About AyurvedicYogi
Joanna Webber (Johnston)
I have been exploring Yoga since I was 19 years old. It kept be sane whilst reading Human Sciences at Oxford University, a very stressful environment! I spent the next 10 years exploring various Schools of Yoga. After 5 years working in finance, as an ethical investment analyst, I was exhausted and quit to explore alternative ways to work. I had set up yoga classes for stressed city workers which I really enjoyed so I trained as a Sivananda Hatha yoga teacher in the Austrian Alps, which have a similar feel to the Himalayas. I’ve never looked back and love teaching in different environments such as drug rehabilitation projects, festivals, companies, health clubs, children’s groups as well as my own home where I often serve up an Ayurvedic thali afterwards for “Yoga Supper Club”.
I have also completed the following yoga training: Sivananda Advanced Teachers Training Course (France); Yoga therapy for Lower Back Pain with Dr Robin Monro, Yoga Biomedical Trust (London); Pregnancy Yoga with Uma Dinsomre Tuley (Bristol).
My interest in Ayurveda was awakened as a tourist in Kerala in 1999, where I visited a very old doctor in a sleepy backstreet. He asked no questions but held my wrist and read my pulse. To say I was amazed by what he could tell from my pulse is an understatement and I made a commitment to study Ayurveda in the future. It was a very moving experience as he also ready my friend’s pulse and correctly said she had cancer, and correctly indicated the area of the body, but that there were no longer any cancer cells in her body. This has turned out to be true as she has been in remission ever since.
It took a few years more but I eventually gained a First Class BSc Hons in Ayurveda with Manipal University. I have also undertaken further training in clinics in India (Alvas Ayurveda Hospita and Dr Marda in Pune) and the UK (Ayuseva Clinic, Brighton). I am a full member of the UK’s Ayurvedic Practitioner’s Association (APA). I am truly indebted to all my teachers along the way, and indeed future teachers as Ayurveda is a lifelong journey. But most especially to the old vaidya (doctor) in the Keralan backwater, whose name I do not know.
How to find The Ayurvedic Yogi clinic, Batcombe:
Batcombe is a village 2.5 miles from Bruton in Somerset. The full address is: The Weavers House (old house set back from the road on the corner of Kale Street and Back Lane), Batcombe, Somerset BA4 6AB. Sat Nav usually works. Parking is on Kale Street, outside The Weavers House. Please click here for a local Map.
Sustainability Issues:
Ayurvedic Yogi strives to make the right decisions for society and the environment, as follows:
- All oils, herbs and other products used are organic and fair trade where applicable
- Concessions are available for all services for those with genuine need