Ward

Namaste, my name is Donna Ward. I offer yoga and wellness activities in County Durham and I run Blue Skies Yoga. My classroom is and always will be nature Gaia.

Yoga has been a part of my life for over 15 years, my practice has helped me grow stronger, more flexible, and it has given me a deeper understanding of yoga philosophy, spirituality, psychology and subtle energies of yoga. Yoga inspires me to live compassionately in the moment and has deepened my connection to nature and myself.

I have worked in educational settings as a tutor and secondary school teacher since 2004 and continue to work in schools today. I completed my yoga teacher training so I could share the wonderful gift of yoga. I teach yoga that is accessible to beginners and improvers on dry land and on the water. I qualified to teach children, teenagers and adults at all levels and I’m continually adding to my offerings to bring more wellness and compassion to my community and more.

I will always be a student of the practice and I am deeply grateful for all of the wisdom shared by all of my teachers past and present. In my classes, I love to teach all aspects of yoga and to explore creative sequencing with compassion and playfulness. I particularly enjoy alignment focus and playing with props like; chairs, belts, blocks and walls. I’m continually adopting my practise and classes so that everyone can access yoga. I add a dose of inspiration to help you deepen your practice. I aim to assist others through yoga to thrive in life by nurturing body, mind, and subtle energy with yoga and mindfulness at the heart. Yoga has the ability to help you step off the mat feeling refreshed, nourished and balanced and this is always my intention.

Dovilé Gandhi

Namaste! I am Dovile Gandhi. I’ve been teaching yoga in Newcastle upon Tyne since 2021. I believe in living a life free of judgement, filled with joy and gratitude. These feelings inform and guide my teaching and practice, which is focused on helping my students better connect to themselves and their surroundings, creating space in their own body to live, and move their bodies comfortably and competently.

At the Great North Yoga Show, I welcome anyone who is ready to relax, work hard, laugh and let go.

Emily Sherrif

I have been teaching yoga since 2016, I trained in India with Padma Nair in traditional Hatha Yoga. I have since trained in Tantric Hatha Yoga to deepen my own practice and understanding of the wonderful world of yoga and all it has to offer.

Funk It with Andrea Ball

Fitness and wellbeing for all.

Our mission at Funk It is to build community and friendships through dance and being our genuine selves. We’re all a little too hard on ourselves at times and worry about what others think of us. Funk It encourages self-compassion and acceptance of others. Funk It is for bodies of all abilities, genders, races, shapes and sizes. We embrace diversity and body positivity. We welcome you just as you are.

Gary Walker: White Tiger Yoga

Georgia Giannopoulou

I am Greek and have been residing in the UK since 2001. I have been practising Hatha yoga for over 20 years, in various styles, mainly with the Dynamic Yoga school, a somatic awareness form of yoga. Yoga has supported my growth and embodiment as an individual alongside my training as a psychotherapist, in living an authentic and embodied life and supporting others in their individual journeys.

I see the yoga mat and the yoga session as a microcosm of a person’s life and way of going forth in the world where all challenges and strengths manifest in the body and the way of approaching the practice. I have undertaken training with Yoga Alliance Professionals and have qualified as a yoga teacher in 2022.

I am a practising psychotherapist and an experienced teacher and group leader of experiential training in a variety of topics. I have taught several yoga classes and workshops and I am continuously in an iterative process of learning from experience and developing my style; my classes incorporate themes that pertain to the attainment of authenticity, acceptance, self-actualisation and resilience through asanas, meditations, imagery, pranayama and chanting.

I bring the whole of myself to the teaching and I attune with care to the students’ needs; I aim to create a holding and inclusive environment for people to explore themselves through their bodies, develop their strength and flexibility, a mindful presence and a calm and resilient way of being. My understanding and therapeutic skills inform my yoga teaching and yoga informs my therapy practice and living.

Helen Beeson

Hello, I’m Helen Beeson. After many years as a group exercise instructor teaching a variety of classes both high and low intensity, I qualified in Pilates in 1999 and straight away saw the benefits for both my participants and for myself. From here I started to explore different methods and styles to enhance my teaching.

I suffered a serious injury, a full rupture of my Achilles tendon, through doing many high impact classes. This led to me not being able to teach for a year. During this time started attending yoga for rehab and my passion for mind and body classes was ignited.

I attended a 200hr yoga teacher training with the Himalayan Yoga institute and become a Yoga Alliance member. Seeking to further my knowledge and experience I decided to undertake the 500hr Diploma with the British Wheel of Yoga which I completed in July this year.

