susie legge roberta lisboayoga swaha, yoga and bodywork courses and retreats, yoga teacher traiings, massage courses, intuitive massage

Over the years we have both come to realize the benefits of combining a personal yoga practice with massage and bodywork. Hatha yoga in itself is a wonderful diagnostic tool for directly experiencing the body and exploring the limits in our range of movement. Tightness, weakness or limitation of some kind indicates a blockage. This can be seen as adhesions or weakness in the muscle tissue or a disruption in the flow of energy through the subtle body. Either way, regular practice enables us to develop awareness, meet our ‘edge’ and over time gently extend our strength and flexibility limits. What coincides with this evolution is an increased sense of well-being, a deepening of trust and an acceptance that all is exactly as it should be. This process can sometimes be painfully slow and there are times when we all need a little additional support in moving through our personal restrictions.

We have found that massage and bodywork can dramatically shift holding patterns of tension, increase flexibility and realign the body. We often work a series of bodywork sessions, focusing specifically on areas of tension and supporting the process of letting go through physical and emotional release work, however that unfolds. Following a course of treatments, clients often feel a sense of structural and energetic integration that impacts on all aspects of their lives.

Through our experience, our love of yoga and bodywork and the desire to have meaningful work in the world, we now find ourselves teaching yoga workshops, retreats and teacher trainings in India, Europe and Brazil. We also teach massage and bodywork trainings in India and the UK. Through this work we hope to share the beauty and simplicity of living with presence in the body, allowing space for life to flow through us and trusting in our inner wisdom.


susie legge roberta lisboayoga swaha, yoga and bodywork courses and retreats, yoga teacher traiings, massage courses, intuitive massage

Susie Legge

Yoga has helped me to slow down, relax, take my awareness inward and learn to accept what I feel. By watching how I approach an asana, I learn how I approach life and by respecting my body in each moment, listening rather than instructing, I give myself the opportunity to change unhelpful patterns. I am not so drawn to yoga as a way of pushing my body to extremes, performing the perfect asana, or bending my body into fantastical shapes. I see yoga as a tool for releasing tension, creating space and feeling peace within myself. I like to share this way of practicing, by facilitating an inward focus, guiding students through their bodies with awareness of mind and breath. I share a meditative, flowing practice which arises intuitively in response to who is present and what is occurring in that moment. The underlying intention is the desire for pure presence: the ability to rest the mind in the present moment and experience
the peace that arises from this stillness.
Each person contributes by their presence and therefore influences and helps to guide the class. S

I was first introduced to yoga at the age of 11 when my parents met their master and trained as yoga and meditation teachers. Often attending satsangs (meetings of truth) with my parents, I learned to chant vedic mantras and experienced feelings of bliss and spontaneous meditation without fully understanding or appreciating my experience at the time. It wasn’t until completing a degree in psychology 9 years later, that I became curious about the power of the mind and began to revisit my early experiences of meditation.

At the age of 19, whilst attending a Dru-yoga conference in England, I met a psyhic healer and shiatsu master who encouraged me to study shiatsu-do in the mountains of North Wales. This was the beginning of many years of travel and study in the healing arts. I trained in traditional western massage, aromatherapy and reflexology, nutrition and stress-management counselling and then journeyed to the east where I spent time studying Thai and Ayurvedic yoga massage, Tibetan touch and cranio-sacral therapy. During this time I also attended a year of Dru-yoga therapy and trained as an Integral yoga teacher.

In more recent years I have returned to the process of satsang with two deeply inspiring teachers, Satyananda and Mooji. Both are masters who share how to live in truth and have my total love and respect.

Although continually learning and growing both personally and professionally, I feel a sense of integration evolving from the lessons life teaches me. I have been fortunate enough to spend time with wise people and be taught some valuable lessons. I have also had the opportunity to teach yoga and massage workshops, retreats and trainings in many beautiful places with many beautiful people, which continues to evolve as I surrender more and more to the flow of life. I am deeply grateful for this life, for my family, my teachers and for the growing community of fellow beings coming together in truth and love


susie legge roberta lisboayoga swaha, yoga and bodywork courses and retreats, yoga teacher traiings, massage courses, intuitive massage

Roberta Lisboa

Meditation has become the main goal in my work, both in yoga and massage. Through my personal meditation practice I am able to experience presence in life, watching not only what I am doing but how. I bring this foundation of building presence in my vinyasa flow classes, encouraging my students to focus on their breath and observe what sensations, feelings and emotions arise during the process without judgement, craving or aversion.
Now combining my knowledge of anatomy and physiology with the intuition developed through meditation and self-exploration, I integrate East with West in my teaching and bodywork. I specialise in sensitive yet effective adjustments whilst teaching classes to assist students in deepening their asana practice through enhanced body awareness.  My massage and bodywork sessions focus on deep release of long held tension and holding patterns in the body.

I first came to yoga with a dynamic ashtanga approach, whilst studying physical education in Brazil over 12 years ago.  As an athlete and fitness fanatic, I quickly progressed in the physical practice of asana; however it wasn’t until some years later that I became interested in the more subtle experiences and spiritual teachings of yoga.
Intrigued by anatomy and physiology and the maintainence of health I studied Iyengar yoga and practiced massage and bodywork in the United States, learning about tension patterns in the body and how to alleviate unhelpful postural habits.  I also qualified as ashtanga yoga teacher with Beryl Bender Birch from the soft and hard yoga institute.

Compelled to continue travelling and studying, I then work my way through Europe, and Asia, studying, teaching and practicing as I went.  It was during this time that I met and studied with the masters who began to open my mind and heart to a deeper experience of yoga as meditation.  In India I trained in Ayurvedic yoga massage and developed my personal approach to the teaching of body dynamics.
  
I now divide my time between India, Europe and Brazil, teaching retreats and trainings and practicing private bodywork and massage. 
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