January 2017 newsletter

Wishing you a truly happy new year and hoping that 2017 brings peace, joy and health to you all. We hope to be able to offer you classes, therapies and workshops to help you achieve your New Year Resolutions!!!!

Our January timetable is bigger than ever and we hope to have something for everybody. The full timetable begins on Monday 9th. We have new Pilates Classes with Sammie McFarland, Hatha yoga class with Sandy Tubby and Ashtanga Vinyasa with Mark Winterburn.

Please check out the studio calendar and classes pages on the website for more details.

We wish Grace Martin, our pilates teacher, and her husband Greg lots of good wishes and a speedy recovery to Greg and look forward to Grace joining us again when she is able.

Throughout January we will be continuing to collect money to help those affected by the war in Syria, thank you to all those who have donated so far.

Best wishes from Sharon and all the teachers and therapists at the centre.


Therapist focus

This month we will hear from our medical herbalist Caroline Butler. This may inspire you particularly if one of your new years resolutions is to tackle a particular long term health problem. Or simply because you have been struck down by one of the winter bugs.

Caroline Butler, Medical Herbalist BSc (Hons) MNIMH

Caroline Butler photoI am a Medical Herbalist, and give consultations at The Dorchester Yoga and Therapy Centre, in Axminster, and Bridport, where I live.

Herbalists use plants or plant extracts as medicine to get to the root cause of people’s ill health as well as alleviate symptoms. Herbalism is both ancient and modern, as traditional usage, tried and tested over centuries, merges with scientific research that gives new explanations for how herbs work.

I have a background in organic gardening, and came to herbalism through a love of plants. All my life I have loved the fact that plants can be used for healing, and got to know them through planting and growing them, or foraging in the wild, and then using them for my own health. As I lived a very outdoor, physical life, herbs for healing cuts and bruises were my first discoveries! But for me herbal medicine really came into its own after the birth of my first daughter.  As other young mothers I knew struggled with health concerns common to new mothers and babies, I felt herbs supported my family through it all, preventing many problems from arising, and enabling us to deal with them quickly if they did.  I realised how powerful herbal medicine could be, while also being very gentle. This inspired me to undergo a formal course of study, and after 5 years of training I gained a first class BSc (Hons) in Herbal Medicine.

Since then I have seen herbs have many wonderful effects, on a wide range of health problems – digestive, emotional, muscle and bone, circulatory, skin, respiratory, hormonal – and for both chronic and short-lived conditions. Sometimes the benefits are dramatic and almost immediate, other times it can be a slower journey. There are hundreds of herbs that can be used medicinally; a herbalist’s skill is in finding the right herbs for each individual to enable their recovery of health.

I am happy to work alongside other health professionals, using herbs to support other treatments that may also be necessary.


Monthly Classes and Workshops

Breathing and Yoga Nidra with Sharon Cox-Button

Baby Massage Drop-in

  • Thursday 12th January 1.30-2.45pm
  • Please note: a change of day for Baby Massage Drop-in. This will now be on the 2nd Thursday of the month.
  • More about Baby Massage Drop-in

Soulful/Herbal Yoga Nidra with Fiona Heckels and Magdalena Atkinson

Sound Bath with Stuart Harvey

  • Sunday 15th January 7-8.00pm is our first Sound Bath of the Year. If you haven’t tried it before maybe make it one of your new year resolutions!!!

Introductory session of Alexander Technique with Liz Watson (FREE)

A Workshop for Midwives and Doulas: Homeopathy for Pregnancy and Labour with Zofia Dymitr

Shakti Celebration with Magdalena Atkinson

Celebrating the New Year with Magdalena Atkinson. SHAKTI CELEBRATION is a unique opportunity to know more about SHAKTI DANCE – the yoga of dance, to use your body to express itself in a safe environment, to use the voice freely, to open up! See it as a demo class, if you haven’t tried it yet, or join the well known energies with more courage and freedom! Discounted price for this workshop – £12 each or £10 if you bring a friend! SHARE IT! JOIN IT! LIVE IT!

Mini First Aid with Sue Fisher

Yoga Sutras with Sarah Ryan

Sound Bath with Stuart Harvey

  • Sunday 29th January 7.00 -8.15pm

Looking ahead to February

An Introduction to Alexander Technique

Liz Watson begins her 6 week course: on 6th February. Learning about the Alexander technique in a group can be great fun and can have the effect of accelerating learning, as you can learn a great deal observing others have lessons. Taking part in this course will give you a sound introduction to the broad range of concepts and processes that go into the practice of the Alexander technique. In each session we will combine experiential lessons and group discussion.

Gong Bath with Arianna Moretti

  • Saturday 11th February 7.00-9.00pm
  • Our Kundalini teacher Arianna Moretti is doing a Gong Bath, more details of this special evening will be on the website soon.

Valentines Heart Energy Workshop with Dr Susan Phoenix

Meditation & Past Life Regression, for Valentine’s month. Jump start your energy for the New Year.
February is the month of Valentines , so in this workshop we will focus on our own Heart energy, several times more powerful than the Brain energies. With strongly developed heart energy we are able to release old grudges, forgive injuries and reach out with compassion from a place of harmony within ourselves.

You may not remember what is said but you WILL remember how you feel as we go high into the Universe and deep inside ourselves. Join us for another very special journey of meditation, relaxation and Past Life Regression (PLRT).

Holistic Yoga Workshop with Duncan Hulin

Duncan is the principal teacher, founder and director of the Devon School of Yoga. He is a practising yoga teacher and therapist, a Shiatsu practitioner as well as an Ayurvedic foot pressure (Chavutti Thirumal) massage therapist. Duncan healed himself of asthma using yoga therapy and has now been practising yoga for 40 years and teaching for the past 34 years. In the early eighties, he spent three consecutive winters in South India studying with the late Dr. B. P. Pillai, former director of the Indian government recognised Yoga Therapy Foundation, Trivandrum, Kerala.

Duncan brings a wealth of experience to his holistic yoga teaching. This will be very popular so booking early is recommended.


I would like to share a quote from the translations by Sri Swami Satchidanananda from The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

“Richness has nothing to do with monetary wealth. The richest person is the one with a cool mind, free of tension and anxiety.

Changing all the current situations in our world is not in our hands. We are not going to stop all these things.

But what is in our hands is the ability to find joy and peace right here and now.

We can be serene even in the midst of calamities and, by our serenity, make others more tranquil. Serenity is contagious.

If we smile at someone, he or she will smile back.

And a smile costs nothing.”