Helen Stancliffe

James Powles

Kathryn McHarg

Hi, my name is Kathryn McHarg. Yoga has changed my life! In fact, it had such a huge impact on me, that at the age of 53 I trained to become a yoga teacher. I’d love to share my joy and love for this incredible practice with you!
I am a qualified 300hrs yoga teacher, a qualified teen yoga coach, and a yoga nidra Level 2 teacher.

I teach a yoga style that is gentle, sensible and accessible, with an emphasis on positively reconnecting the body and mind through the breath. The practices I offer are of a somatic nature and are, therefore, an invitation to really tune into our own felt sense of the practice – as it is ‘right now’. The aim being to explore how we can work with our bodies and our breath, and to
sense into how we might create harmony between the two.

The focus is on gentle, slow movement of the body, whilst working with our own unique anatomy; and not
about achieving ‘the perfect shape’. Instead, the focus is on breathing rhythmically as we move – to create a balance of ‘effortless’ effort – moving in and out of, or even when ‘holding’ physical poses and the creation of a natural state of comfort. Breathing and moving in this way, can help to calm the nervous system and also help us to move in both a steady and easeful way. All of this is offered with a smattering of yoga philosophy and a sprinkling of poetry! I look forward to practising with you!

Laura Duffy

My name is Laura Duffy. Breathwork has helped to change my daily life multiple times. Originally I suffered badly with asthma and  during the pandemic, which for me turned into long COVID, stress and burnout. On these occasions integrating nervous system regulation and breathwork significantly helped me. I now want to share the power of breathwork with others.

Mark Sidney

I was taught to meditate in 1979 and practiced occasionally for the next 30 years. In 2010 I started practicing mindfulness on a regular basis. I worked in homelessness, mental health and addiction services for 28 years. During this time I became frustrated at the ‘revolving door’ service users and became increasingly aware of the power of mindfulness-based interventions inn enabling long lasting change. On a personal level I benefitted from my mindfulness practice in dealing with the stress of redundancy in 2010 and 2012, the closing of my business in 2014, being diagnosed with a chronic illness, Crohn’s Disease in 2015 and managing the pain and other symptoms for the past eight years. I completed my mindfulness teacher training with the Mindfulness Association in 2017.  I qualified as a yoga teacher in 2020.

Mindful Therapies was founded as a social enterprise in 2013 with the mission to bring affordable mindfulness-based interventions and counselling to those who faced financial and other barriers to accessing services.  I joined Mindful Therapies as a director in 2014.

Mindful Therapies provides mindfulness-based training, courses, workshops and classes to the general public on a donation basis. We offer counselling services on a donation basis. We also provide wellbeing training for workplaces and deliver mindfulness and yoga sessions for service users of voluntary and community-based organisations.

As well as delivering services from our centre in Carliol Square in Newcastle city centre, we also deliver sessions in workplaces, community centres etc. Our centre is also used by other organisations through which we offer yoga, acupuncture and other wellbeing related activities.

MeditYoga

MeditYoga is a 4-year-old business offering a combination of yoga, pranayama and guided meditation classes (online and in person). We teach in English and Portuguese – Gloria and Kainara are both Brazilian and 200-hour qualified yoga teachers accredited by Yoga Alliance Professionals in the UK. It is in our DNA to teach mainly to women of all ages who are keen to dedicate their lives towards a balanced and healthy life.

Gloria Neves has a background as a psychologist and is constantly enriching her professional experience with training – pranayama and breathwork, yin yoga – functional approach and the yoga sutras of Patanjali. And more recently, has qualified as a trauma-informed yoga teacher.

Kainara Motta has practiced yoga for over two decades and has a background in neuroscience, coaching and engineering. She is a qualified pregnancy yoga and chakra yoga teacher and dedicates a great deal of time to studying the yoga sutras of Patanjali.  Alongside our MeditYoga business, she is a meditation teacher for the Insight Timer and Aura apps.

Our mission is to guide our students on their inner journeys of well-being and spiritual living, through the teachings of ancient yoga philosophy.

Neil Christey

Neil Christey offers a unique and comprehensive approach to personal growth and spiritual healing through a range of therapies including hypnotherapy, breathwork, shamanic counselling, sound healing, and spiritual coaching. With a deep understanding of the human psyche and spiritual realms, Neil helps individuals on their journey towards self-discovery, empowerment, and healing. By combining traditional therapeutic techniques with spiritual practices such as past life regression, soul retrieval, and Akashic records reading, Neil creates a safe and transformative space for clients to explore their subconscious mind, release emotional blockages, and tap into their inner wisdom and potential. Working with Neil provides the opportunity to experience profound stress relief, emotional healing, spiritual guidance, and a deeper sense of purpose and clarity in life. His holistic approach addresses mind, body, and spirit, fostering holistic well-being and personal transformation for those seeking a meaningful and fulfilling life journey.

