Meet our Yoga Teachers
At Yoga Stable, we are honoured to work with such talented, qualified, experienced, knowledgeable and inspiring teachers and therapists. Find out more about the comprehensive Training our teachers undergo or read on for each yoga teacher’s biography.
Annamaria Sacco, Yoga Stable Director
Annamaria holds a Junior Intermediate Level 3 Iyengar Yoga Certificate and she has studied with several senior and advanced Iyengar Yoga Tutors in India and France, as well as training with the Iyengar family in Pune. Annamaria undertakes annual professional development studies with Firooza Ali, one of India’s leading Iyengar Yoga teachers and a philosophy tutor. Recently Annamaria completed a three year course looking at how to work remedially within the context of a general class, enabling her to accommodate students with injuries or chronic medical conditions within a class setting. Teaching some of the weekly Yoga Classes, she leads the Mother & Baby and Pregnancy Yoga classes and is available for One-to-One consultations.
In addition to her professional Yoga work, Annamaria completed her foundation year in Core Process Psychotherapy with the Karuna Institute, Devon, in 2010. She has also been working with the biodynamic system of Craniosacral Therapy. Through years of yoga practice, training and teaching, along with her knowledge in core process psychotherapy and craniosacral therapy, Annmaria brings a deep stillness and depth of listening to her teaching.
A mother of two children, Annamaria began teaching Mother & Baby Yoga with her first child, and the seeds of Yoga Stable were born!
“With a life full of beauty and many challenges, had it not been for Yoga, I am certain I would not have had the resources to deal with it all. Yoga continues to give me awareness, peace, acceptance and the willingness to see the learning opportunity in whatever comes my way, however difficult it may be and be able to pass it on. My gratitude for this can hardly be put into words.”
Read more about Annamaria and the history of Yoga Stable on our About Us page.
Our Yoga Teachers (in alphabetical order)
Agata Jedynak
“Yoga brought together a few scattered pieces in my life.” For most of her life Agata trained as a dancer, so was used to intense physical practice. Having grown up in a Buddhist family and left the nest, she was missing the spiritual element.
“My interest in natural medicines drew me to yoga, which combines the physical and the spiritual, uniting all layers of being.”
Agata finds the variety of Iyengar Yoga, together with the aspects of precision and focus it possesses, very fulfilling. She first joined Yoga Stable as a student in 2006 and became hooked on the freshness and joy she felt after class. Qualifying as a Beginners 2 teacher in 2011, she enjoys learning from inspirational Inyengar yoga teachers and the Yoga Stable students as she continues on her yoga journey.
“As my practice has progressed, yoga has become a journey to join parts into whole, first on a personal level and then beyond the boundaries of self.”
Kate Murdoch
Recently qualified in 2011 as an Iyengar yoga teacher (Beginners 2 Level), Kate’s interest in yoga was first sparked as a teenager, reading a book her parents brought back from their honeymoon in India in the 60s. She began attending yoga classes in 2000 and her first class left the impression that she had been introduced to something very special.
“Ever since then its effect on my life has deepened. What began as a physical endeavour has become a way of life; a whole approach to life. It amazes me still that what starts out as ‘a stretch’ can lead to such a deep sense of being at home within yourself, to an acceptance of the here and now and an expanding belief in life.”
Following completion of a Hatha yoga instructor’s course in India, and teaching back home in Edinburgh, Kate began Iyengar yoga in 2006 to deepen her understanding of the precision in the asanas. As both a student of esteemed Iyengar tutors, and as a teacher herself, Kate is passionate about the process of learning. She is extremely grateful to Iyengar’s detailed approach, which has really helped Kate to understand the asanas - where to let go, where to maintain strength and how the different parts of the body are connected, such as the ripple effect of working in one area of the body, which in turn benefits the rest of the body.
“This exploration fascinates me, and the part which delights me the most is the sense of calm and wellbeing Iyengar Yoga has brought to my life.”
