FRYOG Tutors

Get to know our friendly team of FRYOG Teacher Trainers below…

Sheila Coombes

Sheila has practised yoga and meditation for most of her adult life and has been teaching others since qualifying with FRYOG in 1984. Her main interest is in health and healing through working with the elements and this has led her to study with leading Viniyoga and Ayurvedic practitioners. She is also trained in Thai Yoga Massage, Indian Head Massage, Reiki and Reflexology. All these skills are now combined into ‘Integrated Yoga Therapy’ which she offers from a practice near Totnes, Devon.

Integrated Yoga Therapy is a person-centred and holistic approach to restoring balance and wellbeing. Whatever ‘dis-ease’ a person presents with, be it long-standing and chronic or resulting from recent trauma there will be a way of releasing tension and finding relief through subtle energy channelling, focused movement and deep relaxation. Added to that there is the ‘self-help’ element of enabling students to develop their yoga practise at home.

In the words of the African-American poet Nayyirah Wahead: ‘And I said to my body softly ‘I want to be your friend…..it took a long breath and replied: ‘I have been waiting my whole life for this’. In a nutshell, this is what Shelia does – she shows people how to make friends and be kinder to themselves.

Added to that Shelia tutors training courses on behalf of FRYOG: the Foundation Year; 200hrs; and the top up 500 hrs for qualified teachers.

Vicky has been practising yoga for 16 years and teaching for 7. She qualified in July 2008 with The Friends of Yoga Society International and hasn’t looked back since, teaching classes to all abilities from gentle restorative yoga to advanced, challenging, strong and energising classes. She is very passionate about the way yoga leaves you feeling and its benefits and enjoys sharing her knowledge.

Vicky teaches traditional Hatha Yoga, offering classes to suit your individual personal abilities and needs. She uses The Asanas (postures), Pranayama (breathing techniques), The Bandhas, Relaxation and Meditation to achieve good posture and flexibility, ease stress and anxiety and to release tension. All working to improve your health and well-being and to obtain a calm focus and well balanced life to help deal with everyday challenges, mentally, physically and emotionally.

Aimee is an experienced Hatha Yoga Teacher and has been teaching general public yoga classes for 10 years. She also teaches classes in the corporate environment and for teachers in schools as well as providing personalized one to one sessions for Breathe and Triyoga.

Additionally she is a member of the Executive Board for FRYOG and holds the position of Training and Standards Officer.

Aimee is also a qualified Osteopath; graduating from the British School of Osteopathy with a Masters Degree in Osteopathy. She is a registered member of the General Osteopathic Council and the British Osteopathic Association and her knowledge of yoga also enriches her osteopathic treatment due to her understanding of mindfulness and exercise prescription which are as essential part of patient management.

Aimee’s unique combination of training in both osteopathy and yoga position her to add a therapeutic element to her yoga classes and specializing in adaptation of yoga for people with injuries, stress and chronic illness. With a very thorough knowledge of anatomy, physiology and the mechanism of injury and health of the human body, she uses this in depth knowledge to provide CPD training for yoga teachers.

Helen has been practising Yoga since she was a teenager and qualified with FRYOG in 1979. She runs weekly classes and workshops, including CPD days in Derbyshire and is an assessor and tutor trainer for FRYOG. Her teaching expresses her firm belief that Yoga is beneficial for all and should be accessible to everyone. Because of her long experience and involvement with Yoga her style is eclectic but with roots firmly in the traditional. Among Helen’s specialisms are Tantra and Ayurvedic Yoga.

Helen is also a complimentary therapist running her own practice ‘Serenity Yoga and Therapies’ in Matlock offering a range of therapies, one to one Yoga and Counselling. Please contact Helen for further information including details of future Diploma Courses and Yearly Retreats in Lancashire and France.

