Rosa Lia

Rosa came to a deeper yoga practice while living in Jerusalem and feeling the heat of conflict. It is her desire to come to peace inside that drove her to yoga trainings in India, massage training in Thailand and earth-based ceremonies and celebrations in Latin America. She draws upon vinyasa, kundalini, yin and meditation to peel back the outer layers and get to the truth of who we are.

Follow Rosa on Instagram  and You Tube.

“At 18 I began a volunteer placement with a development charity, wanting to “make the world a better place”.

After different experiences with NGOs, including teaching English in Nicaragua and volunteering with dialogue building organizations in Israel and Palestine, I felt frustrated that the issues we face globally are so complex.

Living in Jerusalem, I began to realise we can’t make change by converting people to a cause. I learnt that we all have our story, our own truth, and sometimes the best thing to do is just to listen. I also began a regular yoga practice, having dipped in an out for years. My yoga mat became the place I could go to whatever was going on, and feel a small positive change in myself each time.

Wanting to share this led me to India, where I completed my first yoga teacher training course and studied massage in an ayurvedic clinic. In Auroville, I met an inspiring teacher and shaman called Rahul. He guided us through a month intensive Thai massage course that had a heavy emphasis on self-healing and working with the energy body.

I love to dive into different cultures and keep learning and growing personally and professionally. I have taken courses in Thai Massage and Abdominal Chi in Thailand, Yin Yoga with Bernie Clark in Vancouver, Yoga for Creativity & Sexuality with Uma Tuli-Dinsmore in Stroud, a 300hr Himalayan Kundalini and meditation training in Rishikesh, Vipassanas (10 day silent meditation) in Herefordshire and Dharamsala (where I met the Dalai Lama). I have also learnt from working in diverse settings from a Sufi retreat centre in Sardinia, to a spa in Australia, yoga studios and gyms in the UK and running my own yoga centre and café in Mazunte, Mexcio.

In a year long trip from Mexico to Brazil, I immersed myself in ceremonies with indigenous and international teachers, learning about and experiencing El Camino Rojo (traditions from the North and South of the Americas), the temazcal (sweatlodge), cacao, and other plant medicines. The Latin culture of celebration speaks to my heart. Spending 6 weeks in Cali, Colombia, I took salsa classes every day determined to live the vibrancy of those lands. Last year I spent a further 8 months in Mexico learning more about cacao and the temazcal.

I have also taken many of Suzanne’s trainings, including the Pregnancy Massage Diploma, Postnatal Massage, Baby Massage and Shiatsu for Midwives. Since the age of 15, Suzanne (my mum) has given me drafts of her books, blogs and newsletters to copy edit and make suggestions. At 16 we went together to a shiatsu training in France with Sensei Sasaki, a student of Masunaga who founded Iokai Europe. This year, we worked together on creating materials for her online course on Extraordinary Vessels for Women’s Cycles and I offered a closing cacao ceremony. I assist on some of the Pregnancy Massage courses and we will be teaching on the Women’s residential in June 2022.

I am now in my first year of studying the Grinberg Method, a map for transforming our relationship to fear and pain, releasing patterns stuck in our bodies and opening to our full potential of being.  I am also doing an advanced massage training in Sports Massage (level 5) with the BCMB in Bristol. An eternal learner, I believe strongly in embodying what we teach.”

I have a YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UCSbUQLf8RE5clNy1K-GvX7w

Qualifications

Pregnancy and Postnatal Yoga teaching (2023) Guatamala

Bristol College of Massage and Bodywork – Sports and remedial Level 5 massage (2022)

50 hour Yin Yoga – Bernie Clark (2019)

300 hour Sattva Yoga, Kundalini, Vinyasa and Meditation – Sattva Yoga Academy (2019)

Day workshop Creativity, Sexuality and the Cycles of Life – Uma Dinsmore Tuli (2017)

Pregnancy Massage Diploma – Wellmother (2016)

7 day Chi Nei Tsnag (Abdominal Chi Massage) – Blue Garden, Chiang Mai (2016)

180 hour Thai Therapeutic Massage & Herbal Compress – The Old Medicine Hospital (2016)

30 hour Thai Yoga and the 5 Bodies & 12 hrs CPD “Healing Hands” – Sunshine Massage School (2016)

60 hour Traditional Thai Yoga Massage – Sunshine Massage School (2016)

3 day Theta Healing Basic DNA certification course – THInK (2015)

120 hour Thai Massage – Healing Hands (2015)

200 hour Multi Style Yoga – Trimurti Yoga (2015)

BA Comparative Literature from King’s College London