The power of yoga and creativity to overcome adversity
My Story
My spiritual journey started 30 years ago. It spreads across many teachings and locations. From Montreal to London where I trained in Ashtanga yoga, to India where I did a 500-hour Teacher Training in Hatha and Iyengar yoga, with Omprakash Gaur at Aum Yoga School.
I struggled with anxiety and depression from an early age. My beloved mum died when I was 11 and I grew up in a dysfunctional family. Lack of coping strategies to deal with stress and anxiety, poor lifestyle and unhealed traumas led me to experience a burnout in 2001.
While recovering, I did yoga, sang and played music. I also became involved with my local mental health services, to help improve the care I and other patients did -or didn’t- receive. I started delivering vocational training for NHS staff and working as a Health advisor in 2004. Training and knowledge gained allowed me to teach at King’s College London for 2 years.
Later, I studied at London South Bank University to become a qualified lecturer (PGCHE) and taught for 11 years in the Faculty of Health & Social Care. I left in 2016 to set up Yoga Enlights. I also taught at the London School of Business and Finance, Institute of Psychiatry, University of East London, Goldsmith University... I helped drafting curricula and spoke at conferences: “Meds can help, but they can’t create ‘health’. We need to take better care of ourselves”.
I’ve received a Business Innovation Award from GLEone London, the Millennium Award from UnLtd and London Leaders Award from the London Sustainable Development Commission, for the quality of my services and the impact of my work in the community. CONTACT ME
Her ability to capture the audience`s attention and maintain their interest is in part attributable to the myriad of approaches and styles that she uses to facilitate learning. Participants evaluate her sessions very highly and are eager for more."
Yoga can change your brain. You can change your life.
I'll help you do both.
Filling in the gap in mainstream healthcare
Whilst teaching part-time at uni, I worked as a Health and Wellbeing consultant for the NHS.
For many years, I witnessed and challenged the limited knowledge and understanding in mainstream healthcare of the impact of traumas and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress.
Lack of mind-body interventions like yoga to help provide effective treatment -e.g. for people who struggle with mood ‘disorders’ and other forms of distress or a chronic illness- is overwhelming. Yet, scientific research shows yoga does help many to heal or recover.
I knew from personal experience that practising yoga also helps to strengthen the natural connections between the mental, emotional, physical, and thus, spiritual aspects of self. Spirituality includes the ability to find meaning, build connections and a sense of purpose.
Having a breakdown and being in recovery helped me to develop a holistic method for finding balance and staying healthy. I wasn’t so much interested in putting broken parts back together again. I wanted to find ways to prevent them from breaking in the first place.
Alo comes across as a creative, warm, experienced and able teacher, with great insight, gentleness and compassion towards each individual."
“Yoga is a light which once lit will never dim. The better your practice, the brighter the flame.”
BKS Iyengar
I want to inspire others to connect or reconnect with their inner voice and most authentic self.
I found some talking therapies extremely useful, yet not always sufficient on my journey from burnout to recovery. I found out that my body also needed support. Some traumas are known to leave lasting imprints in the body (Van der Kolk, 2014). That’s why somatic practices like yoga are so essential to help address them.
When I went back to employment, I noticed the crucial lack of provision to support employees’ wellbeing. I witnessed and experienced a lot of stigma in the workplace. Mental health was often -and still is- frowned upon or misunderstood, including in healthcare services. People don’t really talk about it. It’s like the elephant in the room.
Professional expertise and lived experience combined have enabled me to create a creative method to heal the body, train the mind and rewire the brain. It’s informed by the latest research in modern science like epigenetics and neurobiology, while finding its roots and harnessing power in the ancient and sacred wisdom of yoga.
My greatest wish is for everyone to feel empowered to live their best life and to free themselves from the prison of their own mind.
“Great practices. Alo was very driving and also calming and inspiring.”
