Buddhist Integral Yoga is an approach to health and healing developed by myself, Dr Guhyasakhi (Bernadette) Carelse, based on my background and experience of practicing and teaching Buddhism, mindfulness, yoga and shiatsu. I have been practising yoga since 1985 (aged 14) and teaching yoga since 1998 – I qualified as a yoga teacher, with the British Wheel of Yoga in 2001.

The aim of this synthesis of yoga and energy practices is to enhance holistic health – body, mind, and beyond – through deep embodied awareness and cultivation of mindfulness at all levels of being.

What is Buddhist Integral Yoga? Yoga is a generic term that refers to a range of physical, mental and spiritual practices that originated in ancient India.  It includes physical postures (asanas), breathing techniques (pranayama) and meditation.

Healing is founded in the physical, embodied level, with all the impact of past experiences that lead to reactions, including automatic reactions, unconscious tendencies, addictive habits. It also involves the meta-physical (energy level) and the levels that connect the two. It is here, in this ‘etheric’ region, that the meridians flow.

My background: I have been teaching Yoga since 1998, in the early days of my training as a Yoga Teacher with the British Wheel of Yoga (BWY) – I started by running an after-school club for at a local primary school. Then, in 1999, I learnt Healing Tao practices as taught by Mantak Chia  and Kris Deva North. This included training in working with the meridian energy flow through yoga postures. In 2001, I qualified as a yoga teacher with the British Wheel of Yoga.  This training included how to adapt yoga postures, breathing and meditation practices to the needs of the participants.

Over the decade that followed, with further training in mindfulness, I developed the Integral Yoga approach – and informed this through my Doctoral Research as an Educational Psychologist which included researching applications of mindfulness and understanding attention skills.

In 2021, I was ordained in the Triratna Buddhist Order and since then, have integrated Buddhist principles and practices within the yoga framework and my own personal practice of energy/ prana/ chi cultivation and over 20 years of experience as a teacher.

Over all, Integral Yoga is a synthesis of a range of practices, such as Mindfulness, yoga practices – outlined by the 8 limbs of Yoga (Yoga Sutras of Patanjali). This includes yamas (retraints), niyamas (observances), asana (physical posture work), pranayama (breathing practices), dharana (concentration) and dhyana (contemplation) – and the integration of this with Buddhism, including the Noble Eightfold Path and cultivation of deep meditative states – levels of dhyana. It also build on Taoist ‘esoteric’ Yoga practices for health and vitality – such as Tai Chi / Chi Kung to enhance and harmonise the meridians – the networks of energy channels that flow throughout the body and which include the ‘chakras’, places within the body where the energy channels converge.

What do participants say about the classes?

“The teaching is to a high standard.  Bernadette is very knowledgeable and brings this to each class and person attending.”

“Bernadette is an excellent tutor.”

“ It [the class] improves my health.”

“The best thing about this course is the varied programme and the challenges presented.”

“I’ve tried different courses in the past and our teacher is the most professional and I like the way she teaches.”