Paula Summer Allam

My journey into sound healing began with an instance attraction to Crystal Tones, Alchemy Crystal Singing Bowls.  One by one these exquisite bowls came into my life.  Firstly for my own healing journey. The bowls helped me in so many ways so I decided to deep dive into my Sound Healing Training in order to share their magic. This is an ever expansive exploration.  I completed both my Level One and Level Two Sound Healing training with the lovely Holly Husler. I expanded my knowledge of sound further by exploring Nada yoga with the Alchemy Studio Munich.  I am blessed to have a collection of 13 Alchemy Crystal Singing Bowls (perhaps more by the time this show arrives).  The Alchemies are gifts from Mother Earth, created with the purest quartz crystal in the world and infused with other gems, crystals, Earth elements and precious metals.  Their sound is unlike anything our bodies have felt before in this lifetime.  My collection ranges from a third octave F# up to a fifth octave C with some of the bowls overtones singing up to 6th octaves.   My offerings include bespoke one to one Alchemy Sound Healing sessions, sound baths at local venues, mini monthly retreats and full-day retreats at Brinkburn, Northumberland.  I create a tapestry of crystalline healing frequencies for you to melt into, for you to find a stillness, allowing you to soften. When the Alchemies sing, they replenish both your physical and auric bodies.

Sarah Kime

Sarah McLusky

I teach relaxed and friendly yoga classes at The Yoga Station Whitley Bay, Linskill Centre North Shields and Cullercoats beach. I discovered yoga in the early 1990s whilst a student in Edinburgh. I’ve been practicing regularly ever since and in 2020 I trained as a hatha yoga instructor with Newcastle Yoga School. I teach a relaxed style of yoga and I am particularly enthusiastic about making yoga more inclusive and accessible.

Sheila Kondragunta

I began my yoga journey in 2019 with a 200-hour teacher training in Rishikesh, deepening my practice and understanding of yoga’s foundations. In 2023, I completed an additional 300-hour training online, further enhancing my skills and knowledge.

In 2022 I started to share the benefits of yoga with an online audience, creating YouTube and TikTok videos, offering accessible yoga practices and helpful tips for incorporating yoga into everyday life. In May 2023, I began teaching an in person restorative and yin yoga class, focusing on creating the most relaxing and rejuvenating experience for my students. My goal is to provide a serene environment where people can unwind, de-stress, and reconnect with themselves through yoga.

Tara Sellers

I always say my Yoga journey was one from YANG to YIN, in my younger years I enjoyed running competitively, followed by martial arts and acquiring a few injuries along the way. I immediately felt the therapeutic and healing benefits of a yoga practice and along with an encouraging mentor I soon realised I too wanted to pass the gift of yoga to the masses.

I embarked on my initial teacher training with the British Wheel of Yoga, followed by extensive training with Gentle Somatic Yoga and becoming a member of the teaching faculty. I teach regular classes from a studio in Darlington, and I also love sharing my work through workshops and retreats.

I enjoy a teaching style that offers movement opportunities that encourage the body to unravel postural habits, reflex patterns and much more. I aim to share practices that meet personal needs, an antidote to one’s work environment, stressors, chosen sports and so forth.

I wish to share practices that facilitate moving away from pain, discomfort and disconnect, and enable the practitioner to re-learn, re-organise, and re-connect with the many parts and pieces of themself.

Vicky Middleton

Hi, my name is Vicky. I am a trauma informed Breathwork Practitioner with 800 hours training approved by the Global Professional Breathwork Alliance. Breathwork is my passion. It has transformed my life, helping me to release tensions, to integrate past experiences and find freedom within myself, and I want this for others too.  It is the reason why I left my career of 12 years last year to devote my time to supporting others to remember the wisdom and medicine of their breath.
Conscious Connected Breathwork.

Vicky Nicholls: Yoga Embrace

Alex Veakins

I am based in North Yorkshire. I teach ten classes a week in Thirsk and Boroughbridge as well as some one to ones and other events. Recently I did yoga for a Hen Party which was fun.

After practicing yoga for over 20 years, I qualified in lockdown so have done an interesting mix of zoom, garden yoga and in person classes: amassing over 1600 hours of teaching. I was very quickly able to give up my part time class teacher role and pursue my business full time.

If I have to give my classes a label I’d say it’s Hatha but I do include a range of styles. Most of my classes are mixed; catering for beginners to intermediate levels. I see a huge range of abilities and this is reflected in the options I offer to approximately one hundred students who attend each week. I also offer two Slow and Gentle classes. I teach yoga into schools which links back to my thirty plus years as a primary school teacher.