ABOUT SLOW YOGA
Slow Yoga began in 2010 after Sally broke her neck in an off-piste ski accident.
The resulting injuries and recovery started her on a journey to rehabilitate herself.
Sally had always been interested in yoga, but as someone who was naturally quite tense and stiff-limbed, she had never dared to think she might become a Teacher of Yoga. She signed up for a two-year Teacher Training course in Vinyasa Krama Yoga (a traditional, therapeutic form of yoga, little known outside India) and very quickly realised that flowing movements with the breath were not only healing physically, but also mentally.
Since then, Sally has pursued further training in Yoga Therapy with The Minded Institute in London and now offers a range of helpful and interesting courses and classes directed towards those who would not normally look towards yoga for a solution to their problems.
A quick look through the Services on her website will give you an idea of the interesting and exciting sessions she is covering for ordinary people of all ages.
Testimonials
Therapeutic Yoga (Hebden Bridge class)
Mindfulness of the body is something Sally has taught me.
I’ve had chronic back and neck pain for nearly thirty years. Three years ago I injured my knee in a fall. So I have to be careful about what I do. Sally has always respected this and encouraged me to find ways to fully participate in her yoga therapy classes.
An NHS consultant said to me last week;
“I can see you do yoga. “
She was impressed by the improvement in my suppleness and mobility.
I can kneel for longer, suffer less pain and it has helped to build confidence and peace of mind.
Therapeutic Yoga ?♀️ (Hebden Bridge class)
I first came to Sally after recovering from a hip injury. She was safe soft and gentle. Listening and asking good questions so that she could give me the right movement to help my hip to release pain and trauma without aggravating it more.
I practiced this with her and at home and when I feel the occasional twinge after a long walk I breathe into the exercise, and it brings my body back into alignment
The exercise works where nothing else did. I attend Sallys Yoga sessions once a week to keep myself subtle and connected to my breath.
Sally provides a safe and friendly environment. She is soft and gentle in her approach alongside stretching us just outside our comfort zone to grow and expand both our physical and mental strength. Sally doesn’t force or push she allows accepts and embraces where we are allowing us to work at our own pace with knowledge-based practised encouragement.
At 60 and after illness I was insecure about joint yoga for fear of over committing and hurting myself. With Sally these fears were put aside and now I look forward to the yoga community I know belong to and a better MBS,
I will continue my practice with Sally and highly recommend her.
Sally’s Slow Yoga class in Castleford, Wakefield.
I’ve been going to Sally for a while now doing Slow Yoga. I have always found her to be very friendly and welcoming and accommodating of my ailments.
Before I started with Sally I was unable to touch my toes or cross my legs. I came into an established group, all of whom have made me feel very welcome. Not to mention I can now put my own socks on ?. The lessons are always fun and everything is explained well and we’re guided step by step through the movements. After 2 major operations Sally has taught me to believe in myself again.
I have been coming to Sally’s classes for a number of years. I enjoy them because she adapts the content to suit the abilities of all the participants. Personally, I have found that the breath control exercises are very useful as well as the loosening effects on my joints and muscles. I am finding more mobility in my shoulders, arms, spine and hips. I enjoy Sally’s relaxation at the end of each class and come away from her sessions feeling re-energised.
Yoga Therapy Sessions
Because of the work I did with Sally last year, I have begun process of prioritising self-care as key to being able to be of service to any other aspect of my life, family and friends. I’m addressing my morning and bedtime routines, specifically with an aim to have better sleep and to take more energy and benefit from what I do achieve
Sally’s Yoga Nidra – heavenly and such a relief to find the relaxation and clarity it gives. Breathwork & relaxation exercises I learned during my Yoga Therapy with Sally, are a tool in my pocket to enable me to address moments of anxiety, panic and/or exhaustion. I have learnt to begin to connect my inner to my outer/whole again, and to be kinder to myself.
The takeaway summary ‘prescription menu’ sheet which Sally provides for homework, is so so useful.
This week, our last session, I found deeply moving. We began with some movement and breathing as usual, but then Sally transitioned into a more meditative phase, and it was this which caught me unawares. The extraordinary sense of connection that Sally and this work has generated these last few weeks was brought fully to the fore – this last practice could not have had the same effect without it, I’m sure. Sally’s guiding voice suggesting to me that I use kindness in my internal monologue really made me realise, as I’m sure many do, that this is not my habit. I wept joyfully to think of nothing but positivity and a kind of forgiveness for myself, which it seems must be the beginning of generosity for the wider world. I’ve listened to the recording Sally made several times since, and I’ve found it wonderfully centring and calming each time. This has been especially useful since I had an accident after the session and therefore am currently housebound; I’ve never felt better-equipped.
I’ve never been very disciplined so much as obsessive – if something catches my attention I’ll keep hold of it and do it almost at the expense of all else – but the breathing and deliberate choosing of emotional state is something lighter, more joyous than that, which I’m finding I just reach for at times of stress, or anxiety, or boredom… When I had my accident, I was some hours in quite astonishing agony before I could get any medical attention, and the breathing practice I’ve learnt from Sally was all that kept me from really going quite wild with the pain. An extreme test I know, but significant I feel.
Having no real experience of yoga, I’d be interested to hear which elements of the yoga therapy practice have been specifically shaped for this purpose, and how it overlaps with traditional yoga forms. I expected to do more movement overall, but I’m delighted to find that the process was shaped much more around my interests and curiosity – is this flexibility part of it? It feels like a kind of latter-day Mesmerism; distract and relax the conscious mind with easy tasks so that some higher operation can be carried out in peace. I love it.
In general though, I feel like I’ve opened a door. Behind it I suspect there’s a library, a playground, a gymnasium, an art studio… I plan to continue with my yoga studies now I’ve taken a few steps down the path, and mostly I feel enormously grateful to Sally for having given me the opportunity to learn without judgement or bullshit.