TeenYoga Tutors
The TeenYoga Teaching Yoga and Mindfulness to Teens Courseis taught by our highly qualified and motivated trainers. Whether it is Charlotta or another of our trainers leading your course, you can be assured of the highest level of teaching, organisation and enthusiasm!
Charlotta Martinus
Charlotta started her professional life as a school teacher before going on to complete her degree in modern languages from UCL, and becoming a yoga teacher within the Sivananda tradition.
Charlotta started Teenyoga in 2004, supported and encouraged by Jo Manuel of the Special Yoga Foundation. Together with many colleagues within medicine, osteopathy, psychiatry and psychology as well as steeped in the yoga tradition, the TeenYoga course was born and developed in the subsequent years.
The main aim and mission of the research, training and work that is undertaken by TeenYoga is to alleviate suffering among young people in the UK.
TeenYoga now has 4 trained teachers who deliver the course worldwide and 500 alumni. The teachers below have been carefully selected to teach the TeenYoga course to an exceptional standard.
Niki Moss Simpson
Niki Moss Simpson is the Founder of Shine. Sparkle. Radiate; a well-being and lifestyle initiative empowering girls & women to live fully vibrant and vital lives through nurturing mindful techniques, holistic therapies, ancient wisdom, coaching and mentoring, workshops, talks, Teen Yoga Foundation classes, Restorative Hatha Yoga and retreat
programs. She is passionate about facilitating retreats & holding space for others to discover who they are in a hectic, material world. Niki trained with Charlotta whilst teaching in Barcelona & introduced yoga to teens in the American school she was teaching at. A yogi for over 15 years, Niki trained gained her 300 hour restorative yoga teacher certification in January 2020 in Mysore, India.
Originally from Darlington in the north east of England, Niki has spent time traveling and exploring cultures & traditions and herself and has lived and worked in France, Switzerland and Spain as a teacher of English language and Literature and well-being and houseparent/Head of Boarding in various international schools over the last 20 years. In the UK, she has taught in all educational sectors including Primary, EBD and Special education but is highly specialized in working with teens and is the Tween-Teen parenting blog writer for MumAbroad. As a holistic therapist, Niki has worked alongside Chiropractors, Sophrologues and as a Reflexologist for Cancer Bridge supporting patients and their carers.
She is proud of raising two children mainly as a single mum, cheerleading the hundreds of women and girls she has worked with over the years, blogging about her beliefs and practices for creating the best life of your dreams and co authoring the international best selling book the Pay it Forward series; Notes to my Younger Self volume 2. She loves her kids, yoga, the sound of the ocean, listening to people with an open heart and helping them to grow, to ground & to expand.
Ed Atkins
Ed is a teacher of yoga and languages based in Norwich. He trained with the Sivananda organisation in Austria in 2011, spent six months working as a full-time staff member in Paris, and has been teaching yoga to adults in London and Norwich since then. He completed the Teen Yoga training with Charlotta in 2014, and his 500-hour yoga teacher training in South India in 2019.
Between June 2013 and July 2019 he worked at a West London academy chain as a teacher of Spanish and French, where he also offered yoga classes to staff and young people from year 7 to year 13.
He has worked closely with the Teen Yoga Foundation over the past six years, accompanying the team to Spain on four occasions to support the delivery of the course, and now working as a tutor for the online course.
Ed’s interest in yoga has extended into a passion for Indian classical music and the practice of kirtan, which he now offers in Norwich with his wife.
DIANNE MURPHY
Dianne is the founder of Mettamind Yoga and a senior yoga teacher and mentor with the Teen Yoga Foundation. She is a fully qualified Yoga and mindfulness teacher based in North London where she also works as a teacher and Wellbeing & Mindfulness Leader in a local secondary school.
Dianne began practising yoga twenty years ago, initially teaching yoga to adults then teenagers in 2011. It is her belief that yoga and mindfulness not only help empower teenagers with positive ways of coping with the demands and challenges of life, but that by providing them with the tools to look after their own wellbeing, to be resilient and compassionate, that these adolescents will develop into a generation of positive change in the world.
After training with the Teen Yoga Foundation in 2015 Dianne has remained an active volunteer working with us on several projects, mentoring, delivering workshops, assisting on the London Teacher Training Course and at the annual Instill conference. Dianne has a wealth of experience teaching yoga to 11-24 year olds in schools, studios and sports clubs, and for organisations including the Hive Outreach Centre, The Life Centre, National Citizenship Scheme, and also running wellbeing, yoga and mindfulness sessions in schools for both staff and students throughout London and the South East.
Dianne’s style of teaching is adaptive and compassionate; aiming to meet the individual needs of students in a friendly and relaxed manner regardless of their level of fitness or experience. Through yoga and mindfulness she hopes to provide a genuine experience where students can learn the value of self-worth and gain confidence to be authentic, and above all; to value themselves as unique individuals.
DEBBIE RICHARDS
Hi I’m Debbie a yoga teacher and teacher and mentor for the Teen Yoga Foundation. I’ve been practising yoga for more than 20 years.
I initially trained as a French teacher and after working for 16 years as a classroom teacher I set up a business to organise French exchanges and Erasmus programs for schools. I did this for 12 years until 2017.
I have always worked with young people and now teach yoga to both adults and young people. I am passionate about education for wellness and empowering young people to make positive changes for themselves and the world and around them.
I also care deeply about nutrition and sustainable ways of eating as part of a holistic education. I believe yoga can be truly transformative in supporting positive self-regard in young people through community, connection and confidence in your own unique self.
Walking, cooking, reading, playing tennis, relaxing in the bath, meditating and connecting with friends are among my favourite ways to spend time.
CLAIRE MARIE TAMPLIN
Secondary School Teacher of English and Drama, Yoga and Mindfulness Teacher 200 hrs and Teen Yoga Specialist, Claire is a Mother of two, with a wish to ‘cultivate a kind, compassionate, non- judgemental and secure culture that allows Teen essence to flourish. Authenticity, truth, empowerment and peace for all young people.’
Claire has studied Senior Leadership at Institute of Education, University of London; focusing on Emotional Intelligence, delivers lectures to Trainee Teachers at Portsmouth University and coining herself ‘The Mindful Movement Coach’, Claire has been invited to teach at the prestigious World Yoga festival.
Claire writes for OM Yoga and Lifestyle magazine and has her own radio show on Express FM, called ‘Cultivating Courageous Conversations’, whereby she interviews inspiring people within the community and invites them to lean into conversations sharing their mental health journeys.
When she is not driving the force and movement for well-being in education, Claire loves being near (or even better!) in the sea, walks in nature with her children, writing and running.