My Teachers, Trainers, & Ongoing Education

If you’re here, you’re likely curious about who I have worked with, learned from, and continue to study under?

Great… I’m really glad you asked!

My Primary Teachers

Entirely functional in my approach, I have learned much from my teacher Mysan Sidbo, my primary yin teacher since 2015. Herself a long-time assistant to Paul Grilley, the approach she has passed on to me honours the individuality of each student’s experience. Grounded in a thorough understanding of skeletal variation and functional anatomy, this is where a yoga practice begins for me. I have completed 400 hours of training with Mysan to date (400 extra planned - Summer 2023) and have also assisted her in the facilitation of her teacher training programmes. 

In 2015 also I discovered the teaching of Sarah Powers with whom I trained in Sydney, Australia. I particularly resonated with her interest in Transpersonal Psychology and how she interweaves this into the yin practice. It was through Sarah that I first became interested in Vipassana Meditation which has had a considerable impact on my personal meditation practice and my teaching philosophy. Holding the space as a teacher without relying on your words to fill the empty and sometimes uncomfortable spaces is an ongoing practice, and one which contributes greatly to teacher self-development.

I completed further yin training with Bernie Clark and Diana Batts in Vancouver, Canada in 2018. It was on this training that I discovered sandbags and they have been incorporated into my teaching - as and when they can be useful - since. Bernie’s assembly of Paul Grilley’s anatomical research, which he extended on and developed into the Your Body, Your Yoga series and the infamous green yin book, is of tremendous support to all functional yoga teachers.

Since joining Sarah and Ty Powers’ Insight Yoga Institute as part of their 4-year endorsement programme, Jennifer O’ Sullivan has been my mentor. As well as completing two advanced yin trainings with her, I have her to thank for introducing me to Internal Family Systems. Coupled with vipassana meditation and yin, I have found IFS to be of considerable efficacy when working with students experiencing dissociation and trauma.

Below you will find a more comprehensive list of further teachers I’ve worked with, trainings I’ve completed, and inner work and further education I’m engaged in currently.

Any genuine teaching will result, if successful, in someone’s knowing how to bring about a better condition of things than existed earlier.

- John Dewey

  • Secondary Teachers & Additional Yoga Trainings.

    ▫️ Bikram Yoga (500hrs)

    ▫️ Yoga Psyche Soul with Ashley Turner & Yoga Psychology (300hrs)

    ▫️ Yoga for Trauma Training with Lisa Danylchuk (30hrs)

    ▫️ Vinyasa & Restorative with The Elbowroom (200hrs)

    ▫️ Yin Yang Flow, Yoga Nidra & Shoulder Anatomy with Jo Phee (50hrs)

    ▫️ Myofascial Release Teacher Training with Tiffany Cruickshank (55hrs), Nicky Hadjithoma (30hrs) and Rachel Land (12 hrs).

    ▫️ I-Rest Yoga Nidra with Richard Miller (30hrs)

    ▫️ Yin Meridian Theory with Norman Blair (12hrs)

    ▫️ Hatha Flow with Fiona McNamara (60hrs)

    ▫️ Yin Yoga & Biomechanics (50hrs) and Yin Yoga & Taoism (35hrs) with Jennifer O’ Sullivan

    ▫️ Yoga Biomechanics with Jules Mitchell (18hrs)

    ▫️ Yin Mindfulness with Josh Summers (30hrs)

    ▫️ The Heart of Yin with Kitty Maguire (50hrs)

  • Additional online trainings include:

    ▫️ Certificate in Jungian Studies with Jasbinder Garnermann

    ▫️ Meridian Theory & The Art of Acupressure & The Five Qi with Angela Chambers

    ▫️ A Somatic Approach to Trauma Therapy with Albert Wong

    ▫️ The Functional Approach, Bare Bones of Yoga, Shoulder Stand Deconstruction, Chakra Meditation, Tantric Theory & Patanjali by Paul Grilley

    ▫️ Deconstruct to Reconstruct with Alexandria Crow

    ▫️ Your Spine, Your Yoga by Bernie Clark

    ▫️ The Sublime Quartet with Josh Summers

    ▫️ Trauma-Informed Yoga, Working with Grief, Pain Science for Yoga Teachers, Neurobiology of Yoga & Yoga for Addiction Recovery with Yoga Medicine

    ▫️ The Anatomy of Emotion with Janet Stone

    ▫️ The Wisdom of Trauma and Compassionate Inquiry with Gabor Maté

    ▫️ Trauma & Awakening with Gabor Maté and Hameed Ali (Diamond Approach)

    ▫️ Compassionate Inquiry Meets Internal Family Systems with Gabor Maté and Richard Schwartz

    ▫️ Trauma Skills Summit 2020, The Embodiment Conference & Collective Trauma Summit 2021

    ▫️ Understanding Trauma with The Centre for Healing

    ▫️ Advanced Master Program on the Treatment of Trauma

  • Ongoing Inner Work, Coaching & Creative Outlets

    ▫️ The Diamond Approach Online with Hameed Ali (A.H. Almaas) and The Ridhwan Foundation

    ▫️ Online Internal Family Systems Circle with the IFS Institute

    ▫️ Mentorship with Jen O’ Sullivan as part of the Insight Yoga Institute’s Endorsed Teacher Programme (Sarah Powers)

    ▫️ Conversational Leadership Training (Invitas) with David Whyte

    ▫️ Jungian Studies with Jasbinder Garnermann

    ▫️ Vipassana Meditation

    ▫️ Jungian Analysis, Psychotherapy (currently) & Psychoanalysis (previously)

    ▫️ The Creative Doer with Anna Lovind

    Education:

    ▫️ Degree in French & Music from Trinity College Dublin.

    ▫️ Masters in Literature and Politics from the Sorbonne University in Paris

    ▫️ Postgraduate Diploma in Education from Trinity College Dublin.

    Currently completing:

    ▫️ Higher Diploma in Counselling & Psychotherapy at Dublin Business School - commenced September 2022, due to complete May 2024. Masters planned 2024-2026.

Selectively pick a teacher, one that you respect, not just someone who can talk with wonderful poetic figures about enlightenment, but someone who has the personal power to bring you into altered states of awareness.

- Frederick Lenz


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