Background

My very first yoga teacher was a true eccentric. She was at times quite fierce but there was always an invitation to relax, come back to the body and breathe which I experienced as both a homecoming and a complete revelation.

I trained with the Sivananda organisation but then met Clive Sheridan and an approach to yoga that was dynamic and liberating and which did not tie me to any one tradition. Clive placed me on a path of enquiry and discovery.
Yoga led me towards meditation, retreats, many wonderful friendships, teachers and guides. Very naturally the Dharma became central to my life.

Around 1998 when I lived in Bristol I became interested in the teachings of the late Vanda Scaravelli. I loved this intuitive and intelligent approach to yoga which consolidated for me an experience of yoga and meditation being totally not separate.

Over the years I have worked closely with Diane Long, Sophy Hoare and Sandra Sabatini, all long-term students of Vanda. I have an enormous amount of appreciation for the completely unique way each one shares wholeheartedly all they have absorbed from Vanda. This paves the way for me to teach simply what I know and seems to make sense, to be sensitive to the potential of every yoga student and all the challenges they experience.

Although I never met Vanda, what feels wonderful to me is that she brought so much humility, love, relationship and individuality into her teaching and expressed a certain kind of timeless wisdom. She said many memorable things that pop into my mind when I am practising or teaching; phrases such as ‘yoga is not a practice the ego can use’, that yoga requires ‘infinite time and no ambition’.

I bring to my teaching many years experience as a shiatsu and bodywork practitioner and my deep love of silence and meditation. I regularly take time out to retreat. I spend time each year on Deep Rest Meditation retreats with friend and spiritual teacher Jaya Ashmore. Jaya offers an amazing depth of support and meditating with her is a profound resource.

I live in Harberton, close to Totnes, with my daughter, Amber. I love poetry, art, playing piano and cello, my family and friends, time alone in nature, the Himalayas, helping others.

And I really love that I have a space to practice and teach, on the other side of the garden from my home.

“Caroline, you offer a profound and special practice, one that is so very nurturing and life affirming.
You carry in your voice and movements a wonderful, playful invitation to be and to celebrate that being.” Julia

“This practice is so incredible. It feels like kissing my body from deep within and soothing all body spaces and parts. I experience a deep gentle touch through my nervous system and a wholeness which spreads through my entire bodymind. I meet a place where everything feels just right, where all feels okay just as it is.” Nirmala