Expect your views of what yoga is to be challenged when you work with Katie! Katie encourages people to understand the broader meaning of yoga, to see that yoga practice is wide and varied – that you do not need to be athletic and bendy to do yoga! Yoga may be finding quietness with mala beads, gentle floor based restorative yoga, devotion rituals, sitting on a chair practicing conscious breathing, applying ancient wisdom in your life, meditative walks, even experiencing the beauty of a flower. All is yoga.
With over 1,200 hours of training from some of the best teachers in the world including Anand Mehrotra, Sarah Powers, Kaya Mindlin, Sharada Vaidika, Heather Agnew, Seth Powell and Raj Balkaran, as well as training to teach yoga to women with breast cancer through REWIND Health in the US, and prenatal and postnatal yoga through Bliss Baby. With the teachings of her various teachers, Katie has contemplated and taken those teachings through her own life experiences including breast cancer, senior leadership roles, her India travels and her spiritual life - creating her own perspective of the wisdom and practices.
Katie will work with you to provide the right practices to calm your body and mind, and to create space to engage in life with clarity, creativity and joy, breaking through self imposed boundaries and tapping into your infinite potential in life!
Katie teaches in the following disciplines - Himalayan Kundalini Yoga, Yin Yoga, Restorative Yoga, Meditation and Mindfulness. Katie is trained to teach Prenatal and Postnatal yoga and to women with breast cancer.
Katie teaches in private settings, in studios and corporate environments.
Restorative yoga is a beautiful meditative floor-based practice that is about opening, resting and nourishing - it is a relaxation and rest practice to support conscious deep breathing that replenishes and heals the body through the parasympathetic nervous system. In this practice, the heart rate and breathing may slow, blood pressure may change, the body may slowly release. It’s not a practice that gives instant results but you will often start to feel the benefits after 3 or 4 sessions. Restorative poses are held for longer periods - often 10 minutes and more, always using props to sustain and maintain the shape for this extended period of time without effort. The key for restorative yoga is getting yourself comfortable in the posture for an extended period to allow you to move to rest mode and for your parasympathetic nervous system to kick in. That’s where the magic happens.
Another floor-based practice, the intention of yin yoga is working with and interacting with your deep connective tissues, like your fascia, ligaments, joints, and bones. It’s slower and more meditative, giving you space to turn inward and tune into both your mind and the physical sensations of your body. Because you’re holding poses for a longer period of time, yin yoga helps you stretch and lengthen those rarely-used deeper tissues while also teaching you how to breathe through discomfort and sit with your thoughts. The practice of yin yoga is based on ancient Chinese philosophies and Taoist principles which believe there are pathways of Qi (energy) that run through our bodies. By stretching and deepening into poses, we’re opening up any blockages and releasing that energy to flow freely. Yin poses are usually held 3-5 mins. Yin can use props but not essential as the holds are slightly shorter.
Kuṇḍalinī is a form of divine feminine energy believed to be located at the base of the spine, said to be where our unlimited potential sits. Himalayan Kuṇḍalinī Yoga refers to the practice of pranayama (breath awareness), kriya (action or energy practices that leads us to expansion) and meditation with the intention to tap into that divine energy and unlock your infinite potential. It involves chanting, movements, mudras and breathing in specific patterns. A regular kuṇḍalinī practice helps to clear toxins in the mental, physical and energetic bodies to increase their ability to hold and sustain increasing energy in the body. It increases vitality, lifts your mood, boosts the immune system, builds your focus, re-oxygenates the organs and blood cells, and cleanses, balances, and strengthens the nervous, respiratory, and digestive systems. And importantly, in kuṇḍalinī yoga, we look to experience deeper states of stillness and silence.
There are different styles of Kuṇḍalinī yoga - Himalayan Kuṇḍalinī uses mantras such as Om Namaḥ Śivāya and Śri Śakti Namaḥ. Traditional Kuṇḍalinī uses mantras such as Sat Nam and Ek Ong Kar.
Mindfulness is the key ingredient to most meditation techniques. Mindfulness means to be present – in the moment. Undistracted. Resting the mind in its natural state of awareness – free of chaos. Experiencing life directly as it unfolds, as opposed to how we normally live – constantly caught up in thoughts and feelings and to be critical of ourselves and others. Meditation is not the absence of thought. It is the beautiful practice which allows you to wade into your ocean of thoughts, and come out untouched. Meditation has a beautiful deep history – it is one of the latter limbs of Patanjali’s Eight Limbs of Yoga and one of favourite verses in the Bhagavad Gita says “abiding joy comes to those who still the mind”. To me that sums up the simplicity of why we meditate. It brings joy. Joy in the form of peace, of space, of learning a different way to react to things in the world. The benefits have been ‘felt’ for thousands of years, but now science has evolved to ‘prove’ the benefits - to leadership, to life, to being,
Practicing yoga under Katie’s guidance has opened up a whole new world for me. I have worked with other yoga teachers over the years, and was never introduced to the deep spiritual yoga traditions, or the power of mantra which I now appreciate greatly. I have come to a deeper moment by moment experience and reflective awareness since I started my practice with Katie. Through Katie, I now have another different, deeper, richer, joyous and also challenging path for the rest of my life. I now can experience, see and feel the connections to the rich spiritual yoga knowledge and philosophy built over thousands of years, as fresh and alive as ever in each moment. Katie is a sensitive and masterful guide, and I trust her considerable knowledge, heartfelt spiritual awareness, professionalism, expertise, and guidance. Thank-you, Katie. 🙏🏼
I have been involved with all of Katie's yoga programs and I find them an oasis of calm in a busy world.
These programs have allowed me to understand the importance of stillness and the benefits of meditation and breathing to focus the mind and relax the body. I have also found myself being able to help those around me, whether it be by remaining calm in stressful situations, or helping others find focus.
2020 was a difficult year, and I have been able to use these skills outside the program in both my working and home life.
Thank you Katie for arming me with the ability to understand what really matters.
Katie's yoga classes are those of a true ‘artisan’.
She brings to her studio a rare level of professionalism, authenticity and warmth.
Her programs are exquisitely crafted with each class providing a focussed exploration of profound depth. She is present and connected with her students and her teachings.
Katie’s deep vast yogic knowledge and experience is demonstrated and generously shared throughout her programs. She presents students with a rich experiential learning environment. Her classes are magnificently wonderful – as she herself is!
We love Katie. We love her classes!!! Katie, thank you.
I have often been a student of Katie in her Restorative classes at CYS. Katie has a wonderful way of weaving in yoga philosophy, goddess stories and pranayama into her classes. Katies knowledge of yoga philosophy, stories, history and her experiences and understanding of Indian culture add an undeniable richness the experience of her classes. Her love and passion for India and the practices of Yoga really shine through.
As a Yoga teacher I have found great value in attending Katie’s workshops as they have helped deepen my knowledge and sparked interest in my own journey of learning yoga philosophy and Goddess stories. Her insights have given me a great love and passion for the subject and modelled how one can use these teachings within a class or workshop setting.