Kat:

I really discovered yoga at BYC, so it has always been my yoga home.

I tried a couple of classes here and there, but nothing else made me feel so connected, embodied and alive!

The studio, with Helen at the helm, was and continues to be a place of wellbeing, friendship and discovery.

Once I’d fallen in love with the yoga, I began to work on the reception desk and, as the studio grew, I was there more and more. As BYC has developed and expanded, I’ve had many roles at the studio, eventually becoming a manager and then having the opportunity to go to Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in LA.

There are so many inspiring and dedicated teachers at BYC, it was a great privilege to join them. The training is gruelling, but I really learnt to become a teacher after returning to my yoga home. I learnt from the students, who so often overcome great obstacles to nurture their practice and give it their all. I learnt from the senior teachers, with decades of experience between them.

As the studio evolved, so did the practices we offer, so I continued my training with a course in Yoga Nidra Meditation in Stroud, with Uma DInsmore-Tuli and Nirlipta Tuli. It was a revelation to balance the physical intensity of Hot Yoga with the ultimate of restorative practises, and, soon after that, Laura introduced our community to Yin Yoga. I followed in her footsteps and I went to train with Bernie Clark and Diana Batts at Semperviva in Vancouver, with the addition of Paul Grilley’s Yin Yoga: The Functional Approach via Pranamaya.com.

All these disciplines work so well together; they complement and support each other and they continue to teach me so much. Now I’m mainly at the studio in the capacity of teacher, but the studio is such a collective that I feel, whatever your role happens to be at the time – teacher, student, receptionist, manager – the goal is to keep the community buzzing with the health-giving benefits of all these practices.