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Bio
A teacher since 2002 and a practitioner and yoga student since childhood, Sarai is a teacher's teacher. She is a YAP (accred.) Senior Yoga Teacher, Teacher Trainer and Yoga Teacher Mentor. Over the years teaching all around London (including at Triyoga for seven years) Sarai has run a wide range of classes and workshops working with people of all different body types, conditions and ages, including special needs children, yoga for mental health, and the elderly. She also teaches privately and has run workshops and retreats worldwide. She currently teaches privately, and from her home studio in SW20. I first came across yoga as an adolescent when my father taught me some sun salutes. Later, as a teenager, I began attending Iyengar classes with my mother and would practice at home along to one of my mother's yoga LPs. I forgot all about yoga when I moved to London as an eighteen-year-old and was busy with a Humanities degree, socialising, and getting fit kickboxing and at the gym. An injury led me back to yoga, and the discovery of Ashtanga, in 1999. I took many lengthly trips to Mysore, India between 2003 - 2011 to study ashtanga yoga at KPJAYI and am Authorised Level 2. I am a certified Restorative Yoga Teacher, trained in Judith Hanson Lasater's Rest and Restore method. It was studying Iyengar for many years that I developed into a creative, conscientious and curious teacher. Since 2011 I have moved away from Ashtanga towards a more open minded, flexible, and integrated way of practicing and teaching, incorporating different styles of yoga and elements of mobility training, mindful strength, and FRC. I am interested in incorporating various varieties of movement into my repertoire and I enjoy pilates, cross fit, and playing tennis. In the words of Ido Portal "movement complexity is by far the reason why we became human". Since 2010 I have had an interest in psychoanalysis and I have an MA in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy from the University of Essex. I trained at the Tavistock Clinic (BPC) and work as a Psychotherapist within the NHS at the specialist Trauma Unit at the Tavistock Clinic. I am BACP registered (MBACP) and work in private practice in SW20. Qualifications and Experience 2015 - Restorative Teacher Training, London (30 hours) - Certified Teacher: Judith Hanson Lasater 2013 - Granted Yoga Alliance Professionals Senior Teacher Status 2011 - Authorized Level 2, KPJAYI, Mysore, India Teacher: Sharath Jois 2007 - Authorized Level 1, KPJAYI, Mysore, India Teacher: Sharath and Pattabhi Jois 2006 - 2007 - Assistant, Pregnancy Yoga at the Portland Hospital, London Teacher: Lynne Pinette 2003 - 2011 - Annual 1-3 Monthly trips to KPJAYI, Mysore, India Teacher: Sharath & Pattabhi Jois 2003 - 2005 - Assistant, Astanga Yoga London Teacher: Roberta Giannotti 2003 - Ashtanga Techniques of Teaching, Cornwall (30 hours) Teachers: John Scott, Lucy Crawford, David Keil 2002 - Sunra Hatha Yoga Teacher Training, London & Ibiza (200 hours) Teacher: Barbara Gordon 2002 - British Wheel of Yoga Foundation Course, London Teacher: Tara Fraser Teaching Experience 2015 - Present day - Sarai Harvey-Smith Yoga Home Studio Mysore classes, Mentoring Programme (six month programme to support and develop yoga teachers of various levels of experience) 2014 - 2015 - Senior Teacher Trainer for Younique Yoga Teacher Trainings 2014 - 2016- Retreats taught: Huzur Vadisi, Turkey (7 days) Maya, Sri Lanka (10 days) x 2 2012 - Present day - Triyoga Soho, Triyoga Chelsea, Triyoga Ealing 2011 - 2012 - Triyoga Soho, Mysore Programme 2009 - 2011 - Astanga Yoga London, Mysore Programme (9am - 12pm) 2002 - Present day - Workshops taught: Beirut, Lebanon x 2 Auckland New Zealand x 2 Yoga Reading, UK Copious workshops at Triyoga, UK 2002 - Present day - 1:1 Private Yoga I have taught adults, children, and special needs children personalised yoga privately at their homes in London, at my home studio, and in Europe at various clients' holiday homes (gentle, hatha, alignment, vinyasa, ashtanga, Mysore self-practice, restorative). 2002 - 2004 - Hoxton Yoga My first yoga business venture: I hired a church hall in Hoxton and ran ashtanga beginners courses. London Yoga Centres, gyms and community centres I have taught regular classes at over the years: Triyoga Astanga Yoga London Yoga Loft London Astanga Yoga London The Shala Down to Earth North London Buddhist Centre Indaba Fitness First Holmes Place Sure Start Sunstone Corporations I have taught regular classes at over the years: Lehman Brothers Getty Images Image Source Virgin Media |