John has been teaching his Gentle Yoga classes at Yoga Dublin for the past four years.

He is currently teaching online on Mondays at 3pm, Wednesdays at 10.30am and Fridays at 5pm. His classes are suitable for all fitness levels and all ages, whether you are a beginner, early improver or regular practitioner.

His teaching philosophy is to explain how his bespoke sequences benefit the body, mind and spirit. He changes the focus of his classes every few weeks with sequences to build bone strength, improve blood quality, boost the immune system, maximizing spine health and

other themes.

When asked to describe his classes, John simply says “They are gentle in nature and strong in effect”.

Some feedback from students to Yoga Dublin have described John’s

classes as follows:

“Fabulous journey and balance between rational, empathy, body presence, attentive techniques and soft awareness. Love some of his phrases and unique input to classic sequences” “I find John’s Gentle Yoga class excellent because he guides so carefully and encourages to make our practice our own, to be aware of our breath, our body, and how we are in the moment. His classes are really well planned and change often enough to make sure we extend our practice regularly.”

John’s own yoga journey began in 1999 when he was on the brink of having major back surgery as a result of disc and trapped nerve problems caused by a bad fall while playing squash. The chances of a successful outcome were not good and, as a last resort, his Sports Injury Consultant recommended a three month program of intensive traction which luckily reduced the pressure on the nerves very considerably.

The Consultant recommended

that he practice Pilates intensively to strengthen his abdominal muscles so as to provide a corset of protection for his lower back and spine.

He attended Pilates classes at Westwood in Leopardstown and they worked wonders in terms of building up a strong core. At around that time, Westwood started to offer yoga

classes which he attended out of curiosity and began to practice with his very first yoga teacher, Yvonne Treacy. For a time, he continued with Pilates but then migrated totally to

yoga.

A couple of years later his work brought him to Smithfield, where he started to attend yoga classes in the Elbow Room. Here, he came in contact with a number of inspirational teachers such as Dave Curtis, Anthony Kearney and Tanya Fitzpatrick.

In 2009, he then changed his work place to South Dublin and joined Yoga Dublin in Ranelagh where Dave Curtis and Anthony Kearney were also teaching. In 2013, he decided to participate in a three-year Teacher Training Programme under the guidance of Dave Curtis. He became a certified teacher in 2016. He is currently doing a two-year Advanced Practitioners Programme with Dave.