"Knowledge can make you a therapist, intuition can make you a healer"
~ Nishcala Joy Devi
About Real Yoga
Where it began
Real Yoga was established as a yoga therapy training school by Jean Danford in 2006 when she was a member of the team developing the new National Occupational Standards for Yoga Therapy in the UK. With many years experience of providing yoga as therapy in schools, hospitals and in private practice, Jean believed that while learning anatomy, scientific research and the therapeutic application of yoga practices are important, it is the ability to build a trusting therapeutic relationship with the client that are vital to healing.
Her aim for Real Yoga was to offer affordable, high quality, authentic yoga training that would build on the student’s yoga knowledge and skills, but would equally focus on their individual development as a person and as a therapist . The school has been applying these values and producing skilled and knowledgeable therapists for the last 17 years.
Today
The courses are held at an excellent venue ‘Synergy Physiotherapy’ in Egham Surrey (near Heathrow) and are led by Patricia Cronin, an experienced yoga therapist trainer who was trained by Jean, and who worked alongside her for 7 years before taking on responsibility as Course Director in 2017.
- You can read more about the Real Yoga teaching team at the bottom of this page.
There have been significant advances in the science of yoga therapy in recent years and the Real Yoga teaching team are constantly studying, learning and updating the course to reflect the very best of modern techniques and understanding. We are also supported by a team of visiting tutors who are experts in their own fields such as Anatomy, Ayurveda, Sound and Voice, Counselling Skills and working with Grief.
We are a small inclusive school with a focus on individual student development and we are very proud of what our graduates are achieving in the world of yoga therapy.
What we provide
- Accredited yoga therapy training courses
- Continuing professional development for yoga teachers and yoga therapists
- Mentoring, supervision and peer group support for yoga teachers and yoga therapists
Our Ethos
- The philosophy and practices of authentic yoga are at the heart of all we do
- We recognise that each student is an individual with their own skills, interests, aspirations, and developmental needs
Our Commitment
- We will work with you to build on your strengths, encourage you to explore areas of particular interest and help you to reach your full potential
- We offer ongoing support and mentoring after qualification and encourage our graduates to contribute to our growing, supportive, and vibrant yoga therapy community
Real Yoga Tutors
Patricia Cronin
Course Director
Patricia is the Course Director for Real Yoga and has been practicing yoga and meditation, since her teens. Alongside training yoga therapists, she runs a private practice and provides weekly yoga therapy sessions in the Eating Disorders Unit of an NHS Trust. She worked for 8 years at a busy private psychiatric clinic offering yoga and meditataion. In a previous life she worked as a trainer and has an award in education and training. She has been leading Real Yoga courses in Egham since 2017.
Jackie Hayfield
Has been teaching yoga for over 20 years, and working as a yoga therapist since graduating with Real Yoga in 2016. She provides accessible yoga classes at the ‘MS Centre Dorset’, on-line therapeutic classes to those living with and beyond cancer for the ‘Yes to Life’ charity, and small group classes at a local Psychiatric Hospital.
She is currently training to become a course assessor for the British Council for Yoga Therapy (BCYT). She is passionate about yoga therapy, and has been part of the Real Yoga teaching team since 2017.
Karen Sear
Graduated as a therapist with Real Yoga in 2015, and is now a regular contributor to the courses in Egham and works as a practical assessor. Karen says about yoga therapy: “As I continue to teach and practice I encourage a slow and very simple approach, with movement following breath, making yoga more introspective and much deeper, enabling us to be more attentive to the present and to sense more about ourselves”
Jean Danford
Jean is the Founder of Real Yoga and has decades of experience of teaching yoga in adult education, schools and hospital and as a yoga therapist. She is also a qualified healer and counsellor and was a senior tutor for the College of Healing. In 2016 Jean’s first book Yoga Therapy for Parkinson’s Disease and Multiple Sclerosis was published, and she was invited to present her work at the International Association of Yoga Therapists conference in 2017. She continues to share her wisdom with current students via CPDs and Sangha.
Specialist Tutors
We invite specialist tutors such as Physiotherapists, Ayurvedic Practitioners and other subject matter experts, to share their expertise.
Dr Dearbla Gallagher
Is an Associate Professor of Education and Private Practice at the University of Buckingham where she teaches on the Sports Therapy Degree Courses. She is a member of Athletic Therapy and Rehabilitation Ireland, the British Association of Sport Rehabilitation and Trainers and a Senior Fellow of Advanced Higher Education.
One of her greatest privileges to date has been working in Complex Trauma at the UK’s defence rehabilitation centre Headley Court, during the very difficult ‘Operation Herrick’ of Afghanistan. The experience changed her profoundly both as a clinician and as a person and she draws on those experiences to inspire and promote the huge changes that sports and yoga therapy can make to people’s quality of life.
Aimee Newton
anosteopathy.com
Aimee discovered the healing and therapeutic powers of yoga when she qualified as a yoga teacher 15 years ago and it is the reason she became an Osteopath – because understanding the workings of the body, and all its component parts, deepens and enriches her knowledge of the power of Yoga – and vice versa. She now uses this knowledge to train yoga teachers and therapists in functional anatomy and the use of therapeutic yoga and has a particular interest in the anatomy and function of breathing and expertise in women’s health issues.
Katrina Taee
Katrina has over 18 years of professional counselling experience specialising in grief. She came into that profession from a nursing background but now works as an End of Life Doula and uses her own experiences of grief to enrich her work. She teaches about grief, bereavement and end of life issues for the ‘Living Well Dying Well Foundation’. She is co-author of the book “Surviving the Tsunami of Grief” and a valued member of the Real Yoga teaching team. She can be contacted at tsunamiofgrief@gmail.com
Alexandra Rigazzi-Tarling
www.alexandrarigazzi-tarling.com
Alexandra has a bachelor’s degree in music and a master’s degree in music performance. She studied opera for two years on the postgraduate opera course at the Guildhall and this led to a very successful operatic career that took her all around the world, performing at some of the world’s most prestigious venues.
She now works as a Sound Healer and trainer for the College of Sound Healing. She believes that our voices are our unique sonic tool and can be the key to unlocking patterns of emotional holding and trauma, and her professional focus is on healing and personal development through freeing the breath and through voice.
Kate Siraj
https://theayurvedaacedemy.com
Kate Siraj is a fully qualified Ayurvedic Practitioner with a BSc in Ayurveda (Manipal, India, First Class Honours) as well as a qualified Shadow Work Group Facilitator & Coach. She completed 500 hours of clinical Ayurvedic internship training in India (Kochi, Kerala and Hassan, Karnataka) and thus is a full member of the Ayurvedic Professionals Association. She is a co-founder and lecturer at The Ayurveda Academy.