Emma is the founder of The Centre and is passionate about sharing yoga, Shiatsu and complimentary health to the people of Nicosia.
Yoga
I took my first yoga class when I was 17, and over the last 18 years my mat has been a source of comfort and support. Living in London for 33 years gave me access to train and learn with some of the top teachers in the world. I was able to try a huge variety of styles and approaches. It was a great experience and as often as I can I travel back to London to top up my trainings.
My first teacher training was in Sivandana yoga. I used to live near the Sivandana Centre in London and enjoyed the classes that I attended so once I quit my stressful, but successful project manager job in television, I headed to India. I was there for three months, one of which I spent in a Ashram in Maduri, living and studying the yogic life. It was a great experience, and led to a 200 hour yoga teaching qualification.
two months later I tried my first Anusara class at the Yoga Barn in Ubud, Bali. From the first class I noticed a change in me; The more I practiced, the more that surges of empathy would overwhelm me. I would say I am a loving and open person, but for a long time I felt blocked to express it, or fearful of getting attached and hurt. The physical and philosophical principals of the Tantric practices of Anusara helped me to be braver about opening my heart, through the good times, and the bad.
A year later I started my second 200 hour yoga teaching qualification In Anusara yoga. By this point I had moved to Cyprus and was teaching and giving Shiatsu, but every month I would fly back to London to train with my teacher Bridget Woods-Kramer at the renowned Triyoga studio. Just as I was coming close to completing the Anusara Elements teacher training I was invited to join the first YogaWorks teacher training running in Cyprus. seven months later I completed my third 200 hour Yoga teaching qualification.
Since that time I felt a pull towards yoga specifically for woman and woman's needs. I completed the Birthlight Pre and Postnatal yoga diploma and teach regular pregnancy and mum and baby yoga classes, and was voted in a board member to the fantastic Non Government Organistion, Birthforward which work hard to educate the need to reduce the rate of caesarians in Cyprus.
Shiatsu
I've always been interested in massage. I always enjoyed giving my friends and family massages, seeing how relaxed and comfortable they felt from my prodding and pressing. I started with Indian head massages, and after the first couple of massages I decided it was something I wanted to learn more about, so I traveled to Chiang Mai in Thailand and got a Thai massage qualification from the Old Medicine Hospital.
I kept it up while studying my Psychology degree (BSc HONS) and when I finished I enrolled in a Shiatsu introduction weekend at the British School of Shiatsu. I loved it; I loved it so much I continued with the coarse and three and a half years later I qualified as a Shiatsu practitioner. The techniques where fun, and the theory was fascinating. It was a higher standard of body work that I had done before, and have done since. We where taught techniques of how to develop our sensitivity for feeling energy, we studied anatomy, we studied Chinese medicine, it was philosophical, it was psychological, it was creative and most of all it worked.
For about three years after I got my qualification I assisted at the school and occasionally taught there. I did some further studying in Japan with a Shiatsu master and in the UK with Saul Goodman, man who founded the first Shiatsu school in England, while offering Shiatsu part time. Finally I moved to Cyprus in 2013 and have been working as a Shiatsu practitioner and yoga teacher full time, ever since.
You can find more information about my Shiatsu work in this website. You can also visit the Shiatsu Cyprus webpage by clicking here.