Teachers

Gerry Kielty: Principal Teacher

Maureen Smith

Jane Damer

David Moore

Lorraine Allan

Eileen McCann

Sarah Potter

Anna McLauchlan

Sue Crow

• <

  >
  

  Gerry Kielty: Principal Teacher

  Gerry began the practice and study of yoga as a teenager. He first qualified and taught as an Iyengar Teacher in 1995, and latterly studied and also taught Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. He was fortunate to have studied both with BKS Iyengar and Shri. K. Pattabhi Jois.

  Gerry has developed his own style known for his unique sequencing that focuses on precision and alignment integrated with a steady asana flow. His emphasis being that the Yoga practice should feel and be therapeutic.

  He currently co directs balance in Glasgow and conducts workshops and retreats around the United Kingdom and internationally. He is also founder and principal to the balance yoga teacher training course (accredited by Yoga Alliance Professionals).

  • 
  • 
• <

  >
  

  Maureen Smith

  Maureen Smith completed her 2-year training in October 2002 at the Edinburgh Iyengar Centre. She also holds an instructors certificate in Infant Massage from the International Association of Infant Massage as well as having a Birthlight Diploma in Ante-natal and Post-natal Yoga. Maureen is a Registered General Nurse and Health Visitor with over 30 years experience.
• <

  >
  

  Jane Damer

  Since completing her teacher training with Gerry at balance in Jan 2009, Jane has been teaching weekly classes ever since, both at balance and elsewhere, and continues to expand her knowledge and training.

  Jane first became interested in yoga as a teenager and has attended many classes & workshops of different styles at home and abroad over the years. Since regularly attending Gerry’s classes from 1998,

  Jane’s learning, practice and commitment to yoga has deepened and grown and she teaches in an approachable, humorous (yet committed!) and down to earth manner.
• <

  >
  

  David Moore

  David is Balance teacher training graduate with a strong focus on health and wellbeing.

  David believes as the body is designed for movement whether internal or external, movement aligned with nature’s unique structural design and maintained through correct posture nourishes, energises and invigorates the body.

  Integrating movement seamlessly with posture and breath helps promote a calm mind allowing a simple pause to assist the body and mind to replenish, assisting the body’s internal healing process. This is essential in today\'s fast paced, changing and perhaps less certain environment.

  With the potential to provide many physical and restorative benefits, flowing from even the basic postures, David focuses on building correct, integrated technique. Synchronising body and breath for safe progression, while discovering, through increased awareness, what works for each individual, helping return the mind to simplicity and peace.

  Additional Background: Tai-Chi, Chi-Kung and Karate.
• <

  >
  

  Lorraine Allan

  Lorraine has been practicing yoga since 2002 and on completing a 2.5 year intensive teacher training course with the British Wheel of Yoga has been teaching since 2006.

  Experienced in teaching one to one sessions, workshops and yoga retreats, she practices and takes inspiration from different forms of yoga, and has been taught by teachers from as far afield as Europe and America and met some wonderful teachers along the way.

  Lorraine aims to practice and teach using the attention to detail that she loves, combined with the flow, sequencing, mindfulness and focus on the breath of vinyasa systems.

  Lorraine’s classes are light, fun and accessible. She is also very interested in the aspects of nutrition and is currently studying for a Diploma, hoping to impart her knowledge of yoga with some nutritional benefits along the way.
• <

  >
  

  Eileen McCann

  Eileen began studying yoga as a teenager, then after some years, re-discovered it again in 1998 when she joined Gerry’s classes. Gerry’s teaching, and his innovative approach encouraged her to more frequent practice. Since then yoga has become a growing part of her life and she has continued to widen her study and practice, completing her teacher training in 2009.

  Eileen has taught across a number of disciplines throughout her professional career and looks forward to applying this experience to yoga teaching. She is interested in the support yoga gives to a healthy body, the importance of the breath and the maintenance of our muscles and joints over the years.
• <

  >
  

  Sarah Potter

  Sarah began practising yoga regularly as a teenager whilst rehabilitating a dance injury. As her training in performing arts continued, Sarah’s interest and respect for yoga deepened.

  Sarah started practising Ashtanga yoga at The Exeter Yoga Centre where she found the primary series to be both restorative and a place of stability in times of change.

  Sarah moved to Glasgow in 2003 where she has been principally tutored by Gerry Kielty and attended classes and workshops with teachers such as Allison Dearling and David Swenson. She has travelled extensively and has been particularly inspired by the culture and traditions of India and South East Asia, her experiences have motivated her to bring different aspects of yoga to the classroom and her own practice.

  Since graduating from the Balance Yoga Teaching course in 2010, Sarah has been teaching a range of yoga classes and one to one tuition.
• <

  >
  

  Anna McLauchlan

  Anna has taught regular classes and workshops at balance and other venues since graduating from the balance yoga teacher training programme in 2009. Anna\'s approach to yoga draws from the Iyengar yoga focus on alignment and combines this with fluidity of movement taken from more dynamic forms. Since 2012 Anna has taught the yoga philosophy component of the balance yoga teacher training programme.
• <

  >
  

  Sue Crow

  Sue first got curious about yoga 24 years ago whilst pregnant with her son. Little did she know that these first explorations were the beginning of a journey that would eventually lead to teaching. Over the years that followed Sue tried and practiced various styles on and off, in search of \'something\' to calm her noisy mind and help with navigating the joys and challenges that life on earth entails, before finding her love and passion for Ashtanga in 2009.

  After a series of workshops with David Swenson, Nancy Gilgoff, Joey Miles amongst others, Sue started studying with John Scott in 2011 and graduated from his teacher training programme in 2014. She continues to study with her main teachers John Scott and Manju Pattabhi Jois as often as she can. Sue is also qualified to teach yoga in prisons and rehabilitation facilities.

  In 2015, Sue quit her corporate job and started teaching full time. The previous two winters, Sue spent six months in India fully immersing herself in yoga, yoga philosophy, the various therapeutic benefits yoga has on body and mind as well as assisting her teacher, John Scott in Purple Valley, Balu Thevar at his shala in Arambol and teaching her own classes in the Goan sunshine.

  Just recently, a simple twist of fate brought Sue to Glasgow where she will be teaching the Mysore programme and workshops at balance.

  Sue\'s teaching style is intuitive, nurturing, encouraging and playful, passing on what she has learnt from her teachers in the lineage of the late Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, founder of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga.