Meet our Founder

Hello! I’m Clare . . .

I was only 23 when I found yoga and trained as a teacher. I was lucky. I had found my passion and loved it! A few years later in 2006 I found out I was expecting. It was a huge surprise. I needed yoga more than ever to help me cope with all the changes happening in my life and in my body!

I put everything into practice; breathing, movement, relaxations and mindfulness to help me each day. I was using all these techniques to prepare for birth and what was to come. After having my son, I wanted to share these amazing practices to help others and so, when he was only 6 months old, I returned to teaching and LushTums was born!

25 years on, you’ll still find me teaching in my favourite studio in the heart of Brighton’s North Laines. Seeing how much my classes were helping people, I decided to train others to share LT far and wide! So far I’ve trained over 100 teachers since 2013 so now you’ll find LushTums classes all over the UK and around the world. If you’d like to train too and join our wonderful community you can too! Just visit our training website over here!

Welcome to ‘other’ Clair!!

Having done so much on my own, in 2019 I welcomed Clair McGill as my business partner. I had trained Clair too, a few years previously, and she was already busy and set up as a LushTums teacher in Bristol. Together we have continued to grow and nurture LushTums to where we are today.

Now pregnant women & new mums can enjoy all our signature practices via our online yoga and birth prep Digital Pack too as we want to make our empowering and much loved LushTums practices, accessible to everyone from anywhere in the world!

We hope to welcome you to a class soon,

Much love,

Clare & Clair

xx

MORE INFO ABOUT OUR FOUNDER:

I am a Senior Yoga Teacher registered with Yoga Alliance Professionals and FEDANT. I have professional experience teaching yoga for around 25 years. I completed my Doula Training ( 2012) with Kate Woods founder of Conscious Birthing; and I have supported numerous people before, during and after childbirth. I am an Antenatal Educator (since 2006). All our Teacher Training content has been thoroughly assessed by midwife colleagues and is fully accredited by FEDANT; giving us the best mark of excellence in this field.

I think it’s important to know ones yoga lineage. I lived in San Francisco to train with Tony Sanchez, founding director of the United States Yoga Association and the San Francisco Yoga Studio; creator of a system called Yoga Challenge, based on the 84 classic asanas taught at Ghosh’s College of Physical Education in Calcutta, India, where Sanchez was certified in 1979. The college was established in 1923 by Bishnu Ghosh and his brother Paramahansa Yogananda, founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship.

A few years after completing this year long 200hr training, I developed the Yoga History and Philosophy module for Tony and then completed a further 300hr Intermediate & Advanced training with Mark Acquaviva who had trained with Gary Carter, Diane Long, Sophy Hoare and directly with Vanda Scaravelli herself. I practiced with Peter Blackaby and John Stirk and wove in the beautiful somatic practices that Scaravelli Yoga inspires.

By the time I had my son in 2006 I was passionate about offering yoga and all its myriad of benefits to help mums-to-be and new mums, having experienced those benefits for myself.

In my time, I have worked with tens of thousands of women and their families, spoken at numerous conferences, lectured at midwifery events and sparked many discussions on making birth positive and empowering on social media and within my community. It’s been my life-long passion and I would be delighted to share this with you on one of our trainings.