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.

Julie Amers

I started yoga early, but I certainly wasn’t a natural, although I knew it was good for me.

Iyengar yoga appealed to me with its clear, precise instructions. Over the years I gradually became more fascinated by yoga, eventually realising it needed to be my job.

I qualified as a yoga teacher in 2007 and got my Level 2 teaching certificate in 2018. In the same year I spent a month studying yoga in Pune, India and I was lucky enough to be taught directly by the Iyengar family.

My approach to teaching is positive and encouraging. I love hearing how students feel better for yoga. I also enjoy watching students make progress. I’m still learning so much about yoga myself and I’ll always be a keen student. It’s a great pleasure to share my love of yoga as a teacher.

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 which is now known as Level 3.

I am particularly interested in the link between yoga philosophy and practice and try to make this link in my teaching.

Kyoko Atsumi

My yoga journey began in Tokyo, back in 1991. 2 years later, I took part in B.K.S. Iyengar’s class when he visited Japan. Mr Iyengar has been my Guruji ever since.

In 1993 I moved to Scotland and I have been training at the Edinburgh Iyengar Yoga Centre with Elaine Pidgeon, Meg Laing and Katie Rutherford. Since 1996 I have been a regular visitor to the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Institute in Pune, India, where I was taught directly by Guruji, Geeta Iyengar and Prashant Iyengar, which is a great privilege for me now that both Guruji and Geetaji are no longer with us.

I qualified as an Introductory teacher in 1996 then as a Junior Intermediate teacher in 2012. As well as teaching both in Scotland and Japan, I also interpret for several Iyengar yoga teachers including Dr Rajlaxmi from RIMYI, Bobby Clennell and Stephanie Quirk when they visit Japan.

Maureen Clarke

I started yoga after moving to Edinburgh in my early twenties and was very fortunate that it happened to be an yengar class with Bob Welham that I walked into.

Initially yoga classes fulfilled a gap left from doing ballet into my late teens, but I quickly realised that there was much more to yoga than just the physical level. Yoga has grounded and sustained methroughout all the stages of life and continues to do so.

It is wonderful to be able to share my enthusiasm through teaching and seeing the positive changes in students. I qualified as a beginner teacher in 1981 and have held the Level 3 certificate (previously Junior Intermediate) since 1998.

Claudia Cotronei

I started yoga when I moved from Rome to Edinburgh in the late 1980s. The Iyengar Yoga comunity became my adoptive family, where I found the friendly support and the warmth I was missing from Italy.

I am very grateful to have met and studied over the years with many talented and inspiring teachers . I was lucky and blessed to be taught by Guruji, Geeta and Prashant and to have visited the mother Institute in Pune.

I am now a certified Level 3 teacher. The journey continues…..

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 hold the Level 3 qualification.

Gordon Jardine

I was probably about 14 when I first attended yoga classes in my local school but it was while living in New Zealand I discovered Iyengar yoga and was immediately hooked.

I qualified as a teacher in 2007 and in 2018 gained Junior Intermediate 2 which is now known as level 2.

I delight in the fact that yoga can be practised by all and I enjoy seeing how people progress. I am constantly learning not only from the classes I attend but also from students.

Lisa Johnston

After first embarking on my yoga journey over 20 years ago, I was introduced to Iyengar yoga in 2005. I instantly felt a deeper and more fulfilling connection. Up until that point, I felt I had just been going through the motions, now I was beginning to experience and enjoy yoga at a deeper level.

I have been a regular attendee at the Centre in Bruntsfield since then and qualified as a teacher in 2017.

As I have discovered, teaching is a journey of constantly learning and observing. It’s great I’ve been given the opportunity to awaken in others the same enjoyment and fulfilment I feel when practising.

Iyengar yoga is a constant in my life, it sustains me – and brightens my day.

Lesley Johnston

I have been practising Iyengar Yoga since 1980 and 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 and now teach Level 3 Classes at the Centre.

Yoga has and continues to play a major part in my life and 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.

Andrea Kaszewski

I have been practising yoga since 2001 and practising Iyengar yoga since 2011. Since the first Iyengar yoga classes I attended, taught by Kate Hailston, I was hooked and wanted to learn more.

On moving to Edinburgh a few years ago I joined the centre in Bruntsfield and, like many other students, it soon became my second home. I was first taught by Elaine Pidgeon, Meg Laing and Julie Amers in Bruntsfield and when I expressed interest in teaching they encouraged me.

I started teacher training in 2014, tutored by Helen Graham, and achieved my Introductory Teaching Certificate in 2016. Under the new Iyengar Yoga syllabus this means I am qualified to teach Level 1.

Iyengar yoga is a wonderful discipline and life changing, impacting positively on all aspects of life. It is an immense privilege and joy to teach and help others start a new journey.

Leyla Kerlaff

I started practising yoga when I was a student at Edinburgh University in 1996. I was lucky enough to find the EIYC early on, and to experience the wonderful and varied teachings of Katie, Catero, Elaine and Meg amongst many others over the years.

