Who is Yoga-Jo?
I am Josephine, 'Yoga-Jo' to my students. I have been teaching yoga for many years. I am an artistic soul and was a journalist and editor before I trained to teach yoga.
I originally trained to teach the Sivananda style of yoga in 2001. Since then, like all good teachers, I have continued to train, adding the Satyamvidya Yoga qualification to my portfolio in 2009. along with an understanding of many other holistic body and mind practices. My style is now a unique mix which reflects who I am and what I believe in. The skills and wisdom I offer you today are born of ongoing training and also of rich experience, which is the best training of all!
One of the main things my students like about me is that I am a normal person with normal habits, ups and downs, strengths and weaknesses. I use yoga to be my best self, and to survive the difficult times. And it works. I have no claims to being inherently any more perfect than anyone else.
My teaching style is informal and friendly, often humorous, and always compassionate. I can and do adapt my teaching to each individuals' needs, personality and circumstance. My students have ranged from the young and fit to those who are unwell and barely mobile. All are brought to greater well-being and peace.
I am perhaps unusual in firmly believing that yoga must fit us as we are right now, in the life we are living today. If you try to change yourself to fit some ideal yoga image you have in your head, you will probably never begin!
Yoga brings new balance and awareness from the inside out, so over time, as you practice a little when you can, you will find that unhelpful patterns, stress, negative thinking and excess weight slowly melt away. Most importantly of all, you will find a new centredness, an inner peace and a higher perspective on life which is supremely helpful in daily life, and through trials and upsets.
My Training
I have a diploma to teach Hatha Yoga (AIYPS 2001), also Satyamvidya Yoga (2009) - a profoundly therapeutic yoga - and also Spiritual Psychology and Counselling (2011) - a state-of-the-art mind and spirit therapy which I combine with gentle yoga postures.
The resulting practice is lightweight and easy, but it powerfully shifts mental patterns and baggage.
I teach in small classes only, or in one to one, and all of my teaching if focused on you, for you.