Our Teachers

Our emphasis is on the high quality of our teaching. All our teachers pass rigorous examinations to an international standard after at least three years of study and then two years of teacher training. This training includes the study of anatomy as well as yoga and yoga teaching. Most of our teachers have a more advanced stage of yoga teaching qualification and most have also studied personally with Yogacharya Iyengar at his Institute in Pune, India.

All our teachers hold and display the international Certification Mark you see here. This tells you that the teacher is an approved teacher of Iyengar Yoga, is properly trained and supervised to teach safely and well, is insured and holds an up to date registration. Only those who hold and display this Mark are qualified to teach Iyengar yoga.

Teacher qualifications in the UK are at three levels - Introductory, Junior Intermediate and Senior Intermediate. They are supervised by the Iyengar Yoga Association (UK).

TEACHER TRAINING Those yoga practitioners who are interested in qualification should have a minimum of three years' regular and uninterrupted attendance at classes run by certified Iyengar Yoga teachers. Details are available on request from Elaine Pidgeon at info@yoga-edinburgh.com.

Elaine Pidgeon. Director of the Centre

I started studying Iyengar Yoga with my teachers Bob and Kathy Welham in 1976. I began teaching in 1980 and in 1981 I first visited the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune to be taught by BKS Iyengar. It was an inspirational and life changing experience and I have since been back many times. I am Senior Intermediate teaching certificate holder, a teacher trainer and a senior examiner for the IYA(UK). From 2000 to 2003, I chaired what has now become the Iyengar Yoga Association of the UK. I love seeing the transformation that Iyengar Yoga can bring. Through its thoroughness and focus it opens our awareness of body mind and spirit, bringing stability and poise whatever our age and stage of life.

Agracitta

Born in Glasgow in 1959 - a giant safety pin now marks the spot (yes, really!). Discovered eastern philosophy, Buddhism and Yoga, about 20 years later. Almost 30 years after that, the truth still proves elusive. I started teaching introductory Iyengar Yoga in 1987 and moved up to the Junior Intermediate qualification in 1997.

Stuart Anderson

I trained at the Edinburgh Iyengar Yoga Centre with Elaine Pidgeon and studied in India with Rajiv and Swati Chanchani. I qualified as an Introductory Iyengar yoga teacher in 1992 and as a Junior Intermediate teacher in 1999. I am particularly interested in the link between yoga philosophy and practice and try to make this link in my teaching.

Anne Bevan

I have been practicing Iyengar Yoga since I started as an art student in 1983. I qualified as an Introductory Iyengar teacher in 1991, as a Junior Intermediate teacher in 1997 and more recently has travelled to India to study with the Iyengar family. I also continue my work as an artist and sculpture tutor.

Lucy Brown

My first yoga class was here at the EIYC with Elaine in 1987. I was a student at the Art College and hoping yoga would help with my back problem. I got so much more than I was expecting! I immediately felt the physical benefit but the mental clarity and sense of peace it gave me encouraged me to find out more. Yoga brings balance to my life and continues to reward my efforts. I enjoy teaching yoga since it enables me to share this process. I first qualified as a teacher in 2002 and am now studying for the Junior Intermediate Certificate – though I’ve just taken a break from that to have my daughter.

Jahna Clark

I first came to yoga over 15 years ago. I love the way it centres me in my body and replenishes me – the sheer peace, joy and relaxation it can awaken in me. I have had the privilege of being taught by the Iyengars in Pune and other visiting senior teachers to Scotland and am really grateful for the wisdom and knowledge they have so generously given. I love sharing and teaching yoga, especially being able to do what I love in such a beautiful Centre.

Maureen Clarke

I started yoga in my early twenties, initially to fulfil a gap left from doing ballet into my late teens. Rapidly I realised that there was much more to yoga than the physical level. Thirty or so years on, yoga still surprises and fulfils me and give me joy. During the years of being a fulltime working mother it sustained me and was a rock in the juggling act of motherhood and work.

It is wonderful to be able to share my enthusiasm through teaching and seeing the positive changes in students. I qualified as a introductory teacher in 1981, then passed the Junior Intermediate certificate in 1998.

George Glen

I fell in love with yoga when studying at Art College in 1986, and a few years afterwards got interested in teaching. My first visit to Pune to study with the Iyengars in 1991 opened my eyes to the spirit of practice, which felt like a home coming and has led me to go on to gain my first Senior Intermediate certifcate and become a teacher trainer. The practice of yoga is a wonderful way of exploring our inner worlds, finding a growing intimacy with the frontiers of our being. Yoga has been at times a lifeline and route into the unknown for me; it’s a wonderful journey that’s constantly awakening a fresh sense of inner poise and joy in life.

