About Camilla
BACKGROUND
MY TEACHING JOURNEY
Camilla has been practicing yoga for over twenty years and teaching world wide for ten.
She has practiced Hatha, Ashtanga, Vinyasa flow, Yin and Yoga Nidra.
Her teaching has evolved from an alignment-based and linear practice to a more instinctive, free flowing, creative flow.
Whilst echoing traditional yoga asana and philosophy, and reaping its benefits, she moves away from the idea of ‘one posture/sequence fits all bodies’ towards a more individual practice.
Having lived in London for 14 years, Camilla discovered yoga gave her the balance she needed to survive city and corporate life. As a result of a hectic and stressful schedule, and although she exercised regularly, she began to experience panic attacks. After her Doctor recommended she ‘learned to breath’ and try yoga, Camilla was surprised to find the practice gave her something more than other forms of exercise.
Camilla first started practicing Hatha style yoga at the Sivanada Centre and Triyoga studios in London. With a passion for travel, Camilla then moved to live and work in Bahrain in 2009 where she continued to practice yoga. Following a trip to Sri Lanka, she fell in love with the island and took the opportunity to live there for ten months, volunteering as an English teacher and yoga assistant in the south of the island. She was introduced to Ashtanga yoga in Sri Lanka, which inspired her to visit Mysore in India for a month of disciplined, daily ‘Mysore style’ practice where she practiced under Ajay Kumar.
Camilla moved to Dubai in 2010 , where she finally left her 17 year corporate career in Public Relations behind to do her 200hr yoga teacher training in Vinyasa flow under Erica Blitz. Camilla then taught yoga for 3 years full time in Dubai for studios, private groups, corporates and hotels. She was also Assistant Manager and yoga instructor at Naya Yoga and Pilates studio in Dubai. She ran her first retreat to Sri Lanka and continued to run them in other wonderful places over the years.
In 2015 she met her husband and in 2017 they moved to Singapore with their son Charlie. Here, Camilla taught for Yoga Lab at Core Collective Dempsey.
In 2018 she set up Simply Pause Retreats in collaboration with life coach Helen Day. Simply Pause was designed for women to retreat in beautiful surroundings and immerse themselves in yoga, meditation, coaching and relaxation taking them on a journey of self discovery.
Then COVID hit the world and Camilla was forced to take more of a journey inward to discover what she really wanted to now offer as a teacher and guide. During the first ‘lockdown’ in Singapore, Camilla embarked on an online one-to-one mentorship programme with famous US based embodiment yoga teacher Julie Martin. She unraveled her old styles of linear and alignment based teaching to a more creative, instinctive and fun way of sequencing.
It was from this programme Camilla started her own yoga based company, ‘Creative Yoga by Camilla’. Within this practice she helps students feel empowered to move in a way that suits their own physical needs WITHOUT comparison or judgement. They will dissolve negative mental thought processes with the help of movement, breathing and meditation. She currently teaches yoga to private groups (adults and teen girls), individuals and corporate teams, as well as hosting and running mindful and creative experiences.
In her classes
Camilla guides…
Individuals towards movements and holds that their body instinctively needs. Students are encouraged to let go of judgement and inner critics and move towards a space of acceptance where they can simply ‘be’ in their body and the moment. Many of us spend too much time in our head so Camilla’s classes provide a space to ‘get out of your head and into your body’. How a yoga asana looks is not important; how it feels is far more valuable.