MEET THE BYF TEAM
BYF TRUSTEES
Davy Jones co-founded the Brighton Yoga Festival in late 2013 with Mikaela Perera. He has been centrally involved in the annual festivals since 2014, and the establishment of Brighton Yoga Foundation as a registered charity. Davy has been a yoga student since 1999 and a teacher for over eleven years. He teaches in Brighton & Sussex and runs yoga holidays around the world with his partner Janaki as part of InspirationYoga. He passionately believes in the power of yoga to effect not just physical and mental change, but also social and political change. Davy grew up as a teenager in Saltdean and moved back here in 2002. He stood as the Green Party’s parliamentary candidate in the 2015 General Election – the first yoga teacher in the UK to stand for parliament. Davy was the chair of the trustees from the inception of the charity in May 2016 to the end of 2021 and has temporarily taken over as Chair once again from April 2023. www.inspirationyoga.net
Sam has worked in social justice starting as a journalist with a focus on mental health. She has since worked in criminal justice and education in a variety of different roles and in 2013 co-founded a not for profit organisation which supports families when a loved-one has gone to prison. She believes that there is a strong link between social justice, yoga and wellbeing which she is keen to pursue through her work at the foundation.
Indie is a Yoga and meditation guide, Ayurveda Consultant and Freelance Marketing consultant. She has had a varied career across several different industries before landing on a more holistic approach to life in recent years. Yoga is an ancestral practice for her and after reconnecting to the practice, teacher training was a natural progression. She believes there is a strong link between the teachings of yoga and social justice and is something she continues to be vocal about alongside race, collective care and spaces for BIPOC.
Josie is a qualified ICB bookkeeper and began her relationship with Brighton Yoga
Foundation back in 2018 when she began donating her time to help with the charities’
accounts. She still keeps the accounts in check now, but decided to get more involved in the work and direction of the foundation in early 2023, having been aware for some years of the brilliant outreach work they do.
She found yoga in her early thirties and practices every week, knowing the physical and mental benefits it brings. She fully believes in the huge benefit - social, mental, and physical - that yoga classes, and the teaching of yoga as a personal practice, can bring to many people’s lives.
Carmen is a qualified public sector accountant, who has spent years working in local government, further education and the third sector, ending her career as a local councillor in Brighton and Hove.
She found yoga around 15 years ago during a particularly stressful period in her life and thinks that it kept her sane during that time - and since. She believes very strongly in the health benefits of yoga, and having found out about the foundation’s work at the yoga festival in 2022, she joined the board after retiring as a councillor in May 2023.
BYF TEAM
Tammy has a wealth of experience both in project management and yoga teaching. For 10 years she worked in an international development organisation focusing on improving maternal health, mainly in Nigeria. At the same time her love of yoga deepened and in 2018 she completed Vajrasati YTT 500hrs. Tammy has taught a variety of classes over the last 4 years; her passion and teaching is now moving towards a more therapeutic style. She currently teaches classes for mental health recovery, stress reduction and restorative yoga. She is delighted to utilise her skills to support the BYF.
Chloe is currently the co-ordinator of the BYF Yoga Mat Rental Service. She has also helped organise and administrate BYF events and fundraising for the annual BYF festival.
COMMUNITY YOGA TEACHING TEAM
Tammy's practice is rooted in Buddhism, and she has explored the teachings and practises of many different traditions, which fuelled her love of philosophy and inquiry. Yoga played an important part throughout these earlier explorations and led her to the decision to train formally.
In 2018 she completed a two-year 500-hour yoga teacher training that gave her a solid grounding in yoga’s spiritual and physical elements.. Since then she has completed extra training in restorative and somatic yoga and is passionate about sharing the benefits of these practices.
Tammy's classes are playful and accessible, while also being heartfelt and informed by a deep belief in the healing power of yoga.
Charlie is a BYF teacher, co-founder of Om Retreats and founder of Akin Yoga. She has always loved yoga, and took her teacher training in Italy and India 10 years ago. Her passion is to help people feel happy and connected through yoga. She started Om Retreats back in 2007 with fellow BYF teacher and trustee Hannah, where guests enjoy a yoga retreat, but also get to be part of 'paying it forward’, in the form of profits from each retreat funding yoga for people who may not otherwise access the benefits of yoga. This then flourished into more collaboration and outreach opportunities with BYF, where Charlie taught Therapeutic Yoga to many different participants. Charlie brings a natural and welcoming warmth to her teaching, and is very proud to be part of the vibrant and multi-faceted teaching team at BYF. She is also qualified in Pilates, pre-natal yoga and Les Mills Bodybalance.
