Claudia has a Diploma in Qigong Teaching and Meditation Teaching, The Shiatsu College, London 2015-2017
Learning qigong happened somewhat by accident. Living a fast-paced life as a freelance journalist, the cracks began to show in my mid-30s. I was desperate for some time out from the hecticness of life and took a low-cost silent meditation retreat in Wales, purely to be quiet and do very little for a while.
On the retreat, we did qigong every morning and it felt like leaning into something my body and mind hadn’t realised it wanted to do. The movements felt ‘right’ somehow. Qigong can be a bit like re-learning and re-training the body to do what we would do if we were fully in flow and connected to the energy of life.
I continued going on the retreats and learning more and practising at home, and felt so much better when I did qigong. In 2015, I enrolled on a 2 year in-person training course to become a teacher under the guidance of Sifu Wing Cheung and his senior instructors.
I still undertake continued professional development with the college, as well as other trainings to develop my own practise and to be able to keep offering quality classes to students.
I also still work a portion of each week as a freelance writer and editor covering social issues. I am passionate about postive social change and equality. I work hard to keep making my classes more and more inclusive to a wider range of people.
I also aim to bring a warm, fun and clear teaching style, accessible to as many people as possible.
Qigong hugely boosts my own wellbeing, creativity, physical and mental energy. I like to create music, sea swim, run, go the gym and hike, spending as much time as possible in nature, and also enjoy lots of yin time – trying new teas in meditation sessions on my own and with others (I run ocassional tea meditations).
I am fully insured by Balens Ltd.
Over the last 10 years, I’ve:
- Spent 3+ years as meditation and qigong coach at the UK’s number 1 school of the decade (Brighton College).
- Worked for the NHS social prescribing programme running multiple qigong programmes for elderly people
- Been commissioned to create qigong exercise learning programmes for hundreds of care home activity leaders across the UK
- Run numerous years of qigong minfulness sessions at mental health and addiction recovery centres, for refugees and other community groups
- Led qigong (and tea meditation) sessions at a wide variety of retreats and events, including Flow Fest, Raw Fest, Calm Down on the Downs Retreats and Pride in Wellness LGBTQIA+ wellness festival at Canary Wharf.
- Run multiple staff wellbeing sessions using qigong and mindful movement for clients such as Kew Gardens, Crunch Accountancy, Survivors’ Network, Pathways to Health and more.
- Led weekly online and in-person qigong classes for groups and 1-2-1 clients