Scaravelli Inspired Yoga Events in June
Treat yourself to yoga – you’re worth it!
This Scaravelli inspired yoga approach is gentle, yet demanding. We work deeply, but with intelligence, so that the practice raises our awareness, helping us to make sustainable, healthy and nourishing choices, which will affect us and those closest to us, at all levels – physical, psychological and emotional.
Scaravelli inspired yoga, is particularly helpful for those who are working with postural issues, lower back pain, stiff necks and shoulders and for those who are stressed, and need some space to learn how to deeply relax.
Scaravelli Inspired Yoga Classes
I’m now teaching most of my Scaravelli inspired yoga classes online via Zoom.
I am enormously grateful that wherever we are in the world, the internet enables us to maintain our connection and continue to breathe, move and practice together. I look forward to seeing you in class again soon.
Monday …. 9:30 – 10:30 am …. (Yoga)
Monday …. 6:30 – 7:30 pm …. (Yoga)
Wednesday …. 9:30 – 10:30 am …. (Yoga)
Wednesday …. 6:00 – 7:15 pm …. (Yoga : Minehead, Somerset)
Friday …. 9:30 – 10:30 am …. (Strength & Resistance)
Sunday …. 9:00 – 9:45 am …. (Breathing & Pranayama)
Sunday …. 10:00 – 11:00 am …. (Yoga)
Yoga Class – Book Now Online
Breathing and Pranayama
Would you like to explore your breathing in more depth?
We all know that breathing is a central element of yoga practice, but did you also know it’s key to regulation of your nervous system?  Following Covid, there’s more scientific research than ever showing how regular breathing practices can help lower resting blood pressure, reduce stress and anxiety.
In this weekly Breathing and Pranayama class, we’ll spend 30 mins exploring our breathing and how it affects us.  We’ll look at simple breath awareness, as well as more structured forms of pranayama and introduce contemporary approaches to supporting those working with Chronic Fatigue, Long Covid and other conditions.
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Regular breathing practice improves our relaxation response leading to:
• lowered blood pressure and heart rate
• reduced levels of stress hormones in the blood
• reduced lactic acid build-up in muscle tissue
• balanced levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood
• improved immune system functioning
• increased physical energy
• increased feelings of calm and wellbeing
Breathing & Pranayama
Sunday Monring
9:00 – 9:45 am
£6
Breathing and Pranayama + Yoga Class
2 Class Pack
Sunday Mornings
9:15 – 11:00
£15
Book Now Online
Strength and Resistance
This weekly class draws on the latest sports science to build strength and stamina and improve joint health.  We’ll explore the use of resistance and weights to help increase bone density and improve our mental health, sleep, confidence and resilience.  Especially important as we age, it’s recommended you bring some resistance bands and small hand weights (if you have them).
Why Strength Resistance?
Is it for YOU?
There are so many reasons why it’s beneficial to work more strongly, including:
• Maintain muscle mass and bone density
• Maintain and improve cardiovascular health
• Develop more joint support
• Maintain flexibility and balance
• Help improve strength and stamina
• Improved posture
• Improved sense of wellbeing
• Improved sleep and avoidance of insomnia
• Increased self-esteem
• Get up and down from the floor safely and with ease
• Balance the effects of fluctuating hormones during menopause / andropause
• Fulfil your physical potential and maintain your strength, stability and resilience for the long term
Do you need any equipment?
We will use the following equipment:
 • A pack of 5 ‘resistance loop bands’
• A 7″ Pilates ball
• Hand weights 1kg or 2kg (can substitute cans of veg in bags)
Friday Morning
9:30 – 10:30 am
£12
Book Now Online
Yoga Immersion
June 4-9
Tuesday – Sunday
from £699
Gayles Retreat, Friston, East Sussex
Read More or Book Now
Would you like to immerse yourself in your personal yoga practice? To refresh and inspire your personal approach to yoga?
If, like many of us, you feel the need to take time out, dive deep into your personal practice and replenish your energy levels, then join us for this year’s Scaravelli Inspired Yoga & Wellbeing Immersion.
For this yoga immersion, we’re focusing on feeling good. Exploring how and why yoga helps to lift our mood and downregulate our nervous system.
