Judy Hirsh Sampath
Founder of Yoga Headspace & Yoga United Education, Co-founder of Yoga United, Yoga Therapy trainer, Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy Faculty
She 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 s
pas, offices, schools, mental health & fertility settings in group and 1-2-1 sessions.
She runs a yoga therapy diploma training and related courses for yoga practitioners, teachers and health professionals .
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.
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 sounded so simple but she found it wasn’t so simple in practice. It awakened a chain of self-enquiry that is an ongoing life journey of self-healing and wholeness.
The 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, receive its encoded messages, learn to understand and trust them; and support others in finding their own answers and independence.
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 finding their own answers, and into their own journey of repair, healing and joy. 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. The first module of this training is open to all as all therapeutic relationship starts with befriending your Self.
Judy studied Yoga Therapy with the Life Centre/Biomedical Trust in the UK, and the Phoenix Rising method in the US, of which she is currently faculty.
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 Sampath 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 from a stressful TV editor. She encourages people of all ages, sizes and abilities, teaching open classes, personal and professional development workshops, retreats and holidays in the UK, Europe and her second home, India.
When she’s not working, she enjoys bootcamp and chocolate, not in equal quantities but working on balancing the two!
Judy Hirsh Sampath 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 and yoga therapy module, 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.
She is a certified yoga therapy professional with the International Association of Yoga Therapists and runs APD courses.
