Reading's Yoga Community
TEACHERS
SOPHIE CLEERE
Sophie has been teaching yoga in Reading since 2009 and took her first class at the age of 17.
Her main discipline over the last 15 years has been Ashtanga Yoga making countless trips to Mysore India at the KPJAYI institute.
In recent years Sophie has developed her learning and teaching to include different forms of yoga and movement including Iyengar Yoga, Feldenkrais, FRC (Functional Range Conditioning) and strength training and now likes to mix these disciplines into her practice and teaching.
Sophie teaches Ashtanga at Yoga Reading as well as regular beginners courses and Functional Flow.
She loves to teach outside of the box and empower the practitioner to enjoy their body in movement.
Sophie lives in Brighton when she’s not teaching in Reading and loves sea swimming and dancing. She is passionate about female empowerment and body positivity. You can connect to her on Instagram
KATIA MAJOR
Katia is an Ashtanga and Yin Yoga teacher and has been developing her own practice under the guidance of Sophie Cleere, Berkshire’s only Authorised Ashtanga teacher, over the past 5 years. She trained with Melanie Cooper and Norman Blair in London and is passionate about making yoga fun and accessible to everyone.
Katia has had a keen interest in exercise since the age of 16 when she started running around the roads of Reading. This hobby grew as she took on a host of half marathons, off road races and even marathons. Whilst dynamic sports remain a passion, Katia has also found a true love for the inward aspects of yoga and making time for self-reflection and growth.
Katia assists Sophie and teaches ashtanga and yin yoga for our corporate clients as well as at Sportspark, at the University of Reading, and for Yoga Reading.
ALICE McGuigan
Alice was first introduced to Yoga as a way to unwind and de-stress from the fast-paced nature of studying in London (while also hoping her legs might get a little longer!). She soon discovered that Yoga was an opportunity to re-connect entirely, counter daily habit patterns and open up to new perspectives. Fascinated by this process, she went on to study Hatha, Vinyasa and Ashtanga Yoga, qualifying at Sampoorna Yoga School in India, May 2014. She has been practising Ashtanga at Yoga Reading since 2015 and has assisted both Sophie and Katia in self-practice classes as well as shared her own teachings with them on Yoga Reading retreats.
Alice has now been exploring Yoga and Meditation for over 6 years, (teaching for 3 years), and is a 500hr qualified teacher. She teaches regular classes and workshops both at Yoga Reading and elsewhere in Berkshire and overseas. Alice loves sharing Yoga as a way of encouraging balance, positivity, and strength in the mind and body.
With a background in English and Drama, Alice project manages various arts and holistic events around Reading with a non-profit organisation, Outrider Anthems. She also writes short biographies for Story Terrace and enjoys weaving this creativity into her classes.
Matt Hernandez-Green
Matt accidentally discovered yoga by stumbling into a class at a gym and was immediately hooked. Growing up playing football and swimming, yoga was a lot harder than he expected! Initially, just physical exercise, Matt’s yoga practice grew to an interest in the emotional and mental side of yoga, eventually leading him to spend 5 weeks at a Sivananda ashram training to become a teacher in an immersive environment.
Matt works full time in IT and teaches yoga. With a personal practice rooted in Ashtanga Hatha Matt was taken with the learning the skills of Handstands and teamwork of Acro Yoga. These are Matt’s main teaching passions.
Helen Gevaux
Like many yogis, Helen was first drawn to try yoga for its physical challenge and to complement running, martial arts training and a desk job as a lawyer. She was quickly captivated by the unique and subtle balance of strength, grace and freedom yoga cultivates in both body and mind.
Helen has completed teacher trainings in power yoga and vinyasa yoga. She teaches dynamic and flowing classes, set in context with themes from yogic philosophy.
Her students are invited to experiment, play and enquire, whatever their level of experience on the mat or energy level when they reach it. She is passionate about sharing the yoga community and regularly facilitates informal social gatherings for her classes.
Outside the studio and a full-time career in law, Helen is a movement fanatic and aspiring foodie. She lifts weights, teaches taekwon-do snowboards and also enjoys horse riding, ballroom dancing and has recently caught the acroyoga bug! She loves how yoga practice can complement other pursuits and encourages her students to explore this in their own practice.
Gemma
Gemma started practicing yoga around 4 years ago when she was struggling with running a company whilst being a mother to two young children. Yoga gave her the grounding, focus and stress relief that she needed.
She continued to practice regularly and wanted to share it with others so completed her teacher training at the end of August 2018.
In Gemma’s words: Yoga has really pushed me outside of my comfort zone. Alongside the mental and physical strength yoga brings me, I love the fun element of the practice and the connection it brings with others.
Mary
Mary began her inquiry into yoga in the early 1980’s and found her first Iyengar Yoga teacher in January of 1990. This lead her into embarking on teacher training in 1998, and then passing her Introductory Level 1 in 1999 and Introductory Level 2 in 2000.
Mary has since then devoted a great deal of her life to the study and the teaching of the Iyengar Yoga method, taking her Intermediate Junior level 1 in 2007 and Intermediate Junior level 2 in 2014 & Intermediate Junior level 3 in 2015.
Mary also practices Oncology Massage and teaches mindfulness.
Sarah
Sarah is a proud mum of three and lover of coffee, cake and country walks with her cockerpoo. She has been practising yoga for over fifteen years and has experienced the many benefits it brings. When she started practising yoga I had been suffering from panic attacks, insomnia and was generally pretty stressed. After attending regular weekly classes she started to destress, become reenergised and began sleeping and eating better.
Sarah completed her Yoga Alliance accredited 500-hour teacher training with Ruth White, herself a student of BKS Iyengar, in 2011. She also holds a Level 1 Yin Yoga & Mindfulness Meditation qualification. She teach weekly classes at Caversham Health and Fitness as well as community and corporate classes in Caversham. She regularly attends classes, workshops and retreats to develop and deepen her personal practice.
EMMA
As a personal trainer Emma has worked with clients to achieve their goals of weight loss, building lean muscle or training for an event by developing individual, specific programs.
Having played many team sports and participated in individual events such as kayak sprint races and marathons, Emma understands the importance of cross training to build strength, mobility and flexibility to enable us to function at our best in every aspect of our lives.
Emma is also passionate about and teaches yoga at Shredquarters.
Antonella
Fully trained at Sam Rao School of Yoga and affiliated to Yoga Alliance, Antonella has been teaching yoga since January 2016 and has taken her passion for yoga on her travels, ending up teaching impromptu classes all over from Vietnam to Burma and Thailand, from Spain to Greece and Italy.
Antonella’s lighthearted gentle teaching style is inspired by the many and varied teacher trainings and workshops she has completed over the years.
She combines the creativity of Vinyasa with the precision of Iyengar, the slow, restorative in benefits of Yin yoga with the ancient teachings of Hatha Yoga to offer students an opportunity to practice in a loving, empowering, inspiring and safe environment.
Her goal is to share her experience and the many benefits of Yoga with all her students, regardless of age, life stage and ability.
