My Story
At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done.
We will be judged by “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in.”
– Mother Theresa
I come from a long tradition of family of healers and remember to this day the trips to the mountains to collect herbs with my grandfather or learning esoteric healing techniques with my mother. My childhood world was the world of magic in which everything was possible. Being a sickly child, my mother tried everything from traditional to alternative medicine to cure me and this is when yoga came into my life through rudimentary basic set of exercises that I started doing religiously in trying to make myself better. The magical world collapsed, when my country (U.S.S.R) ceased to exist and I landed on the British Isles to study dry and cold subjects of Finance and Economics. The flames were only kept alive through the practice of yoga. I have been blessed many times through meeting wonderful teachers along my path and every time their guiding light shown me the way.
I count my blessing for meeting Mohini Chatlani with her unconventional approach to yoga and free spirit that led me through conviction that I want to teach yoga. With her encouragement I completed my BWY foundation course with Tara Fraser and teacher training with late Sara Macintosh. Those were the wild times coupled with the birth of my first child whilst climbing up along the career ladder in financial services. The turning point was the meeting of my main yoga teacher, Sylviane Gianina, where I knew from the start that I was in the right place at the right time. This connection stays with me to this day with unending devotion and inspiration.
The birth of my first child also inspired me to look in the way women and society approach birth and my strong desire was born to find a better way. I completed my Birthlight training to teach ante and postnatal yoga meeting along the way truly inspiring wise women Francoise Freedman and later Uma Dinsmore-Tuli. I have completed my doula training with Dr Michel Odent and since then helped many women to welcome babies into this world including my second child, who was born naturally at home with the most wonderful experience.
Studying meditation with Ram Chatlani led to a meeting with Burgs and attendance of his regular silent retreats started to slowly transform my life in urge to make it simpler and less stressful. My annual pilgrimage into silence with Vipassana helps me to restore balance and go further and deeper in myself with the hope that one day I can reach the point of freedom.
I continued to work in high pressure environment in Financial services taking on more and more leadership responsibilities whilst teaching yoga to adults and children in many settings when realisation came that I wanted to only focus on teaching on one to one basis. To support this I completed my Yoga Therapy Diploma with Yoga Campus and finally in 2017 I embarked on my new non-incumbent path as yoga therapist and doula.
• Yoga Therapy (with focus on female health including fertility, menstrual issues, pregnancy, postpartum, menopause)
• Birth Doula, Antenatal Educator, HypnoBirthing and Postpartum recovery support
• Meditation and Mindfulness
• Pregnancy and Postpartum Yoga
• Yoga Nidra, Relaxation and Restorative Yoga
• Postpartum closing ceremonies (la cerrada/encaderamiento/closing the bones/sacred wrapping/poslerodovoe pelenanie)
• Yoga for adults and children (group and 1-2-1 sessions)
• Yoga retreats and workshops
• Women circles, retreats and workshops
Yoga, Yoga Therapy and Female Health
• British Wheel of Yoga Teaching Diploma (500+ hours, incl TP and FCT) (2004-2006, 2007, 2012)
• Special Yoga Center Children Yoga Teacher Training (2009, Certified)
• Prana Vinyasa Intensives with Shiva Rea (150 hours, 2008-2016)
• Yoga Therapy Diploma (550+ hours, 2014-2016)
• Well Woman Intensive (2015, Completed)
• Total Yoga Nidra Teacher Training (2016-2017, Certified)
• Birthlight Well Woman Yoga Diploma (2018, Completed)
• Birthlight Fertility Yoga Intensive (2020, Completed)
• Relax and Renew® Level I Training with Judith Lasater (2020, Certified)
• Yoga Campus – Regular Yoga Therapy Intensives (2016 – present): Gary Kraftsow, Doug Keller, Timothy McCall
• Teaching and Supervision:
– Supervisor on Yoga Therapy Diploma Course (2019 – 2024)
– Birthlight Fertility Yoga Course – Co-Tutor (2022 – present)
– Yoga for Pregnancy with Mindfulness – Co-Tutor (2023 – present)
– Postpartum Yoga and Mindfulness – Co-Tutor (2024 – present)
Meditation and Mindfulness
• Integrating Mindfulness and Compassion in Professional Practice (200 hours, 2016-2017, Certified)
• MBSR Conversion Course (2018, Completed)
Doula, Pregnancy, Childbirth and Postpartum support
• Activities-based practices:
– Birthlight Teaching Diploma (200 hours, ante and post natal yoga) (2007-2008)
