Charlotte Watts

I went to my first yoga class in 1996 and it was like I was breathing for the first time! I immediately knew that this was the start of a long journey and recognised it as a crucial part of the puzzle in helping move through my stress-related issues of the time.

I went on to train with the Vajrasati Yoga School in Brighton (500 hour Yoga Alliance training) founded by Jim Tarran who is influenced by Buddhism and brought a natural mindfulness aspect to practicing yoga; with an emphasis on taking time to feel subtleties of the experience and create body awareness within postures. I have followed this path to explore yoga not as the shapes we make but the depth we feel. I help share this by teaching the Yoga Campus module Teaching Yoga for Stress and Burnout and also for Chronic Fatigue/ME with Leah Barnett and Fiona Agombar.

I have followed my interest in yoga therapy for anxiety, depression and stress states, training in teaching yoga for people with ME and Chronic Fatigue with Fiona Agombar and teaching for chronic pain with Heather Mason. I continue to deepen my study as yoga as a mindfulness practice and had the great pleasure of attending a specific mindfulness course for yoga teachers with Cathy-Mae Karelse.

I love study and train yearly with teachers Tias Little, Judith Lasater and Donna Farhi as they combine my love of mindful, somatic practice, yoga as meditation and an explorative and compassionate attitude - alongside attention to alignment with respect to the individual needs of students.

I run regular yoga classes in Brighton and London, workshops in Brighton, London and Bath, weekend retreats in Sussex and week long holidays in Europe.

I am also an award-winning nutritionist, practicing since 2000 and specialising in stress-related and fatigue conditions and burnout, culminating in one of my books The De-Stress Effect (Hay House 2015). I lecture on Heather Mason's yoga therapy course for The Minded Institute.