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  SARAI HARVEY-SMITH YOGA
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About Me
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My undergraduate degree is in Humanities, and I have always been interested in understanding human nature on a societal and individual level, through the lens of the arts. I had a stint working in photography before being swept away by yoga in my early 20s. My background is in ashtanga, which I practiced and taught religiously for about 15 years, from 2002. Before that, as a teen, I had courted Iyengar, and a little Sivananda. During the ashtanga years, I lived, breathed and slept yoga. I travelled to the Institute in Mysore, India nine times, spending months at a time developing as a practitioner and immersing in the global yoga community (becoming 'Authorised, Level 2'). I taught full-time in London, in different capacities. I travelled a bit, teaching workshops abroad. I ran retreats, mentoring programmes and taught on teacher trainings. I worked my way through primary, secondary, and half of third series. I loved the technical challenges of ashtanga, the thrill when an impossible task was surmounted, the fluidity of it and the method of self-practice. I loved the effect of the breathing, the culture of a six day a week, 6am 2 hour practice, the rhythms of the moon days.
Eventually though, I outgrew ashtanga - a tricky blow to navigate. The repetitive nature of the sequencing wore me down to threadbare. The culture became incompatible with a creative mind and an adventurous spirit. 
​For about 6 years, I took up Iyengar yoga, attending a 'yoga teachers' class, filling in the gaps in my knowledge. I learnt all about the more subtle aspects of yoga. How to interocept, wake up inert parts of the body, how to respect different body types and modify accordingly. I learnt about alignment, how to be precise, and how to stabilise and strengthen my watery, compensating ashtanga body. It re-enlivened the yoga spark in me, and enriched my teaching.

Eventually, after 20-ish years of yoga-ing, the way I practised, and why, completely changed. I lost the drive to strive for phenomenal physical attainment and compete as a teacher in a fierce market, and stepped down from teaching at the big London studios. I taught less frequently and from home, for the enjoyment of it and of building a local community. I began to adapt my practice to my ageing body, and with this came a freedom to explore other types of movement: mobility training, Kinstretch and FRC, tennis, wild swimming, cycling, walking in nature.

My teaching style reflects this evolution. It is enriched by biomechanics, and neuroscience. I focus on maintaining strength, mobility, and feeling structurally supported, physically comfortable, and functional. I support and adapt to what the individual needs, physically, psychologically or emotionally. I believe yoga can be a health enhancing and enriching adjunct to any lifestyle.

Running alongside the yoga, there was a growing interest in the dynamics I experienced and noticed while teaching yoga in classes and privately. Namely, what makes us human, and how can I make sense of the way we are? How can one develop, heal trauma, psychological and emotional pain, and manage the vicissitudes of life? 

Since 2010 I have followed my interest in psychoanalysis, and I have an MA in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy from the University of Essex, UK (BACP reg.). I trained as a psychodynamic psychotherapist at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust, London (BPC reg.) and work as a Psychodynamic Psychotherapist in private practice, and within the NHS.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I have not been teaching yoga. I hope to resume yoga teaching in person when it is safe to do so.

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