About the Tutors
“The classes are mainly taught by Gordon: occasionally by Katherine and always by qualified and experienced Yoga teachers”
Gordon Spence
Katherine Simms
“I
began Yoga at the age of thirteen and it continues to transform my life.
I am pleased and privileged to be able to give something back by teaching
Yoga to others. Yoga led me to physical and spiritual competence. As a
result I have been able to enjoy, organise and instruct outdoor activities
in a 12-year project in the Probation Service. I have also held “Inward
Bound” courses - Yoga and mountaineering, living in the mountains.
My spiritual practice and path are sustained by Yoga and by being a Quaker.
“After
leaving school I spent 7 years studying and working in engineering before
being guided to work with people rather than machines. I then worked in
the Probation Service for 15 years. In 1973, to my utter amazement, my
first Yoga teacher Robert Leyshon-Hughes said that I too should teach Yoga.
A few years later I joined the Centre Community, which practised spirituality
in communal living. Here I was both teacher and student and in 1978 my
study under Malcom Strutt led to a British Wheel of Yoga Teaching Diploma.
While teaching at the London Sufi Centre in 1983, I met my future wife
Cathy and we married two years later. We have an eleven-year-old son Alasdair.
In
1989 I undertook training in psychotherapy on a 3-year B.A.C. accredited
diploma course taught by Nigel Hamilton. In 1994 to respond to an increasing
number of requests, I undertook a specialist training with Jane Reed for
antenatal Yoga teaching.
“I
currently teach up to 10 hours of Yoga classes per week. I also offer counseling
and mixed sessions of counseling and Yoga tuition to individuals. I am convinced
that Yoga practice should touch the whole human being and link the individual
with the universal. In practical terms this means I include as many aspects
of Yoga as possible and encourage people to go beyond their original reasons
for practising Yoga. I work with individuals as well as the group.”
Katherine began her spiritual search in her teens. She explored Yoga in earnest while at Leeds University where she also gained an Arts Degree. In 1989 she qualified as a Reflexologist. In 1995, while studying for her B.W.Y. teaching diploma, she undertook a specialist training with Jane Reed for antenatal Yoga teaching. In addition to her reflexology she studied Crystal Healing and qualified as a Crystal Healer in 1996. After having taught part-time in adult education centres and privately for some years, she gained her British Wheel of Yoga Teaching Diploma in 1998.
Katherine uses a variety of approaches in her Yoga teaching, as she believes that the approach should be varied to meet the needs of different students.
