Teachers

Sandra Heider - Founder of Equilibrium
Sandra Heider, MA, MA, grew up in Germany, but left her home country when she was 19 to study in Edinburgh (1998). It was there when she started practising yoga with her first Ashtanga Yoga teachers Brian Cooper and Nawajyoti. Although she moved to England in 2002, she went back to Brian to do her teacher training (200 hour diploma with Yoga Alliance) in Edinburgh and Scoraig (2005 and 2006, http://www.unionyoga.co.uk/training/tt-home.html ). In April 2007 under the guidance of David Life and Sharon Gannon she qualified as a Jivamukti teacher in New York. In June 2007 Sandra finished her month long intensive teacher training with Ana Forrest - becoming a Forrest Associate. In February 2009 she certified as a Forrest Yoga Teacher. Since then she has completed her Forrest mentorship programme with Heidi Sormaz in New Haven (CT) and assisted Ana Forrest at workshops (Peterborough and London 2009) as well as at a 5 day teacher training (Berlin 2009). She also currently studies with the Cambridge Body Psychotherapy Centre to gain more insight into how the body, mind, spirit and emotions are connected - in fact are one.

Love and gratitude go to all her teachers and in particular Ana Forrest, Colleen Millen, Heidi Sormaz, Yogeswari, Sharon Gannon and David Life who are a true inspiration for her teaching, her practice and her life.

For Sandra yoga is about finding stillness in the body and also in the mind. It is that ever lasting happiness and peace we can only find when we are truly present - in the moment. When we reach this stillness we can see the interconnectedness of all beings, all harming and violence stops and we feel in harmony and love with our surroundings. Real peace and happiness can only come from within. Joy and bliss will come out of this changed state of consciousness.

Peter Wilkins
Peter has a rich background in martial arts. He started Tang Soo Do - a Korean Martial Art - in 1973. He took his black belt in 1979 when he started teaching - eventually becoming a 6th Dan and a chief instructor for Bedford, Northampton and Cambridge. When he stopped teaching, he was looking for some physical activity and discovered Ashtanga yoga in 2004. He completed his intense teacher training with Brian Cooper in Southern France in June 2008. He now teaches Ashtanga yoga at the centre, drawing from his teacher training, his past teaching experiences in martial art and most importantly from his own daily practice. 

Christina Masingill
Christina Masingill is American, originally from Virginia.  She has lived in London for 8 years with her British husband.   After 13 years of teaching children, she now teaches yoga.  Christina began practising yoga in 1999, replacing her already active lifestyle of dance and sports.  When she came across Ana Forrest she knew she wanted to teach Forrest Yoga!  Forrest Yoga has brought deep fulfilment, freedom, strength and constant growth to her life.  She is a Forrest Associate certified through UK Yoga Alliance and empowers others to discover and grow their own freedom, power and self-expression igniting their passion for life!

Mark Stevens, www.sivanandayogastudio.co.uk/
Mark owns his own yoga studio in Little Downham, Ely, where he offers regular classes Monday to Friday.

Mark started practising yoga in 1986. The Sivananda Tradition has provided the main focus for his practice. He undertook Teacher Training in Kerala Southern India in 2003 and Advanced Teacher Training in the Himalayas in 2007. He continues to study within the Tradition. In May 2009 he also certified as a Jivamukti teacher under the guidance of Sharon Gannon and David Life. He is one of the very few Jivamukti teachers outside London and we are pleased to have him in the centre teaching on a Saturday morning!

The Iyengar, Ashtanga and Vini Yoga traditions are also part of Mark's background and inform his style of teaching.

Helen Manning
"Learning Yoga will often feel as though you are learning something you always knew how to do…..the joy and refreshment of a deep, full breath in combination with the exhilaration of a deep, strong stretch is rejuvenating”.[1]

Helen has been practising Yoga, under the kind and supportive instruction of a number of Yoga teachers, many of whom are British Wheel of Yoga teachers, since 1995.

Helen is qualified as a teacher in both Pilates and Yoga - matching both methods of movement with breath to that instinctive urge we all have to stretch the body. She feels passionately that the practices of Yoga and Pilates connect us back to the deep rooted instinct to unwind, to refresh and re-balance the whole body with thoughtful movement and breath. Imagine the end of a long car journey, the need to move, to breathe in deeply and stretch off the journey – then we feel calmer, more relaxed, rejuvenated.

Already working as a Pilates Institute (London) Matwork instructor since 2004, Helen qualified as a Freestyle Fitness Yoga instructor in 2006 – this subsequently ignited her interest in deepening her own knowledge and teaching of the massive subject of Yoga. To achieve this Helen embarked on the British Wheel of Yoga Teacher's Diploma Course in September 2008. The British Wheel of Yoga is the largest Yoga organisation in the country and is recognised by the Central Council for Physical Recreation (CCPR) and Sport England as the national governing body for Yoga in the UK.

"Be happy you know how to practice. The practice will make you happy."[2]

Alison Duff
Alison qualified as an Infant Massage teacher with the International Association of Infant Massage (IAIM) in November 2001 and after spending her first year teaching local parents how to massage their babies went on to set up her company, Calm-a-Baby a year later. In 2003 Calm-a-Baby became an approved training provider of certified infant massage instructor for the IAIM and has been running courses ever since. A qualification in Baby Yoga with Birthlight followed in 2005 and most recently Alison completed an advanced certificate in Infant Aquatics, also with Birthlight. Alison cares about the relationship that parents have with their new babies and works extensively to promote and enhance the bond between parent and child. Baby massage, yoga and swimming are the tools used to facilitate this.