The time was finally right for me to train as a teacher myself, and I qualified in 2020. I feel grateful to have had yoga in my life all these years, and I'm particularly enjoying this phase of my journey, sharing the joy with other students.

Anne Kilgour

I did my first yoga class when I was 17, and still remember the detailed Savasana my first teacher taught me.

In the early classes I enjoyed stretching into the poses and the feeling of relaxation at the end of a practice. I did yoga on and off for several years, until I found Iyengar yoga at the EYIC over 25 years ago, and then my yoga practice began to develop beyond the stretching. I have been coming to regular classes here since.

The Iyengar method and my teachers at the centre, encourage and challenge my yoga practice. I gained my Introductory Certificate in 2011. Yoga both anchors and energises me, and practising always provides me with a sense of physical and emotional well being. I feel both privileged and amazed to be teaching yoga to others.

Visiting Teacher Lucienne Vidah

Lucienne is a Senior Iyengar teacher on the faculty of the New York Iyengar Institute and the owner of Studio Spine.
Lucienne’s teaching is positive, precise and dynamic, guiding students to awaken hidden possibilities in the practice of Yoga.

Sarah Malcolm

I feel lucky to have discovered Iyengar Yoga whilst a student in Edinburgh in my late teens. From the start I loved its precision and focus on alignment, and the energy and strength it gave me.

Years later Iyengar Yoga continues to be a central part of my life. I regularly attend classes at Bruntsfield and workshops with visiting teachers.

I gained my Level 1 teaching certificate in 2020 and am now very excited to be able to share my love of yoga with others.

Kate Murdoch

I was introduced to yoga in 2000, starting with Hatha and subsequently Vinyasa yoga classes. This led to my training as a Hatha yoga teacher in India in 2006.

Shortly afterwards I deepened my understanding of the asanas through Iyengar yoga. The Iyengar detailed, logical approach with the support of props opened up a whole new insight of the poses for me.

I qualified as an Iyengar teacher in 2011. I have since studied at the Iyengar institute in Pune, and have been taught by many other excellent teachers, both at home and abroad. I am qualified to level 2.

I love the fact that what starts as a simple stretch, permeates out into the rest of your life, affecting your relationship with yourself and your approach to life in general. To share that with others, as a student and a teacher, is a privilege.

Elaine Pidgeon

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 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.

I have now retired, after over twenty years in the job, as a regular senior examiner (Moderator) for the IY(UK).

Katie Rutherford

I was lucky enough to find my first Iyengar yoga class in the late seventies while a student in the north-east of England and was very quickly convinced that this was something I should integrate fully into my life.

Since then, the practice has supported me through all the different chapters of my life, a companion and guide through all the ups and downs and everything in between. Yoga makes you more at ease with yourself. It is amazingly, endlessly interesting, you never stop learning, and the physical, emotional and mental benefits are immeasurable.

I first qualified as a teacher in 1987 and gained level 3 in 1995.

I teach full time and every year spend a month in India to immerse myself fully in the practice at the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune and to soak up teachings from the source of our Iyengar lineage.

I am also a mentor and assessor of students who want to become teachers themselves which is a joyous privilege – advising and guiding the next generation along this wonderful path.

Susan Smith

I started practising at the Edinburgh Iyengar Yoga Centre when I was seventeen. I loved it's precision, the strong detailed instructions, and the setting we were being taught in.

I have been taught by a large variety of Iyengar Yoga teachers, over the years,in India, France and Canada. I enjoy the excellent teaching offered still, at Edinburgh Iyengar Centre, we are lucky.

I have been an Level 3 teacher since the 1990's and have a great joy in the practice of yoga, and in teaching others

Clare Stephen

I first discovered yoga while backpacking in India aged 19 and immediately fell in love with this most profound and beautiful practice. There was a sense of familiarity. like coming home to my body and senses which felt incredibly liberating and healing.

So I signed up for my first class at the EIYC in 1981, qualified as a teacher in 1989 and have been coming here to be taught and to teach ever since. The Centre and its community feels like family after all these years and I feel a huge affection and gratitude for it’s presence in my life.

I have visited India to be taught by the Iyengars and other Senior Teachers and gained my level 3 teaching certificate in 2005.

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

Jane Walker

I have been practising yoga since the early 1980’s following visiting the Iyengar stand in Fresher’s Week at Edinburgh University. I joined many other things too, but yoga is the one that I continue with to this day.

It has contributed positively and been with me throughout my life.

In 2011 I qualified as a teacher and, working through teaching levels, am now a level 3 teacher. I was fortunate to be able to visit the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, in Pune in India in 2018 and be taught by Geeta and Praschant Iyengar

Karen Watt

I first encountered Iyengar Yoga in the early ‘90s but, much as I loved the practice, it was not until I changed my direction in life and became a practitioner in sound, working with therapeutic singing bowls, that I started to appreciate yoga on a whole new level; the two disciplines inform each other so beautifully.

Whilst training, I went to Pune where I had the wonderful experience of being taught by Prashant Iyengar and qualified as a Level 1 teacher in 2020.

I love that Iyengar Yoga places such importance on accessibility through the use of props and delight in teaching students of all ages and body types.