Alan Gould

I have been practising Iyengar Yoga now since 1990. I gained the Introductory teaching certificate in 1994 and completed the Junior Intermediate certificate in 2006. I have spent a few years living in Spain where I had the experience of teaching Yoga in another language. My Yoga practice is a growing discipline, helping me with all aspects of health and the ability to face the world with more positivity.

Catero Hawkins

Yoga stimulates, soothes, challenges and delights me. Teaching Yoga offers me the opportunity to share with others my understandings of what I find an extraordinary art and science. I have enjoyed teaching at the Edinburgh Iyengar Yoga Centre since moving to Edinburgh in 1983 and have held the Junior Intermediate qualification since 1986

Catriona Instrell

My introduction to yoga came through my daughter's ballet teacher in Broughty Ferry in 1971 and I have been an Iyengar yoga teacher since June 1979, teaching classes in the Centre ever since Bob and Kathy Welham set it up that year. They were my first Iyengar yoga teachers, getting me to Pune twice in the eighties and a Junior Intermediate certificate in 1983. Yoga doors opened onto a vista that I am still exploring with excitement and enjoyment. The quote on BKS Iyengar's 90th birthday calendar is the reason I am still learning and teaching yoga - "Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured."

Gordon Jardine

I trained in New Zealand, qualifying as an Introductory teacher in 2002 before coming back to Scotland where I was delighted to find a very strong Iyengar Yoga presence. I attend a weekly class at the EIYC and also Iyengar yoga events - both of which provide an opportunity to learn so much. Yoga has been a great joy for me, not only in my own practice, but also in the teaching my students and watching them benefit so much.

Lesley Johnston

I have been practising Iyengar Yoga since 1980 & qualified as a Teacher in 1989. Since then I have been immensely privileged to have further studied under the expert guidance of Senior Teachers both in Britain and Pune & now teach Intermediate Classes at the Centre. Yoga has and continues to play a major part in my life & I hope to be able to disseminate some of the skills and enthusiasm which I have learnt from my many years of practice and membership of this unique yoga centre.

Meg Laing

I started Iyengar Yoga in 1972 as a student. I first went to Pune in 1977 in the early days of the Institute there – very exciting – and came away with an Introductory teaching certificate from Guruji himself. It seemed I had to become a teacher, so I took my Junior Intermediate (in 1983) and finally (in 1996) my Senior Intermediate certificates. I love teaching my Monday evening class and learn a huge amount from doing teacher training on Saturday mornings with Elaine Pidgeon and George Glen. I am also a senior examiner for new teachers, and a member of the Assessment and Teacher Training Committee of the Iyengar Yoga Association (UK).

Agnes Matthews

I have been practicing yoga for over 30 years.

I first took up Iyengar Yoga after the birth of my daughter Katie, in the sleepy town of Biggar. At this time I wanted to regain my figure but as time went on I realised that yoga could give me much more. Under the guidance of Geeta Iyengar, the daughter of the world famous BKS Iyengar and senior teachers, Rajiv and Swati Chanchani, I began to gain a deeper understanding of this ancient Indian philosophy and practice. I teach a wide range of students of all ages and abilities – marathon runners, competitive swimmers, men , ladies over 80, post natal mums – they all have grown to value their yoga.

Katie Rutherford

I was lucky enough to find my first Iyengar yoga class in the late seventies while I was a postgraduate student in the north-east of England and was very quickly convinced that this was something I should integrate fully into my life. I trained as a teacher with Elaine Pidgeon in 1987 and completed the Junior Intermediate certificates in 1995 and my first Intermediate Senior Certificate in 2009. In 2001 I started to teach yoga full time and have since had the privilege of visiting India every year to further my studies. As well as making me stronger, healthier and more confident, yoga makes me more at peace with who I am. I consider us all very fortunate to have an established Iyengar Yoga Centre in Edinburgh.

Karen Smith

My yoga journey started 15 years ago when I was trying to get through a stressful undergraduate degree. It bode me well and carried through the rest of my university studies.

In 2002, I started teacher training initially with Lilian Biggs in Bradford and then completing with Elizabeth Tonner in Huddersfield. On gaining my introductory certificate, I immediately started to teach at the then newly-opened Sheffield Yoga Centre, a beautiful space in an old chapel. Since moving to Edinburgh I have taught at Heriot-Watt University and Glasgow Caledonian University sports’ centres.

Clare Trodden

When I first started practising yoga more than 20 years ago, I was young, fit and flexible and the poses came very easily. Things have changed quite a bit with the years but yoga means more to me now than ever. Yoga has helped me make the best of life’s challenges and allowed me to do things I never thought possible, such as studying at the Iyengar institute in India.

I love teaching students of all ages, shapes and sizes. That’s one of the joys of Iyengar yoga – it is accessible to all and can benefit everyone