Personalised movement for your body, your life and your goals
Sometimes a group class isn’t quite enough.
Private sessions for people who don’t fit the standard exercise mould
Experience working with persistent pain, hypermobility and hEDS, as well as everyday strength, mobility, balance and movement goals.
You might have a particular problem you’d like to work on, a yoga pose that doesn’t feel right, an old injury that still affects how you move, or a body that simply doesn’t seem to respond to exercise in the way you’d expect.
Private sessions give us the time and space to look at you as an individual.
Rather than giving everyone the same exercises, I can look at how you move, what you’re trying to achieve, what your body is currently able to do and what may be getting in the way.
We can draw from Hatha Yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi & Qigong and postural rehabilitation, choosing the tools that are most useful for you.
It’s not about forcing your body to fit the exercise.
It’s about finding the right starting point for your body and helping you build from there.
When private sessions can be particularly useful
Private sessions may be a good fit if:
- you can’t make regular group classes because of work or other commitments
- group classes don’t feel comfortable for you
- you’d prefer the teacher’s undivided attention
- you need more individual modifications than are practical in a group
- you’re living with a long-standing movement problem
- you’re returning to activity after an injury or operation
- you’d like help developing a home practice
- you want to work towards a particular Yoga posture or physical goal
- you want to explore movement at your own pace
- you would like to understand your body better
- you simply want some uninterrupted time to work on yourself
You don’t have to arrive knowing exactly what you need.
That’s part of what we’re working out together.
What could we work on?
Private sessions can be useful when you have something specific you’d like to explore, or when your body needs more individual attention than a group class can provide.
You might want to:
- improve your balance or coordination
- build core or whole-body strength
- improve mobility and range of movement
- work on posture and movement patterns
- find more comfortable ways to move
- develop a particular Yoga posture
- understand why a particular movement feels difficult
- build a home practice that makes sense for your body
- work around an old injury or ongoing physical limitation
- prepare your body for a sport, hobby or physical activity
- explore breathing, relaxation or mindfulness
- regain confidence in moving your body
- simply have some dedicated time to focus on yourself
Your session isn’t based on being a particular age, fitness level or degree of flexibility.
We start where you are.
One-off Private Session
Have something specific you want to work on?
You don’t necessarily need to commit to a programme of private sessions.
The One-off Private Session gives you 60 minutes to focus on something that matters to you.
Perhaps:
There’s a Yoga pose you’ve never quite been able to get comfortable with.
Your core feels weak and you want to understand what you can actually do about it.
Your balance isn’t what it used to be.
You’re returning to exercise after an injury or period of being less active.
You’d like to explore Tai Chi, Qigong or breathing techniques.
You want some help developing a home practice.
Or perhaps you’ve simply got a question about your body that you can’t answer by following another YouTube video.
Before we meet, I’ll ask you about what you’d like to work on and anything about your current health or circumstances that I need to take into account.
I’ll then plan the session around you and your particular goal.
£48 · 60 minutes
This is a one-off session with no ongoing commitment.
Please get in touch before purchasing so we can agree a suitable time and make sure the session is appropriate for what you’d like to work on.
Ask about a One-off Private Session →
Regular Private Sessions
Want more than a one-off?
Some things take time.
If you’d like ongoing support, regular private sessions give us the opportunity to work consistently towards your goals and adapt what we do as your body changes.
Rather than simply repeating the same exercises each week, we’ll build on what you’ve learned and gradually develop your strength, mobility, balance, coordination and confidence.
Your programme can draw from different approaches depending on what you need — Yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi & Qigong and CHEK-informed movement principles can all form part of the work.
The aim is to give you useful things you can take away from the session and use in everyday life, rather than making you dependent on coming to see me forever.
What regular private sessions might look like
We might work on:
- improving movement around a stiff or restricted area
- developing strength where you need more support
- improving balance and coordination
- exploring movement patterns that aren’t working well for you
- finding ways to make everyday activities easier
- building towards a particular physical goal
- developing a sustainable home practice
- gradually increasing your confidence and physical capacity
£192 every 4 weeks
Your regular session is 60 minutes once a week, with your appointment reserved for you.
Regular sessions work particularly well when you’re looking for consistency, accountability and someone who can keep adapting the plan as you progress.
