Yoga with Patricia

My name is Patricia, I am 26 years old and of Irish nationality. My sporting background is in gymnastics, aerial arts, dance, handstands and acrobatics and professionally I am a qualified physiotherapist and yoga instructor.

The complexities of the human body, dynamic movement and physical function have always been a great source of fascination for me. Entering into the world of competitive gymnastics at a young age enabled this intuition to flourish, rewarding me with great athletic achievement while also teaching me the importance of teamwork and failure. Although I hold great admiration and devotion towards the sport of gymnastics, I began to find the sport increasingly more arduous on my body and mind. I sought out an alternative catharsis - one with which I could continue to benefit from the physical elements of exercise, while also creating and maintaining a healthy mindset. Without full awareness of it at the time, my journey towards yoga started here and this journey steered me to pursue the vocation of physiotherapy at university.
I continued to participate in gymnastics coaching and recreational training during my time at university, my attention however was increasingly drawn to practising yoga. I attended my first yoga class at the age of 17 and, like most hormone-riddled energetic teenagers, I struggled to fully engage with it. Maturity, alongside the breakdown of introspective adhesions allowed me to become fully immersed and connected with my yoga practice during my university studies. Practising yoga initially opened my mind to the physical element of asana then later to the mental and spiritual layers within all the limbs of yoga- which I came to learn are irrefutably intertwined with one another. Yoga was changing my outlook in many aspects of my life and was developing me into a more humble, resilient and reformed individual. Subconsciously, the desire to share this experience with those around me was formed and further ignited upon graduating and commencing my role as a physiotherapist within acute medicine.
Following graduation in 2018, I rotated as a junior in a variety of clinical settings within Salford Royal NHS Foundation trust. With time and experience, alongside my strong ability to empathise, I began to see clearly the lack of connection between body, mind and breath that existed across the majority of my patient population (i.e. physical illness in connection with mental illness/ spiritual illness). I found myself increasingly exploring this connection with my patients to facilitate a more holistic and enduring health and wellbeing. However, to achieve this I realised that patients may require additional support. Practising yoga has been an aid for my own wellness journey and I hoped it could also serve others in this way therefore I decided to embark on my yoga teacher training. The ultimate goal for me is to feed my learning back into the healthcare setting to help improve patient outcomes and patient quality of life.
I achieved my 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training qualification in August 2020 over a 16 month part time course with the internationally recognised YogaCampus school. I immediately used my skill-set to improve patient outcomes and noticed increased engagement with rehab. A strong example of this was the teaching of pranayama (breath work) while working with COPD patients, recovering covid patients and dysfunctional breathers. My training enabled me to alter my approach to physiotherapy management and I began to treat my patients in a more holistic manner, rather than focusing, assessing and treating what could be seen only on a visual scale. Alongside my training I was teaching regular yoga classes in gyms across Manchester, which I have continued since qualifying as a yoga teacher. I also teach regular classes including aerial yoga in Cloud Aerial Arts. I have received immense positive feedback from students and peers alike for my classes, and as I understand what it entails to function effectively as a team, I am flexible, adaptable and always try to work to the benefit of others.
I have an approachable and friendly demeanour which allows me to build rapport easily, integrate gracefully into any team and aid in resolving conflict. I will always remind myself to stay humble while discovering my own journey through sharing my yoga practice. ‘Being a teacher is for the taught’ and with yoga I continuously emphasise to my students that it is an independent journey that I can help to guide them through or towards but ultimately their practice is their own and can/ will take them in any direction upon their own unique path.
After leaving my post at Salford Royal in December 2021, I took the plunge into self-employment to fully immerse myself in my yoga/aerial studies and teaching. This time away from full-time physio work has allowed me to develop my teaching style, focus on my yoga theory and expand the variety of classes that I am currently teaching.

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