About Me
Hi! I’m Diane - welcome to Silver Birch Yoga!
My Training
I’m a C-YT 200hr yoga teacher in Hatha + Vinyasa, qualifying after completing the first Ignite 250hr in-person teacher training with Jess Horn and Emma Daisy in 2024 (over ten months) in St Albans, UK.
I have since completed advanced training in:
- Children’s Yoga (40hr) - Wild Tree Yoga - live/online
- Pregnancy Yoga (50hr), Yoga Rise Peckham - in person
- Yin (25hr) - Gabrielle Harris - live/online
- The Anatomy of Twists CPD workshop - Jambo Truong - in person
- Reiki Shoden (Level 1 / First Degree) - in person
i also hold an enhanced DBS and Emergency First Aid at Work qualification. I am fully insured.
My Journey
I started practicing yoga seriously in 2021, originally in the lineage Forrest Yoga (which is my first love). See ‘Experience’ for more details of my yoga journey.
I’m passionate about teaching and bringing the transformational practice of yoga + mindfulness - including pranayama (breathwork), meditation and sound - to children, teenagers and midlife women, especially new mums.
In this hectic world, it can be hard to find “Time for You” - that’s where I come in…
I’d love to show you what a regular yoga practice can do for your mind and body - join me!
Background
Originally from Liverpool and now based in Harpenden, I’m in my early 40s and I have 4 children (spanning toddler to teen).
My background is that I’m a qualified lawyer (now part time) - so I’m balancing two very different practices and embracing my “midlife pivot” from the career I chose when I was 10 years old and loved but which no longer truly inspires me to the one that I’m meant for now, and makes my heart sing.
Believe me, I get the midlife juggle!
This is why I am deeply committed to helping busy women find time to experience the power of yoga and mindfulness in midlife.
Me and my four children
(📸 : Collette Healy Photography, 2023)
My Mission + Practice Style
Why practice yoga with me?
I believe that yoga is for everyBODY.
I teach in an inclusive and accessible way with options for all levels, in small groups or 1:1/1:2 to enable individual attention.
My signature class is a unique ‘flow to slow’ vinyasa - yin fusion, with an added flavour of Forrest yoga.
Beginning with breathwork (pranayama) to ground and ending with a mini sound bath.
Experience
I started practicing yoga seriously in 2021, originally in the lineage Forrest Yoga. Since then, I have attended residential retreats in Ibiza and 42 Acres, Somerset.
I had the incredibly rare chance to practice at sunrise in August at the Stone Circle at Glastonbury (Worthy Farm), and also Rocket yoga at a Nike/ @therogueroom special event with a backing DJ in an abandoned warehouse in EC1, as well as many day retreats at Cucumber Fields, Hertfordshire (my happy place) which have covered many different disciplines with a variety of wonderful and inspiring teachers.
Why “Silver Birch Yoga” ?
Well, it’s my family name.
Also, the Silver Birch is one of the most sacred trees in Celtic Mythology, symbolising new beginnings (which seems appropriate!)
The Silver Birch was also seen as a highly protective influence, especially on Midsummer's Eve when boughs were hung over doors to guard and bring good luck.
These associations derive from ancient times, before the written word, when the sacred Silver Birch was associated with the Celtic goddess Brigid.