Ask about Regular Private Sessions →
Bring someone with you
Private sessions can also be shared
Private doesn’t necessarily mean being on your own.
With prior agreement, you can bring a friend or partner to your private session.
This can be a lovely option if you want to work on your movement together, prefer not to attend alone, or simply enjoy having someone you know there.
The session can still be adapted around the needs and abilities of the people attending.
If you’d like to come as two, just ask when you get in touch.
A different approach to private Yoga & Pilates
There are plenty of places where you can book a one-to-one Yoga or Pilates session.
What I offer is a little different.
My approach is informed by CHEK principles, which look at the body as an interconnected system rather than treating an individual muscle, joint or posture in isolation.
I’ve found this approach particularly valuable when working with people whose bodies don’t fit neatly into the usual exercise model — including people living with persistent pain, long-standing movement problems, reduced mobility or multiple factors affecting how they feel and move.
My own experience of longstanding health problems is also a big part of why I teach this way. Learning to understand what my own body needed changed the way I approached movement, and it continues to influence the way I work with other people.
You don’t need to know anything about CHEK to work with me.
You just need to bring your body as it is.
I’ll help you work out what we can do with it.
A private session doesn’t have to look like a Yoga class
You won’t necessarily spend an hour doing traditional Yoga poses.
Depending on what you need, a session might include:
Yoga · Pilates · Tai Chi · Qigong · mobility work · strength work · balance · breathing · relaxation · movement exploration · CHEK-informed postural and movement work
The tools change according to the person.
You are the starting point — not the exercise programme.
What about chronic pain, hEDS or a complicated body?
This is one of the areas where individual work can be particularly valuable.
If you’re living with persistent pain, hypermobility, hEDS, an old injury or several health issues that affect the way you move, generic exercise advice doesn’t always make much sense.
You may have already been told to “strengthen your core”, “stretch more”, “improve your posture” or simply “keep active” — without anyone really looking at how your whole body is responding.
I have particular experience working with people whose bodies don’t fit the standard exercise model.
This includes people with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) and hypermobility spectrum disorders, where simply stretching further isn’t necessarily helpful and building strength, control, stability and awareness can be much more useful.
With hypermobility, a person can be both very flexible in some places and very stiff or uncomfortable in others. The aim isn’t to chase more flexibility just because a movement is available. Instead, we can explore how to develop better control, strength and confidence within the movement you have.
I adapt the work to the individual rather than assuming that everyone with the same diagnosis needs the same exercises.
My approach is informed by my CHEK training, which teaches an assessment-led, whole-body approach to movement. Rather than looking at a painful area completely in isolation, I consider how posture, breathing, movement patterns, strength, mobility and the demands of your everyday life may all interact.
The CHEK Institute describes the body as a “system of systems” and its practitioner training includes assessment-led programming, postural analysis, rehabilitation and chronic-pain corrective exercise.
You don’t need to know anything about CHEK to work with me.
You just need to bring your body as it is.
We’ll work out what it needs from there.
This isn’t physiotherapy or medical treatment, and I don’t diagnose health conditions. Where appropriate, I’ll work alongside any healthcare professionals involved in your care and stay within the scope of movement and exercise coaching.
If you have hEDS, another connective-tissue disorder, a significant medical condition or a recent injury, we’ll discuss this before your first session so I can make sure private movement coaching is appropriate for you.
Your session, your setting
Private sessions can take place either in my dedicated studio in Castleford or, where appropriate, in your own home.
A home session can be particularly useful if getting to a studio is difficult, if you have limited mobility, or if part of what you want to work on is how you move around your own environment.
Working in your own home can also give us the opportunity to look at movement in the context of your actual everyday life — getting up from a chair, moving around your kitchen, using the stairs or adapting activities that currently feel difficult.
Studio sessions give us access to the space and equipment we need for a wider range of movement work.
We’ll discuss which setting makes most sense for you when you get in touch.
What happens when you get in touch?
You don’t need to fill in a huge form or commit to a block of sessions just to find out whether this might be right for you.
1. Tell me what you’re looking for
Get in touch and tell me a little about what you’d like help with.
It doesn’t have to be a perfectly formulated goal. Tell me what’s happening, what you’d like to be able to do, and anything relevant about your health or movement.