– Birthlight CPDs including postnatal applications, preparation for labour, diastasi recti, polyvagal theory, CS recovery (2010, 2014, 2019, 2021)
– Spinning Babies® Practitioner workshop (2019)
– Hypopressive method for recovery of pelvic floor workshop (2020)
– Biomechanics of Birth – foundation workshop with Molly O’Brien (2021)
– Advanced Biomechanics of Birth – workshop with Molly O’Brien (2021)
• Doula-centered training:
– Paramana Doula Course with Michel Odent and Liliana Lammers (2011)
– Advanced Doula Training – Red Tent (2018)
– Supporting Reflux Babies – Younique Postnatal workshop (2020)
– Understanding Newborns – Younique Postnatal workshop (2020)
– Postnatal Doula Development – Younique Postnatal workshop (2020)
– Foundations of Radical Birth Keeping (2023, Completed)
– Free Birth with Radical Birth Keeping (2023, Completed)
– Emergency Situations at Birth with Joy Horner (2023, CPD, Completed)
– Silent Birthkeeper Programme with Ruth Ehrhardt (Nov 2023 – Nov 2024, 12 months, Completed and Certified)
– Birth First Aid for Birthkeepers – Mother and Baby with Ruth Ehrhardt (5 week course, 2024, Completed)
– Basic needs of babies with Ruth Ehrhardt and Karin Slabaugh (2024-2025, 7 months, in progress)
• Holistic therapies:
– Aromatherapy in Childbirth for doulas and midwives workshop – RMC accredited (2019)
– Introduction to Shiatzu for doulas and midwives workshop (2020)
– Bach Flower Remedies with Evgeni Shmukler – therapy course (2021, Certified)
– Homeopathy for doulas (Pregnancy, Birth and Postpartum) with Elaine Goode (Red Tent Doulas, 2021, Certified)
– Homeopathy for breastfeeding (Lactation and Mastitis) with Elaine Goode (2022, Certified)
– Homeopathy for postpartum period with Elaine Goode (2023, Certified)
• HypnoBirthing/Hypnotherapy:
– KGHypnoBirthing (Katharine Graves) – RMC accredited (2019)
– Use of “soft hypnosis” in childbirth with Anastasia Ivanova (2020, Certified)
– Birthing Awareness (Traumatic Birth) – 3 Step Rewind Practitioner Training – (2021, Certified)
– Mindful Mamma HypnoBirthing Practitioner Training (Sophie Fletcher) – RMC accredited (2021, Completed)
– Hypnotherapy for Birthing and Fertility Professionals (2022, in progress)
• Other:
– Baby Massage Instructor Training – IAIM (2019-2020) – Certified Infant Massage Instructor (CIMI)
– Milky Rivers (Молочнi Рiки) Breastfeeding Counsellor – (150 hours, 2020, Certified)
– Milky Rivers (Молочнi Рiки) Advanced breastfeeding practice – (30 hours, 2021, Completed)
– Developmental Baby Massage Instructor Training (Peter Walker) – (2021, Certified)
– Holistic Sleep Coaching with Lyndsey Hookway – mini-course (2021 – in training)
– Drumming for Birth and Life transitions – how to connect to sacred rhythm of pregnancy, birth and beyond (2023, Completed)
– Neuro-endocrinology of Motherhood (2023-2024, 4 months course, in progress)
– Healing birth stories: narrative method with Lera Gjertsen (2024-2025, 3 months course, in progress)
• DoulaUK Recognised Birth Doula (2008 – present, privileged to hold the space for 151 births to-date)
• DoulaUK Recognised Postpartum Doula (2017 – present, over 600 hours)
• DoulaUK Birth Doula Mentor (2020-present)
• DoulaUK Postpartum Doula Mentor (2023-present)
• Infantfeeding Volunteer, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital (2024-present)
Other Holistic Practices
• Body Therapies:
– Ayurvedic Head and Body Massage Therapy Diploma (2010)
– Mizan Therapy (Womb massage) – (2019, Completed)
– Mizan Therapy (Pregnancy and Postnatal massage) – (2020, Completed)
– Mizan Therapy (Fertility Massage) – (2023, Completed)
• Postpartum “Closing” Ceremony:
– Training with Sophie Messager (“Closing the Bones”) Intensive (2018)
– Honouring Women’s Life cycles and Foundation Rebozo Training including “La Cerrada” closing ceremony – with Angelina Martinez (2019)
– Encaderamiento (“Hipping”, “Closing the Bones” ceremony) – workshop with Dr Rocio Alarcon (2019)
– Postnatal Recovery Massage Intensive with Sophie Messager and Teddy Brooks (2020)
– Postnatal Closing Ceremonies – (Poslerodovoe zakrytie, Natasha Tomilina, natidoula) – (3 months, 2020, Completed)
– Postpartum Recovery Consultant (Lebedeva) – (4 months, 2022, in training)
• “Traditional midwifery” school of Yulia Shelepina (online, 2020, 6 months training, 5 stages, Completed)
• Shamanic practices to support female life transitions (online, in progress)
• Classical hatha yoga – Sivananda (1992-1998)
• Iyengar Yoga (1999-2004)
• Dynamic yogaflow (1999-2004)
• Bihar School of Yoga/Satyananda (2003-04)
• Vinyasa pranaflow (2008 – 2019)
• Mindfulness with MindfulnessUK (2016 – 2021)
• Viniyoga/Association for Yoga studies (aYs) (2004 – present)
• Yoga for pregnancy and postanatal with Birthlight method (2007 – present)
• Meditation with Burgs (2008 – present)
• First Aid at Work Qualification with St John’s Ambulance
• Full Public Liability and Professional Indemnity Insurance
• Enhanced DBS
