why vicky?

Expresssive movement as therapy is a concept that Vicky Oliver has grown up with. As a young man, her father Michael Edward Mitchell was a ballet dancer under Madame Rambert's tutelage before his career was stunted by his conscription to the mines as a 'Bevin Boy'.

Vicky first became interested in developing an awareness of the interconnection between the mind and the body as a junior competitive athlete in 1981. Her interest deepened when she sustained two major injuries in 1985 which eventually brought an end to her running career.

Vicky went on to study expressive movement between 1990 and 1991 with Desmond Jones at his physical theatre school. Desmond's training had a profound effect on Vicky's approach to teaching. He taught Vicky that a good teacher does not just reproduce what they have been taught. Evolvement comes from rigorous self-study.

Vicky continued her studies at Goldsmith's College between 1992 and 1997 where she studied journalism and then chose an academic route to explore her creativity, studying a BA in English. Here Vicky honed her skills in articulacy and projection of ideas. Throughout this time of intense study Vicky gave birth to two children and her attention turned to yoga as she required a meditative form of exercise for mental and physical health. Vicky discovered that efficient living was impossible without emotional control, for Vicky, yoga promoted such mastery.

In 1998 when her sons were 3 and 1, Vicky took a keen interest in yoga for children and decided to embark on a yoga teacher training program that would fully enlighten her to the history of yoga.

In 1999 Vicky studied to train as a yoga therapist with Sunra. Narayani, a profoundly spiritual teacher was to be her main inspiration. The richness and uniqueness of Vicky's teaching lies in the way she has united all strands of her knowledge and experience into a coherent philosophy. This philosophy is memorably carried along by her personality and energy.

Between 2001 and 2004 Vicky has also lectured and taught at King's College Hospital as part of a wider programme; introducing complementary therapies to final year medical students of the major London hospitals.

In 2003 Vicky completed her commissioned book 'The Yoga Bananas Book' to be published by Octopus. Sadly 6 weeks before print the book was pulled due to US distribution problems and was held under contract until 2005. Vicky is still sitting on it....

Between 2003 and 2008 Vicky worked extensively on her project Yoga Bananas, yoga for balanced, bendy children, offering teacher training as well as specialist classes. Yoga Bananas has been commissioned by Selfridges, BBC and for the last four years an inner London state school to enhance their physical and spiritual curriculum. See www.yogabananas.com for more information.

In 2004 Vicky completed a doula course with Michel Odent, natural birth pioneer, who for years had been an inspiration. Vicky had been an advocate of natural birth since her first self-managed labour and birth in 1995. Michel attended the lotus birth of her third son in 2005 where he told Vicky that he felt she should follow her path as a doula and that her strength and knowledge would be invaluable to women in the future. Since then Vicky has made the health of women during pregnancy, labour, birth and the post-partum phase a priority through teaching her pregnancy classes and pregnancy teacher training courses. whYoga for Pregnancy Teacher Training Courses now run regularly throughout the year. Both Yoga Bananas and whYoga For Pregnancy are recognised by the Yoga Alliance as part of a yoga teacher's continuing education programme.

Vicky has recently become sole subject matter expert in yoga for ITEC. ITEC is the largest international examination board offering a variety of qualifications worldwide. Vicky is embracing her new role and hopes to build a focused, relevant and in depth syllabus for prospective students to follow, reflecting the required level of knowledge and skill needed for a practicing therapist.

Vicky prefers to take her inspiration for teaching from a broad spectrum of discilplines. Philosophy and the Arts inform her approach to teaching as well as the plethora of Hatha yoga tradition. Vicky's classes own an eclectic style of yoga teaching that offers her students the chance to experience variation and exploration of yoga techniques including an application of posture work according to Ayurvedic principles. Her classes are both dynamic and meditative and suitable for those who wish to open their mind to health and self-realisation. The classes will at times explore sequencing, breathing, chanting, readings, and an innovative approach to asana practice. Vicky works in collaboration with Andrew Lawrence of One Long Hum Design to produce unique and classic illustrations of some of Vicky's most innovative sequencing work, they offer her students the freedom to practice at home. Andrew has also produced the illustrations for her book and designs all her promotional work.

For the future Vicky hopes to complete an MA in Creative Writing.

Vicky is truly grateful for all the support of her students and all the generous things they have had to say over the past twelve years. She hopes you can join her for the next twelve!