about

Niamh has been teaching Yoga for 15 years, alongside her 25-year acting career. Specialising in, and most passionate about Yin Yoga, she is one of Ireland’s longest standing teachers in that style.

She has trained in Hatha Yoga, and studied and/or practiced most of the variations of Yoga from its most traditional roots in India, to new approaches and hybrids, and with world-renowned teachers. Responding to what Yoga has become in the west, and the prevalence of injury in the quest for linear “improvement”, her own style of teaching is an offering to students of her knowledge, but with an invitation to take what speaks to them and make it their own, and to let go of that which doesn’t sit well with them. Her own practice may sometimes appear fairly standard, rhythmical, traditional, but likewise sometimes unrecognisably Yoga, as she responds to her physical and emotional body’s prompting at any given moment.

Her curiosity about the expression of self in all its manifestations began at Drama school, where the Alexander technique made evident the habitual holdings and reactions in the body from the physical and emotional stimuli of our human life, from baby to adult. From there she sought and found ways to neutrality in, and then free expression of the internal life of the physical and emotional body. Through Yoga in its most recognisable forms, influenced by 5 rhythms dancing, stylised performance pieces, subtle TV work, somatic movement, Yin Yoga, and anatomical research, she has found her way to offering a style, “Yinstinct Yoga”, which is not only of her making, but of the making of each individual she teaches.

Somehow, the idea of naming her style contradicts the way she loves to practice and teach. As each of us is the greatest guru of our own body, nothing gives Niamh a greater sense of achievement than to see her students (albeit with a basis of knowledge she has taught, as a safe starting point) in completely different energies and shapes from mat to mat, and class to class.

“…let the soft animal of your body love what it loves…” Mary Oliver

"I never really enjoyed Yoga until I came to Niamh's classes"

Who can do Yoga?

My classes are suitable for anyone who can move their body. I have students in my class who are very fit and capable, and people with illness and injury. It is a source of pride to me that all of those people return again and again to the classes.

Many people come to Yoga with injury, or issues in their bodies, in an effort to find relief. Unfortunately, many people find that Yoga becomes a source of injury. It is my passionate intention to teach in a way that makes Yoga accessible to all, that prioritises the alignment of the spine, and that takes away the sometimes precious notion that each pose must be exactly the same in each student. Yoga was not created in a day. New poses come and go, there can be fusion of many disciplines, and you can even learn to create your own Yoga, given the basic tools and a strong knowledge of the anatomy of the spine, for maximum safety and strength.