Niamh has been teaching Hatha Yoga since 2004 and is a registered Senior Teacher and Teacher Trainer. She holds an Advanced Diploma in Nutrition Coaching, is a Pilates Mat I&II teacher and a Somatic Education Coach.
She is an expert in the field of menopause, sought after worldwide by teachers and women seeking balanced, evidence-based training, information and/or support. Her book “Yoga for Menopause and Beyond” was published in 2024.
After qualifying as a yoga teacher, she completed a mentorship with Marlene Ffrench Mullen, and has continued to study and professionally develop with Donna Farhi, renowned Clinical Anatomist & facia expert John Sharkey, Integral Anatomist Gil Hedley, Sarah Lo, the Irish Institute of Nutrition & Health, Sarah Church (Pilates training) and Lisa Petersen (Somatics training), Rebekah Rotstein (Buff Bones training) and others.
She teaches men and women of all ages, and specialises in Yoga for Menopause, and trains Yoga teachers around the world how to adapt Yoga to support women in this phase of life.
She created Certificate in Teaching Yoga for Menopause and Beyond in 2020, at the time it was one of just 2 courses of its kind in the world.
She also runs accredited CPD courses in Yoga for Bone Health and in
Menopause Awareness and Strategies for psychotherapists and counsellors
She has trained in Hatha Yoga, and studied and/or practiced most of the variations of Yoga from its most traditional roots in India, to new approaches and hybrids. Responding to what Yoga has become in the west, and the prevalence of injury in the quest for linear “improvement”, her own style of teaching is an offering to students of her knowledge, but with an invitation to take what speaks to them and make it their own, and to let go of that which doesn’t sit well with them.
Her approach is pragmatic, as she is fascinated by the science of stretch, and what is logically possible for the average human body. She is also keen to ensure we stay strong for life, as well as relaxed, mobile and comfortable.
She teaches classes and retreats, and also supports women one-to-one through yoga, exercise and nutrition.
What happens in Niamh’s classes?
With additional elements from Pilates and Somatics, in our classes we focus on a Yoga that, evolving with our modern learning about the body, aims to keep you as healthy and mobile as possible for the life you love. All classes are menopause-supportive, and begin with an opportunity for you to ask for some area you are curious about, or struggling with to be addressed.
Whether you want to run 10k every week for the rest of your life, or continue to be able to walk your dog til you are 99, whether you want to enhance sleep or a meditation practice, or find ways to cope with stress or depression, there is value in these classes. Here is a continued offering of the basic Yoga practices of pranayama (breath work), and asana (physical practice), and a smattering of philosophy.
In these classes you can expect to be guided moment by moment, working on such necessities as bone health, muscle tone and mass, joint mobility, core strength and the dissolving of aches and pains, but with small portions where Yinstinct Yoga helps you to find that your body needs, deserves and benefits from pleasure and rest, and how to find that.
In teaching the traditional postures, Niamh will offer you options to suit what you need given your tensions, injuries, illnesses, or energy levels on any given day. You will find that Yinstinct Yoga brings a level of exploration to each posture from the subtle and internal, to very clear, physical capability.
As in all her teaching, Niamh’s emphasis on approaching your self with compassion and gratitude is greatly calming to the nervous system.
Yinstinct Yoga balances traditional Yoga with up-to-date research in anatomy, biomechanics, functional movement, and somatics, and with the reasonable and compassionate expectations of what a body which has lived YOUR life can, and wants to do. This is an evolutionary way to approach Yoga, which has often resisted changing in response to developing research.
With a light approach, Yinstinct uses many practices and philosophies of Yoga to give you a strong structure upon which to base your own explorations. Then, through techniques which guide you to potent interoception, encouraging awareness of your internal and external environments, you will be helped to honour your instinct and your own body’s wisdom.
Yinstinct can lead you to a Yoga that is as kind (Yin), sensual, playful, strong, expressive, or traditional as best serves your journey on this planet.
Currently, we are in an exciting phase, as an evolutionary surge in the way Yoga is perceived, taught, and practiced is stirring. With its popularity and varied benefits, come gifts and challenges. As Yoga is often used now “just” for physical healing, or “just” for relief from stresses, teachers must take care of those millions who come to Yoga for myriad reasons. In sharing Yinstinct Yoga, Niamh will hold you safe, offering Yoga that suits you. She will nurture you; simply, into greater ease in body and mind; or onward, into a deep intimate inquiry, instinctual understanding, and compassionate response to your magnificent self.