Liz Ballantyne
Liz holds a Junior Intermediate Level 3 Iyengar Yoga Certificate, has recently completed training to be an Iyengar teacher trainer and is a Teacher Assessor for the Iyengar Yoga Association. Liz has studied with many senior and advanced Iyengar Yoga Teachers from India, Europe and the UK and has completed a three-year course which looks at how to work remedially within the context of a general class and One-to-One, enabling her to accommodate students with injuries or chronic medical conditions.
Liz began practicing yoga in 1976:
“In those days I was living in the country with a young child and yoga was the only local evening class. My interest grew and after a few years I found myself drawn to the Iyengar system, because of the emphasis on detail, correctness and absolute safety.
At first I was attracted to the health benefits of yoga, but gradually the philosophy and underlying principles found their way into my practice and my life. I never cease to wonder at the profundity of yoga, which is a truly holistic method of self culture.”
Since her first trip to attend a teacher’s intensive course with BKS Iyengar and Geeta Iyengar in Pune, India, in 1991, Liz frequently returns to Pune to take courses taught by the Iyengars. In her classes she aims to share what she has learned and to help each person individually to develop both the physical and the mental benefits that yoga can bring.
“Yoga asanas penetrate deep into each layer of the body and ultimately into the consciousness itself.”BKS Iyengar
Maureen Clarke
Maureen started yoga in her early twenties, initially to fulfil a gap left from doing ballet into her late teens. Rapidly she realised that there was much more to yoga than just the physical side.
She began training to be an Iyengar yoga teacher with Bob and Kathy Welham in 1977 and has been training with Elaine Pidgeon, Director of the Edinburgh Iyengar Yoga Centre, since 1989. Maureen now holds her Junior Intermediate Level 3 Iyengar Yoga Certificate and has had the privilege of being taught by the Iyengars in Pune. Over recent years she has studied with Rajiv and Swati Chanchani at their Iyengar centre in Rajpur and has been very fortunate to be able to study with Firooza Ali at the Yoga Stable annual Retreat in Fife. In 2008 Maureen also completed a three year course on working remedially with yoga, enabling her to accommodate students with injuries or chronic medical conditions.
“I am very grateful for all the teaching and knowledge so generously given by these senior teachers.
During the years of being a fulltime working mother, yoga sustained me and was a rock in the juggling act of motherhood and work. It brings a sense of peace and balance to my life.
Yoga still surprises and fulfils me. It is wonderful to be able to share my enthusiasm through teaching and seeing the positive changes in students.”
Wendy Fraser
Yoga was first introduced to Wendy as a young girl at ballet school. She returned to yoga during the 1980s when she trained and studied with the MacManaways in Fife, a family of healers who set up one of the first holistic healing centres in Scotland. Since then, Wendy’s teaching has always come from a holistic perspective.
While her children were growing, she continued training in the Iyengar tradition, while exploring other methods of yoga. In 2000 she gained her Iyengar teaching diploma and is now qualified at Junior Intermediate Level 2.
In addition to yoga and dancing, Wendy is trained in Firewalking and has been practising Massage, Aromatherapy, Reflexology, Reiki and the healing arts for over 25 years, seeing clients in Fife, Edinburgh, and at Lendrick Lodge, the renowned holistic retreat and healing centre.
Teaching yoga workshops at Lendrick Lodge over the last few years, Wendy holds ongoing classes and workshops both in Fife and at Lendrick. Wendy continues to study with Senior Iyengar teachers in India and here in the U.K and has taught at Yoga Magic, an eco retreat near Anjuna, Goa in India.
“Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and to endure what cannot be cured.”BKS Iyengar
At Yoga Stable, we take our training very seriously. Only accredited teachers who have undergone comprehensive training are permitted to teach our classes.
Our ethos can be found within the About Us section and if you are struggling financially, please refer to our Community page.
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