Jean Hall

Jean Hall is an author, yoga teacher and somatic movement educator based in London. She is known for somatic yoga, Daoist Flow Yoga, meditation and mindfulness teaching, and for retreats and teacher trainings in the UK and abroad. Her website describes a curiosity about how movement and consciousness meet, how fluidity fosters resilience, and how embodiment nurtures well-being.

Jean came to yoga while training as a dancer. What began as a sideline became a devotional, lifelong practice, and she says yoga, movement, meditation and mindfulness have supported her through life's ups and downs. She first qualified as an Iyengar yoga teacher in 1995 and has since studied different forms of yoga, movement and spiritual practice with teachers from diverse backgrounds. She names the teachings of Pema Chödrön, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen and Peter Levine as particular influences. She has worked with fellow teachers and artists including Aki Omori, Anna Ashby, Liz Lark, Mimi Kuo Deemer and Karen Yeomans. Her credentials include MMTCP (Meditation and Mindfulness Teaching Certification), Senior Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance Professionals (UK), E-RYT-500 with Yoga Alliance (US), and an MA in Performing Arts. She has written several yoga books, among them "Astanga". She co-founded Daoist Flow Yoga Level 1 and triyoga's Advanced Teacher Training.

At the heart of Jean's teaching is an invitation to listen to the body's inner wisdom, with the breath as the source of movement and the earth as a place of support. Her classes weave asana with somatic movement principles. A session may include breath awareness, physical postures, Vinyasa flow, pranayama, meditation, relaxation and ethical principles. She teaches open classes in London, including Vinyasa Flow and Daoist Flow Yoga at MISSION.E1 in Shoreditch, with livestream options for some classes. She also runs a monthly somatic flow yoga livestream, with recordings available. She offers one to one and small group tuition online via Zoom, with private sessions that can focus on posture alignment, fluid movement, yoga philosophy, meditation and breath awareness.

Jean's library holds recorded courses, including Somatic Flow bundles of four and six classes, a Hip Flow mobility series and a Yoga Foundation Course. In the Somatic Flow series each class has two parts. The first introduces movement principles such as breath awareness, alignment and functional movement patterns. The second applies them in guided yoga flow. The six-class series includes classes titled Start Small, Slow & Low, Pulse, Resourcing, Bones & Space Inbetween, and Filling & Emptying. She also writes on breath and wellbeing, including an article on breathing and the nervous system.

Her retreats take place in settings across the UK and further afield. They include Yoga and Mindfulness retreats at Sharpham House in Devon, and Daoist Flow retreats with Mimi Kuo Deemer at Florence House near the East Sussex coast, where she leads morning meditation and somatic yoga and Mimi leads qigong. With Liz Lark she has led yoga retreats in Tuscany, Italy, and in Essaouira, Morocco, with yoga twice daily. She has also led a retreat at Treehotel in Swedish Lapland. Her website also lists retreats in Finland, Madagascar and Darjeeling, India.

Jean's classes are open to a wide range of people. Her online classes include modifications for beginners and people with injuries, as well as stronger variations for those who enjoy a challenge, and her library series are suitable for all levels. Students describe her teaching as attentive to small details of alignment, and as a space in which they find strength and peacefulness. A reader of her book "Astanga" credits it with insight and companionship on her own path as a teacher. Her teaching aims to help people reconnect with presence, vitality and balance.