I began a self-taught home Yoga practice (using a book) in 1995, when I was a Philosophy (western) student.  After graduation, nomadic years followed:  living and working in Vancouver, New Mexico, Taiwan, Thailand and Spain. In New Mexico I was gifted a copy of the Tao Te Ching - the first eastern philosophy that resonated with me (and still does). 

After a few years I returned to the UK wanting to resume my art studies: a fine art degree course brought me to Devon; unexpectedly, I discovered a rich and authentic Yoga community there, and I became a long-term student of Duncan Hulin, founder & director of the Devon School of Yoga. For ten years I studied with Duncan, eventually training as a Yoga teacher with him on the Devon School of Yoga 500hr diploma course from 2011-2013. From 2012 - 2022 I taught regular weekly Yoga classes, workshops, courses and festivals in Devon, as well as one winter at a Yoga retreat centre on a little island in south west Thailand where I also gave lots of Thai Yoga massage treatments.

In 2009 my Yoga practice had begun to shift towards Ashtanga Vinyasa for the grounding, strengthening benefits I experienced through it. My first Ashtanga teacher was Andrea Durant; subsequently I sought out the original American Ashtanga pioneers, Nancy Gilgoff, David Williams and Doug Swenson, attending multiple workshops with them around the UK and in Portugal. In 2015 I travelled to Maui, Hawaii, intending to immerse myself more fully in the island's Ashtanga culture and Nancy's shala in particular. 

My experiences on Maui were profound, transformative and utterly unexpected. At the peak of my Ashtanga practice, I realised I'd gone as far with it as I wanted to; from here I sought out a more nurturing, feminine approach, which I soon found in island teacher Jennifer Lynn's inspirational Wisdom Flow Yoga classes. I experienced a powerful heart-opening experience during my first class. The natural beauty of the island, the indigenous healing traditions and culture (including lomi lomi massage which I not only loved receiving, but also took some individual training in) were magical soul medicine for me.  I returned to the UK feeling that my personal practice and decades of experience were all the validation I needed. 

My interest in indigenous cultures had taken me to an animist village in 2014 - here, I first heard about a heart-opening gentle plant medicine called cacao, which was being shared in London by a woman who had a background in Amazonian plant medicine ceremony - she shared cacao in the style of an ayahuasca ceremony, I was told. As someone both drawn to and wary of this medicine, I was curious; however, it was only after my Maui heart-opening that I began to really feel a stronger calling towards a plant path. In 2017 I finally sat in ceremony with cacao for the first time; and in 2018 I embarked on a cacaoista apprenticeship with the ceremony facilitator, Rebekah. This apprenticeship experience - and the first cacao ceremony of the retreat on the quiet north shore of Ibiza -  proved to be unexpectedly deep and spiritually impactful for me. The insights received continue to reverberate years later. 

Following this initiation, I became apprenticed to the plant spirit herself for the next few years, holding regular women's ceremonies and introducing many to this gently potent beautiful medicine for the first time. In 2021-2022 I began studying online with indigenous Mayan teachers, and in 2023 I made a personal solo pilgrimage to Guatemala, where I was able to arrange to meet two of my teachers, K'at and Tzi'kin, on their land, as well as visiting cacao farmers on their farm in the south, also a very profound and moving encounter.  Returning to Lake Atitlan repeatedly, I sat in fire ceremonies and received a  personal reading and fire ceremony with a local aj'qij' (spiritual guide), immersed myself in as many aspects of cacao and Mayan culture as possible, and being forever thankful for my Spanish language skills! 

In spring 2024, after almost 20 years in Devon, and 12 years of sharing holistic offerings, I left for pastures new. Amidst the flux, daily cacao, meditation and Yoga continue to be my foundational practices; after years sharing the healing arts, my own creative energies are turning back also to music and visual art.

Time in nature, time in silence, in contemplation, are essentials; and I remain alive as ever to the beauty of nature, the poetry of the night sky, with a cup of cacao or matcha (that other wonderful ceremonial plant beverage, from the other side of the Pacific!).