Megan is a qualified as a 200hr hatha and vinyasa flow teacher. She also works as an Occupational Therapist within a NHS mental health team with extensive experience working with a range of mental and physical health conditions. Megan integrates these therapeutic skills as well as yoga philosophy into her classes.
Tiffany began teaching yoga classes in 2013 and is now in the process of completing her training as an accredited Yoga Therapist.
Passionate about healing she has experienced repeatedly the benefits of yoga whether it be in support of everyday life or in times of difficulty.
Tiffany has experience supporting people with CFS, M.E., anxiety, depression, PTSD , menstruation symptoms, insomnia, general burn out, scoliosis as well as other back problems and general low mood.
Weaving in yoga philosophy, encouraging agency and connection are all at the heart of her classes.
Indie a yoga guide with a focus on rest, intentional movement and breath. She teaches in a way that invites curiosity, reflection and a space to allow whatever comes up to be felt. With much of her training completed with Susanna Barkataki, Indie sits at the intersection of Yoga and Social justice. The belief that the practice and ethics of Yoga are intertwined with social change, community and equity and span much further than the physical practice we see. Indie delivers classes and offerings as part of the project to make Yoga accessible to BPOC and marginalised communities across Brighton and Hove.
YOUNG PEOPLE'S OUTREACH TEAM
Tamsin is a yoga teacher based in Brighton and founder of Sprite Yoga. She has taught yoga for over 10 years and teaches regularly in both primary and secondary schools throughout Sussex. As a registered Yoga Teacher Trainer with Yoga Alliance Professionals Tamsin runs CPD courses to equip PE teachers to offer yoga themselves within school. Tamsin is also a qualified teacher and has taught GCSE and A Level Dance and Drama in Secondary and Further Education for many years. For BYF Tamsin has led projects for teenagers in secondary schools across the city since 2018. She has recently recorded 30 minute sessions for the BYF YouTube channel with the aim of keeping young people moving and supporting their mental wellbeing during lockdown. Her next project for us is to co-ordinate a yoga project for students in Further Education in Brighton and Worthing.
Durgha (@durgha15) is a BYF yoga teacher and the Co-Founder of @mindful_warriors_ , a social enterprise bringing yoga classes to children, schools and the community. Her work at Mindful Warriors is as much about sharing the practise of yoga and mindfulness for wellbeing and positive mental health as it is about youth work and developing community projects. Mindful Warriors is celebrating 3 years of service and during the pandemic has delivered a number of online projects as well engaging children and young people with their Digital Classroom filled with fun yoga video lessons! She is a world traveller and passionate about connecting continents through education, enterprise and employability focused initiatives. Her journey has taken her to India, China, Sri Lanka, The Gambia, Israel and the Palestinian Territories (to name a few!) working with young people, communities, schools, universities and businesses. Now back home in the UK and alongside her work at Mindful Warriors, Durgha works at the University of Sussex. Since lockdown she has been teaching her colleagues yoga online. She loves the sense of calm and peace that yoga brings to her life and being able to share this with others. Durgha has supported the work of BYF through volunteering at our festivals and getting involved with our teacher meet ups. She is currently delivering online yoga sessions to young people at @amazesussex in a project partnership with Active Sussex to help young people stay active.
Caroline is a new member of the Brighton Yoga Foundation youth yoga teaching team but has been involved with the Foundation since the very first Brighton Yoga Festival and was the Volunteer Coordinator for 4 years
Caroline aims to dispel the idea that yoga is only for a certain type of person, body type, ability or age. She strongly believes everyone can do yoga and that a good teacher offers sessions that are accessible to people who are beginners to yoga as well as those that are more experienced.
With her other hat on, Caroline is a youth worker and is passionate about the wellbeing of young people. Two years ago, she worked with BYF to introduce a Yoga for Teenagers programme in Moulsecoomb. She is now involved in a new community based yoga for teens project and is really looking forward to offering yoga classes in youth clubs again when they reopen.