Each day, we’ll practice yoga, breathwork and meditation. We’ll walk across the Downs to the nearby beach for a swim, light a bonfire and watch the sun sinking into the sea.
Join renowned teachers Catherine Annis and Gary Carter
for this year’s Scaravelli Inspired Yoga & Wellbeing Immersion Course.
Yoga & Wellbeing
Each year the Immersion course evolves, focusing on a different aspect of how we approach our yoga practice. The yoga is inspired by the pioneering work of Vanda Scaravelli, who encouraged her students to take an intensely personal approach to practice, responding to their own felt sense and intuitive understanding of the intelligence of the body.
For this yoga Immersion, we’ll focus on our personal needs for space, time and rest. In this glorious retreat setting, we’ll take a deep dive to explore the rich potential of yoga to soothe our nervous system and consider how best our practice can support us during periods of stress and anxiety.
The Immersion invites a deep listening, providing a profound opportunity to develop awareness and a totally personal understanding of our practice, from the most simple movements to more subtle and sophisticated. Leave with a rich palette of material to inspire your movement and teaching.
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During the Immersion course we will:
• Investigate how yoga practice supports our autonomic nervous system, stimulating the natural restorative qualities of the parasympathetic
• Learn how we can work with the vagus nerve, on and off the mat, and how to harness its power to develop inner calm and quiet
•Explore the practical benefits of breathwork, particularly when working with Long Covid, post viral fatigue, stress & anxiety
• Develop a new understanding of the relationships between asana and connective tissue and muscles and fascia
• Learn fresh approaches on how to free the joints and discover a new sense of lightness in our body
• Dip your toe in the water … explore the benefits of cold water swimming
• Discover the interplay between effort and ease, and how creating a balance between them sustains healthy movements and strong bodies
• Leave feeling refreshed, uplifted and deeply rested
The Importance of Personal Practice
As teachers, we can only teach from our own practice. Our personal practice nurtures our teaching, providing energy and inspiration which sustains us as we teach and support our students.
The Immersion course is an opportunity for us to refine and refresh our own approach, helping us unpick our own approach so that we can pass it on with skill and clarity.
Each day on this Immersion we’ll look at a different aspect or approach to practice, so that you leave with some fresh inspiration and answers to your specific questions.
The Immersion is designed specifically for yoga teachers, yoga teacher trainees and anyone with a serious interest in exploring their practice who would like to refine their practice and approach to yoga.
This Scaravelli Inspired Immersion Course is an opportunity to expand the ways we teach yoga as inspired by the work of Vanda Scaravelli, and evolves each year in response to the most current thinking in bodywork and movement practices and requests from current and returning attendees.
Gary Carter
Once again we’ll be joined by Gary Carter, who will share his profound understanding of the body and his innovative approach to anatomy and the art and science of moving with ease.
He will present a full day of explorations and share with us his unique understanding including the latest discoveries from the world of fascia.
Including the profound effect the breath has with fascia focused practice, introducing a totally new way of looking at our anatomy, how to free the joints and demonstrate a deeper sense of lightness in our body.
Venue
The Immersion course is held at Gayles Retreat, one of my favourite venues, set in ten acres of land next to the Seven Sisters Country Park (an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), The National Trust Crowlink Estate and Friston Forest.  The surrounding countryside is extraordinarily beautiful, and there are excellent walking opportunities all around.
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Food
Much of the food we eat is grown on site in the vegetable garden and it’s all delicious. Derry is our cook for the week and his inspiring recipes are in constant demand. Food is vegetarian and organic, made with much love and a highlight of our stay at Gayles.
If the weather is good, there is the option of eating out in the open on the terrace.
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Explore
Gayles retreat centre is situated in an area of outstanding natural beauty on the South Downs, surrounded by stunning countryside and beautiful coastline.
The Seven Sisters Country Park is on the doorstep.  It’s made up of 280 hectares of chalk cliffs, meandering river valley and open chalk grassland.
