ABOUT CLAUDE
Who am I and how can I help you?
Hello, my name is Claude. I am delighted to welcome you to this page to tell you more about me. I now live in France between Paris and Argelès-sur Mer, Pyrenees Orientales, following a lifetime spent abroad. After pursuing a career in finance for 33 years, I decided aged 55 to retrain as a yoga teacher in order to pass on my passion and values to others. Yoga has often been my lifeline and I’d like to help others feel better in mind and body.
Like many, I started practicing yoga to recuperate from a burn-out while I was working at a bank in Frankfurt. More stress followed three years later when I was an analyst at another bank in London. At the age of 30, I was already experiencing pain and muscle tension in the neck, shoulders, upper and lower back, and episodes of digestive problems (IBS), insomnia and migraines.
That’s when a physiotherapist suggested to do some yoga… it was time to have a regular practice and I have not stopped since. I tried several styles of yoga according to my needs and different stages of life.
I started with the Iyengar method, which gave me a good foundation thanks to its rigorous and precise approach, then I practiced Ashtanga as I wanted to be more active after work, followed by pregnancy yoga when expecting my three children, restorative yoga when my baby daughter was unwell for 18 months, Kundalini to explore the energetic and spiritual side, Hatha yoga to practice all the classic asanas and finally ISHTA yoga that helped me to slow down and understand what I needed the most.
My experiences
There is, however, a big step between practicing and teaching yoga. It is a science in its own right, demanding and requiring a serious two-year training commitment to become a certified 500-hour yoga teacher. I found it tough both intellectually and physically as well as fascinating and exciting. I chose ISHTA training because I was attracted by its holistic and comprehensive approach to yoga, meditation and well-being. I took this training in London and completed it with several stays in India, including two months spent in Vaidyagrama Ayurveda Healing village in Tamil Nadu, to experience Ayurvedic treatments, panchakarma, diet and lifestyle as well as the Vedic mentality and spirituality which fascinates me…. I was always in search of spiritual guidance in my life and I was attracted by Buddhism in the 90s, spending a month in Nepal following the Annapurna Sanctuary trek in 1995, followed by a few weeks of meditation in the Kopan Monastery in Kathmandu. In the noughties, I followed the teaching of Ostad Elahi, an influential thinker, born in a remote village in western Iran who had an innovative approach to self-knowledge and the meaning of life. His spiritual practice, naturally integrated into our modern life in society, resonated strongly with me. All these approaches have a strong communality, understanding where we come from, why we are here, a belief in the afterlife and the willingness to do good for others and ourselves.
I also have a very multicultural approach, having grown up in Morocco, studied in France, the United States and the United Kingdom, and worked for more than 8 years in each of the three European financial centers of Frankfurt, Paris and London. I am very proud to have dual French-British nationality and to teach in both languages.
Among all yoga teachers, my biggest advantage is ultimately my experience of life and my humble attitude towards yoga and the wisdom of the great Yogis I met. I am not aiming to teach complex acrobatic postures but to help my clients to find calm, balance and flexibility in their daily practice. My greatest pleasure is to help others to relax, feel better, progress and to enjoy the present moment.
