David and Paula Collins

Ashtanga Yoga Dublin Teachers

The School is run by husband and wife, David Collins and Paula Herbert, for whom Yoga is a way of life. Their teaching is based on their direct personal experience over many years of practice, of the transformative power of Ashtanga Yoga.

David Collins

David

David has been practising Yoga for over 20 years now. In 2002, having been teaching yoga part-time since 1994, he decided the time had come to devote himself fully to Yoga practice and study, and he opened the School of Ashtanga in Blackrock. David has been a student of Lino Miele's, one of the most respected Ashtanga teachers in the world for 6 years, and in 2005 began to practise directly in Mysore with Guruji, Saraswati and Sharath.

In Mysore, he also studies Yoga philosophy and chanting with Dr. M.A. Jayashree and Prof. M. A. Narashima of the Ananta Research Foundation. 

Paula Herbert

Paula

Paula joined the School as a teacher at the beginning of 2004. She has a Diploma in the Practice and Philosophy of Yoga, having completed the 4 year training with the IYA.

Paula has been a student of Lino Miele's since 2003, working with him both here and in Kovalam in India. She also now studies directly with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois in Mysore. Paula is a qualified Polarity therapist and energetic massage therapist, having studied bodywork for 4 years.

Paula and David have a two-year daughter, Grace. Read Paula's article on Ashtanga and pregnancy here.

Melanie Doyle

Melanie

Melanie has followed the full cycle in School of Ashtanga Yoga, from Beginner to Teacher. She was one of the very first students to attend the School when David opened it in 2002. Since then she has progressed her practice in the School, training with David, Paula and Gwendoline Hunt and through many workshops with Lino Miele.

She now also travels to Mysore to practise with Guruji and Sharath. She trained as a teacher in the School's Teaching Apprenticeship Programme with David and Paula.

Ann Macken

Ann

Ann's first training as a teacher was with Yoga Therapy Ireland, during the course of which she began to practise Ashtanga at the Shala. 

‘From the very first class I felt a deep connection to Ashtanga. The lyrical quality of it, the flow of breath and movement, brought a calm, focus and peace that I had never experienced before in Yoga. I fell in love with it and soon established a daily practice.’

Subsequently, Ann trained with David and Paula and began to teach in the Shala in 2008. 

‘For me, the ethos of the Shala, embracing all Eight Limbs of Ashtanga, and recognising the physical practice on our mat to be but a small element of a much more profound practice, makes the Shala a very special place in which to practice and teach.’ 

Also in the summer of 2008, Ann spent a month at Richard Freeman’s ‘Yoga Workshop’ in Boulder, Colorado. In January 2010 she will go to practise in Mysore with Sharath and Saraswathi and to study with Jayashree and Narasimha.

Ann is also a musician by profession, and shares her life with Gerry and their two boys, Peter and Christopher.

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