Friston Forest offers a number of waymarked routes for visitors to explore the beech woods. Its undulating terrain makes it popular with walkers who enjoy being outdoors. Quiet valleys within the forest offer sheltered habitats for many species of wildlife. Glimpses of rare butterflies, such as fritillaries, and elusive deer can reward patient observers.
Yoga Videos
Yoga Video Classes
Yoga Video Courses
Yoga Video Nidras
Yoga Video Workshops
Over the last few years, we’ve been busy recording and editing all my yoga workshops and courses to make them available in digital form, so you can download and keep them forever.
We’ve also recorded some of my regular yoga classes to offer you the convenience of practicing whenever and wherever you are.
If you need some extra rest, then maybe Yoga Nidra is more your thing.  Make yourself comfy, wrap up in blankets and follow my voice as we travel through magical landscapes, dive deep into ourselves and explore the liminal space between waking and sleeping.
Whether you’d like to practice breathing, or learn more about anatomy and how our bodies are affected by our yoga practice, it’s all here for you.  If you’d like to dive in deeper, you’ll find the workshops I taught with Gary Carter and if, like me, you are working with lower back issues, join me live, or connect with the recordings of my Yoga for Back Care Course.
I do hope you find something here that’s helpful and nourishing and look forward to hear about your experience.  Oh, and if there’s something you’d like to hear more about, let me know – I’d love to hear from you.
All videos are recorded into the MP4 format, one of the most common file formats used on the internet today.
Intelligent Yoga Teacher Training
5 modules over 12 months
Fully accredited and certified
18 Sept, 2024 – 25 Aug, 2025
From £3,125
London & Online
Yoga Teacher Training – Book Now Online
Anatomically Focused Yoga Teacher Training Course
Intelligent Yoga Teacher Training (IYTT) is unique amongst teacher training courses. We offer an incisive, thoughtful and intelligent approach to yoga teacher training, driven by the most current scientific developments in anatomy and movement research.
Delivered by an elite group of senior yoga teachers at the top of their field, IYTT offers a spacious, immersive modular structure which provides time and space for profound learning, integration and growth. Each of the teaching team draws on decades of practical experience of yoga, including particularly the work of Vanda Scaravelli and somatic, embodied practices.
Described by some as radical and provocative, this approach to practice demands a fundamental shift in our practice and teaching.
Throughout the course, we’ll investigate how our bodies move, how we respond to stimuli and how we can cultivate an atmosphere of authentic enquiry and exploration. We’ll support and encourage you to gain a clear understanding of how you personally engage with yourself through movement and how you can use that knowledge to create new, healthier approaches to living and moving, for yourself and your students.
Our teachers have over 200 years of combined yoga experience.  With all this knowledge, wisdom and guidance, you know you’ll be in safe hands.
Schedule and Assessment
The IYTT schedule has been adapted to respond to the opportunities of online teaching whilst maintaining the immediacy of in-person teaching. The course will be delivered in a modular format providing an immersive and cohesive learning experience, both online and in-person.
There are 5 training modules in total. Modules 1-4 are five days each, and Module 5 is three days.
Modules 1, 3 and 5 will be delivered in London, in-person. The other dates will be delivered online.
Training days run 9.15 -5.30pm each day. In addition there will be a mock assessment and a final assessment, which will be externally assessed. Mentoring and supervision meetings will be organised at suitable intervals throughout the course.
The course runs over 12 months, providing well over 200 hours of direct contact with senior yoga teachers. There will be a maximum of 18 trainees, to ensure plenty of time for individual attention and mentoring throughout the course.
All trainees will be assessed on an ongoing basis throughout the course. Â We will provide regular feedback and mentoring to help you develop and grow, supporting you as you gain the necessary confidence and knowledge required in your new role as yoga teacher.
All trainees are required to participate in all elements of the course and are required to complete pre-course preparation and reading and a a range of personal research assignments issued during the course.
