Judy Hirsh Sampath

Founder of Yoga Headspace, Yoga United Education and co-founder of Yoga United, Judy brings a creative mix of yoga-based practices to engage health seekers of all ages, sizes and abilities to tune into their own head space and inner wisdom. She takes yoga, meditation, embodied mindfulness and yoga therapy into health spas, offices, schools, mental health & fertility settings in group and 1-2-1 sessions.

Like many people, Judy first tried yoga to deal with back pain and stress. In the first class she took, as soon as the teacher started the class with the instruction ‘Lie down on your back and surrender your body to the ground’, Judy knew that this was her kind of exercise, in fact, it felt more like coming home! Over the next few years of practice, she noticed some changes in her perspective, and her attitude to herself and others.

When she’s not working, she enjoys bootcamp and chocolate, not in equal quantities but working on balancing the two!

Judy says ‘We all face situations where we feel overwhelmed by events in our lives. Personal situations can create chronic stress, feelings of confusion, negative internal dialogue and overwhelming sadness which can take hold of and get stuck in the body, mind and spirit.’ Judy believes that yoga can have positive effects on how we view our own reality and connect with the peaceful Self within. ‘All the knowledge we need is buried deep inside ourselves and yoga practices can help us to reconnect with them and the world, restore our health and heal ourselves.’

She holds The British Wheel of Yoga teaching diploma, teaches the BWY Foundation course, has studied The Communicating Body yoga therapy with the Life Centre/Biomedical Trust, and is a Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapist (600hr training). Her teachers include Billy Doyle, Donna Farhi, Judith Lasater, Richard Miller, Michael Lee, and she has been inspired by teachers working in the style of BKS Iyengar, and Vanda Scaravelli. She has completed courses in NLP, Shamanic journeying, and Art Therapy.

During an intensive period of self-enquiry and mediation, Judy came to a revelation: her body loved her unconditionally, and all she had to do was love it back. It was so simple and awakened a chain of self-healing and wholeness. This awareness came to her when the noise of the critical mind was turned down to make way for the intuitive, quieter wise part of herself to speak. Ever since, Judy has been exploring how to tune into the body’s wisdom and support others to do the same. She engages yoga, mindfulness, meditation and therapies to unlock the bodies’ natural intelligence to educate people to become experts in themselves and empower them towards their own healing. Awareness, perception, acceptance, and non-judgment are powerful tools to create personal choices to deal with stress, troubles, worry, difficult emotions – and leads to a healthier, richer and more joyful outlook on life. Judy is passionate about sharing this sensitive and intuitive approach to yoga therapy, and is the creator and director of a ground-breaking 550 hour training in Yoga Therapy in the UK with a host of inspiring tutors, and includes a Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy module. The first module of this training is being run as a BWY module. Judy studied Yoga Therapy with the Life Centre/Biomedical Trust in the UK, and the Phoenix Rising method in the US. She is certified with the International Association of Yoga Therapists.

It gives her great pleasure to be able to share this essential work with other health seekers, based on her own journey inwards. Working in groups or one-to-one, she is always amazed by feedback from students about how yoga has changed their bodies, their minds and their lives too. Judy Hirsh is a senior yoga teacher, and yoga therapist working in north London and South India since the turn of the century, a milestone for her in changing career.   She encourages people of all ages, sizes and abilities, teaching open classes, BWY foundation course, workshops, retreats and holidays.

Through embodied movement, mostly close to the ground, this practice invites a gentle and supported exploration of the spine. Using a simple scale as a guide, you are encouraged to move with awareness - track sensations and describe to yourself what you notice. This noticing and naming process creates clearer awareness and understanding that can offer valuable insight, supporting a deeper understanding of how pain is held, shifts, and releases in the body.

Over time, this attentive mindful approach may open new perspectives - inviting a more curious, compassionate relationship with pain, and celebration of the body, with the messages the body is communicating with you from body, mind and spirit.

–"listen to your body" is an instruction you have probably heard in a yoga class before to avoid injury. In this session, by slowing movement and allowing more time and space, we cultivate interoceptive awareness to notice subtle sensations and responses as they arise. Guided by real-time feedback from the body, mind, nervous and subtle energy systems, you will be invited to feel into fear and safety - how deep to go and how long to hold. Rooted in present-centred awareness, deep body listening opens the possibility to access deeper, embodied forms of "knowing without thinking".

Through this process, you will be supported in developing greater self-awareness, trust in your own inner cues, and becoming empowered through sensitivity, self-understanding and agency within practice.

Working with a real client in real time will offer insight into the key differences between a one to one  yoga class and a yoga therapy session.

There will also be time for Q&A to reflect on what you observed, along with a breakdown of the session structure and clinical approach.

This end of the day session offers gentle bedtime sequences designed to support the body and mind in transitioning toward horizontal, restful and the subtle, dreamy states of awareness, and 'okness'.

Using pranayama, swara yoga, and yoga nidra practices, you will be guided to soften, regulate, and move towards inner settling - allowing for a more easeful descent into rest and sleep.