About Rachel
About Rachel
Rachel lives by the sea in Bournemouth, Dorset, with her husband Martin, and has practised yoga all her adult life.
A synopsis of my yoga Journey. My earliest memory in relationship to Yoga is being one of several young children wandering around a class in the 1970s. It looked like fun, and I wanted to join in with the “game”. My gracious mother included me contributing to my long term relationship of discovery regarding this miraculous vessel we live, our body. At school, I had a love of biology, science and the arts, but being dyslexic contributed to leading me away from the academic world and finding a path of meditation, creativity and complementary health (as it was then called in the 1990s).
The next chapter was training in therapeutic, Swedish and Thai massage. I don’t wish to give a false impression; I also liked to party, loved to dance and drink the night away, including acting out many childhood traumas. Working with people in such a personal way taught me so much about our bodies’ restorative nature and the extraordinary relationship between the body, us, and the impact of the lives we lead.
My deeper relationship with Yoga began when I was just 21 years old and an expectant mother. It was a lifeline at that time, helping me connect profoundly to the pregnancy, alleviating aches, pains, and preparing the father and me for the birth. I was incredibly fortunate to have found myself in the hands of Janet Balaskas, founder of The Active Birth Movement, whose knowledge and grace I’ll always be grateful for.
Later on in life, and by then, a single parent of two, my working life was one of many hats! I ran my own massage practice, relaxation groups within charities, studied creative writing, provided learning support in schools, got re-married and joined my husband in growing his school of art, The Classical Art Academy, in Dorset.
All through this, I was being guided and taught lifesaving inner work with my teacher and dear friend John Oakley, to whom I truly owe my life. Through his incredible dedication in one-to-one sessions and group work, I was blessed with decades of learning the profound nature and importance of an inner-life and how fear robs us of expression and who we truly are. These words don’t even begin to describe my journey with John, whose work has to be experienced to be understood.
I’ve attended classes with several yoga teachers over the years. The ones who influenced me most were Mina Semyon, a devoted yogi. She still holds classes in her 80’s - a practise she calls ‘basmati yoga’, which is a joke I love. Sandra Sabatini and Michal Havkin in whose incredible classes I found my yoga home. Sandra and Michal’s yoga teacher was Vanda Scaravelli, a lineage I felt in my first class and remain incredibly grateful for.
Looking back, I can now see the threads leading me through my life. Every part added texture and colour to my story and brought me to a moment where teaching, listening and writing became my purpose. Whilst I hold various qualifications, the people whose names are above taught me the essential elements of what I teach today, and it is my lineage with them I value most and wish to credit.