Jamie Summers

A creative and curious soul

Yoga, art, somatics, movement, mental health work and ten years walking rounds as a postman all feed into how I teach.

My path

None of it was a straight line.

I came to yoga a bit scatty, with a body that had never really taken to the gym. Sivananda yoga, taught at my local gym, was different: calm, focused, something that actually clicked. It drew me deeper, eventually all the way to an Ashram in Kerala, India, where I completed my first teacher training in 2015. I loved my time there.

Before any of that, I'd trained in fashion and textiles at art school, then in multimedia technology, and spent four years in Brighton designing interfaces and content for e-learning. It was creative work, but it felt corporate, so I left to pursue my own art.

Then the 2008 crash happened, money got tight, and I became a postman, a job I ended up loving more than I expected. Ten years of walking rounds: outside, counting numbers, mind quiet.

Jamie seated peacefully by a wall

Teaching, training and experience

Creative, responsive,
without rigidity.

Before teaching full time, I also worked as an occupational therapy assistant, facilitating art groups and independent living skills, first in an old-style mental hospital and later in a smaller community unit.

By 2017, yoga had taken over enough of my life that I left Royal Mail to teach full time. Training as a Somatic Exercise Coach with Lisa Petersen in 2018 changed my practice and deepened my focus on self-empowerment through movement.

For over a decade I've led yoga and mindful movement classes across Manchester in community centres, universities, retreats, leisure centres and online. I particularly love the energy of a lively leisure centre. I bring creativity, adaptability and humour into a room, and I try to keep it non-competitive: a space for mindful movement and introspection, not performance.

I never thought that yoga, even in its modified way, was something I would even do. It has helped me to sleep better as I incorporate breathing techniques to help me relax and not feel tense.

— Teresa, SK4