Written Work and Personal Research
Throughout the course, trainees will be set reading and some written and practical research projects to support their learning. All trainees are required to demonstrate that they have understood and absorbed the material presented during the course through written and practical assignments. Trainees are required to complete the following assignments and research projects:
• Maintain your own yoga journal to record your personal yoga practice.  This is a tool to encourage trainees to reflect and explore their experience whilst working with breath, meditation, observing, assisting and teaching
• Two philosophy essays, to demonstrate your understanding of yoga philosophy
• Design a comprehensive 6 week course, suitable for beginners. This should be fully annotated and illustrated with stick figures. You will be thoroughly prepared, guided, and briefed for this homework, and will receive clear and comprehensive feedback
• A case study outlining your design and teaching of 10 classes,  showing your teaching plans for each class, together with your reflection on your experience
Teaching Assessments
Trainees are encouraged to begin practising their teaching skills as soon as possible, to thoroughly prepare them for the formal assessments, so that they develop into skilful and confident teachers. All trainees are required to teach 10 classes, minimum 10 hours of total teaching time, between Module 1 and Module 5.
To successfully graduate from the IYTT course, each trainee’s teaching skills will be observed and assessed on three separate occasions: twice internally (by Catherine Annis) and once externally (by an independent assessor). There will be ample teaching practice during the course modules to prepare you for these assessments.
Mid-term assessment
The first teaching assessment takes place approximately half way through the course, during Module 3. All trainees will teach two poses to their fellow trainees.  You will be provided with comprehensive feedback on all aspects of your teaching skills to help identify areas for development.
Mock assessment
For the second teaching assessment, the mock assessment, you will design and teach a 60 minute class to a group of at least 5 students. The class plan and the class will be reviewed and feedback will be provided to help you identify areas of strength and any areas where you need to develop to meet the criteria to pass the final assessment.
Final assessment
The third teaching assessment is the final assessed taught class. This is a 1 hour class of your design, which you teach to a group of at least 5 students. This will be assessed by an external assessor. Trainees are responsible for arranging their own sample students and for paying the necessary assessment fees directly to the assessor (currently on average £90 per assessment).
This assessment procedure is intended to be rigorous, and is designed to ensure that trainees graduate as confident, well-practised, safe and resourceful teachers, who have the necessary skills to adapt and modify their classes to suit students of all abilities. Trainees will take part in regular teaching practice during the modules and in the periods between modules to ensure they are thoroughly prepared for the assessments. The feedback provided throughout the course and during the assessments will help you develop your teaching skills, build confidence and ensure your teaching is clear and easily accessible, so you become an effective and engaging teacher.
IYTT is a life-changing process – are you ready join?
Why is Accreditation Important?
Yoga teaching has evolved, becoming more professional and organised and teachers are now required to hold valid insurance before yoga studios will employ them.
Originally, yoga was passed from teacher to student, on a 1:1 basis. Students would study for many years with their teacher, only beginning to teach once they had their teacher’s blessing. The teaching of yoga has changed, and it’s now much less common for people to work privately. We are more likely to attend class with several other students and the world of teaching online yoga has opened up.
If you really want to follow your dream and begin sharing your love for yoga, it’s important to find a course which resonates with you, and which you know will help you develop the skills and experience to be the best teacher you can.
It’s also essential to demonstrate to future employers that you have met certain criteria and that you are able to teach safe, intelligent and thoughtful classes. With IYTT, we believe we have created one of the best, most thoughtful and inspiring yoga teacher training courses and we look forward to practising and exploring yoga together.
Finding a course which is registered with a reputable and established accreditation board is essential.
Supportive Mentoring
We believe in supporting all trainees throughout their training and beyond.
At IYTT, you are never just a number, and we will stay in touch and continue to support you well beyond your time on the course. We have created a mentoring program for all trainees which includes structured 1:1 mentor meetings and group supervision meetings facilitated by the leading yoga teachers and there is an active Alumni programme.
Each module is supported by two teaching assistants who are both recent IYTT graduates. Our assistant teachers are available to offer advice and support throughout the course.
At the end of each yoga teacher training programme, there will be opportunities for two graduates to join the teaching team as teaching assistants. This is a valuable chance to review the training from the other side, and to work closely with the teaching team, learning how to hold space and deliver a teacher training programme first hand.
Have you ever thought about becoming a qualified yoga teacher?
Take a look at Catherine’s accredited Intelligent Yoga Teacher Training course with renowned yoga and anatomy teacher, Gary Carter.