2. We’ll work out what makes sense
I’ll ask you a few questions and, if necessary, we’ll arrange a short conversation before booking.
If a private session sounds appropriate, we’ll find a suitable appointment.
3. We work together
We’ll use the time to explore your movement and work towards whatever we’ve agreed to focus on.
You’ll have plenty of opportunity to ask questions and understand why we’re doing what we’re doing.
4. Take what you’ve learned with you
Where appropriate, I’ll give you things you can practice between sessions.
The goal is not simply to give you an hour of exercise.
It’s to help you become more capable of making good movement decisions for yourself.
Private Client Testimonials
Marie has a very relaxing manner and made me feel entirely at ease.
“I would like to recommend Marie as a Yoga and exercise teacher/coach. I contacted her last year after a Google search for a Yoga teacher/coach who would do individual sessions with me.
I was reluctant to go to a Yoga class because I could not do on the floor work. I understood from talking to Marie that I could start with chair and standing routines in order to build up my physical strength, flexibility, and confidence.
I had several individual sessions with her and she put together a personal plan for me to continue to use at home between our sessions. She used some guided imagery and Mindfulness meditation too which I practised already and therefore found that added to our sessions.
I continue to do her plan at home daily including the Tai Chi and am gaining in confidence around movement and being more physically flexible. I hope to be able to progress to floor work in the future and I am very pleased with my progress to date.
I would not hesitate to return for more sessions in the future. Marie has a very relaxing manner and made me feel entirely at ease.
Now aged 68 and still working part-time, I am very pleased that I started working with her. I would recommend that anyone who wants to improve their physically flexibility, rebuild muscle strength, and generally build confidence around movement to contact Marie to discuss their needs and get a personal plan from her.
I found the individual sessions just right for me and would encourage anyone in similar position to me (particularly age wise) to make the first step to contact Marie.”
Mary M. (Wakefield), February 2017
The individual attention and programmes that are completely tailored to each of our changing needs are so great that we are now committed to our private sessions.
Following a fall where I hurt my back my physio suggested I might consider some gentle yoga. I was a bit apprehensive as yoga is for all those ‘really thin and supple people’ and that just wasn’t me. My husband agreed to come along and support me and we decided to go for a private session to see what we thought of it.
We chose Marie because her blog seemed to be suggesting yoga could be for ‘ordinary’ people, of all shapes and sizes and that’s exactly what she delivered!
At our first session, Marie spent a long time talking to us both about what we wanted to achieve and making all sorts of assessments which would help her put together a plan for us, but in a very friendly and comfortable way.
Before we knew it she had sussed out any weaknesses and issues and had tailored yoga plans for each of us which she helped us work through. All conceptions of ‘thin and supple’ went out of the window and we learned how to make each yoga pose work for us, at our rate and our ability.
Nearly a year later we have both developed and are much more supple and able in our yoga and it has helped us both tremendously in our personal and leisure time and my back is the strongest it has ever been.
However, perhaps for us the biggest benefit, which was there from our first session, was the feeling of being relaxed and letting go of stress, something we had not considered as part of yoga. Both of us have busy stressful lives and the person who walks out of the room at the end of the session is not the same person who enters at the beginning. So much so that my husband, who was extremely sceptical, hates it if he misses a session for any reason.
Initially, we had thought that if we enjoyed the private yoga sessions we would transfer to a class but the benefits of having the individual attention and programmes that are completely tailored to each of our changing needs are so great that we are now committed to our private sessions.
This has been genuinely life changing in all the most positive ways and I would urge anyone who has any apprehension to go ahead and try it; yoga really is a personal experience for ‘ordinary’ people and Marie helps to make it truly individual.
Karen & Warren L. (East Yorkshire), March 2017
Ready to find out if private sessions are right for you?
You don’t have to decide whether you need one session or regular support before getting in touch.
Tell me a little about what you’re experiencing, what you’d like to change, and anything you think I should know about your health or movement.
I’ll help you work out the most appropriate way to start.
One-off Private Session · £48 / 60 minutes
Regular Private Sessions · £192 every 4 weeks
Please contact me before purchasing a private session so we can discuss your needs and arrange a suitable appointment.