Swami Satvikananda

Mobile Phone (TEXTS ONLY)
tel:07941 453466

Swami Satvikananda has been practising Yoga for nearly 40 years and teaching for over 20. She teaches Satyananda Yoga Classes, Pregnancy Yoga Classes, Baby Yoga classes and Meditation as well as Individual Yoga Therapy for various medical conditions at the Yoga Room, a small Satyananda Centre in Ottershaw, Surrey. She has a Satyananda Teaching Diploma, a FRYOG Yoga Teaching Diploma, BWY Teaching Diploma and a full Yoga Therapy Diploma from the Yoga Biomedical Trust plus their diplomas in Pregnancy & Childbirth, Low Back Pain, Nervous Conditions, and Asthma & Respiratory Conditions. She is Birthright trained for both Pregnancy Yoga and Baby Yoga and has studied Optimal Foetal Positioning with Jean Sutton. Swami Satvikananda also has a BWY Diploma for Teaching Yoga to Children and for many years she has been running FRYOG Teacher Trainer Courses and is a BWY Trainer to Teach other Yoga Teachers the Teaching Yoga to Children Module as well as being a BWY IST Tutor in ‘Well Woman Yoga’.

Address: Otterbourne House, Chobham Road, Ottershaw, Chertsey, Surrey. KT16 0QF

Nickie has been practising yoga for over 20 years and been a FRYOG teacher since 2002 and completed her Satyananda teacher training in 2011. She believes that the tools of yoga should be available to everyone and aims to teach authentic practices in such a way that each individual can access the tools that are relevant, helpful and accessible to them at each stage of their life.

Nickie currently runs weekly classes on the Isle of Wight together with one2one sessions for individuals. She also works with people with a wide variety of ongoing health problems and special needs. In addition, Nickie holds regular workshops and weekend retreats, and is also a tutor for the FRYOG Foundation and teacher training 200 and 500 hour courses.

Miranda used to be a schoolteacher, so teaching is a big part of who she is, and yoga has been a part of her life since her late teens. When she had children of her own, she trained as a hatha yoga teacher with Friends of Yoga and has now been teaching yoga for almost 20 years. She has explored many different forms of yoga including vinyasa flow, bhakti yoga (going to yoga festivals around the world), kundalini, Iyenagar and many others, and evolved her own style. But she has stayed true to the core practices of traditional hatha.

She has taken her training and teaching experience further over the years with yoga therapy, pre and postnatal yoga and continued training in anatomy. She describes her classes as mindful flow where she puts a strong emphasis on the breath, alignment, and safety in all postures. She likes to explain what effects the postures are having on the body so that students can take what they learn on the mat and use it to improve their day to day lives.

Miranda teaches a variety of classes ranging from very gentle classes for seniors or people with bad backs to strong and dynamic more fluid classes, giving stages of difficulty in poses. She stresses the importance of listening to the body and building up to stronger poses only when ready.
She has experience in teaching people with fibromyalgia, osteoporosis, hip and knee replacements, scoliosis, frozen shoulder, arthritis, IBS and many other issues and gives private sessions as well as including people like this into her gentler classes.

Miranda periodically runs yoga weekends in a beautiful valley in South Wales. She will be running courses that combine Zoom and residential weekends at her home in Wales.

Michelle has been practicing yoga for just over twenty years, attending her first class in 1996 Michelle discovered how yoga greatly helped improve performance in sports but also, more importantly, gave her tools, specifically pranayama practice, to cope with general stresses of life at that time. Previously a teacher in adult education and a martial arts teacher, Michelle’s love of yoga drew her into training as a Fryog teacher, graduating in 2008. Michelle has been teaching yoga ever since and has gone on to qualify as a pre and postnatal yoga teacher, complete a BSc (Hons) in Sports & Exercise Science and gain an accredited GP referral qualification to work with people living with medical conditions. Michelle teaches a range of classes in Hatha, Vinyasa, Pre and Postnatal, workshops for runners and sports people, she also leads retreats and is now planning to support clients diagnosed with obesity and crohn’s disease. Michelle is based in Berkshire and teaches in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. Michelle is a tutor and assessor for FRYOG.

Helen Gilhooly has been practising yoga since she was a teenager and trained to be a yoga teacher under the expert eye of Helen Sutcliffe. Her own yoga journey has taken her most recently to France with her family where she is running a chambres d’hotes whilst continuing to teach yoga. She teaches yoga classes in French and in English and runs annual yoga retreats in France with Helen Sutcliffe. She is the FRYOG international area officer and also is a teacher trainer for the FRYOG international teacher diploma.

Helen’s teaching style is firmly rooted in the Hatha classic tradition but she also loves the breadth and depth that different yoga styles and approaches offer and is always keen to add new and different practices to her teaching. She runs her classes with her personal mantra that yoga is accessible to all.