Anna Haines
Anna is the founder of Ashtanga Yoga Jersey. She’s been exploring different methods of yoga since 2008 and in 2015 attended her first Mysore-style class at Ashtanga Bristol where she found precisely what she’d been looking for. She studied with Caroline Simpson extensively for long periods of time, practising and assisting her teacher. Since then Anna has practised Ashtanga under the guidance of some of the most devoted teachers in the world, including Hamish Hendry and Sharmila Desai.
In 2017 Anna made her first trip to Mysore India to practice under the guidance of Sharath Jois. Ever since she’s been returning annually to study at the former KPJAY, now Sharath Yoga Centre. In 2022 on her fourth study trip, she was honoured to receive an authorisation level 1 to teach the Primary Series of Ashtanga Yoga, also known as yoga chikitsa – yoga therapy.
In January 2023, she opened the doors to Ashtanga Yoga Jersey, the only traditional Ashtanga Mysore programme in the Channel Islands. Anna also studies Yoga Philosophy and Sanskrit at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies.
As a teacher, Anna is guided by her own experience of a dedicated six-day-a-week yoga practice, which she has proudly maintained for the past eight years including throughout her pregnancy with her twin daughters. She solemnly believes in the healing power of yoga and its ability to realign body and mind and she teaches as she was taught, instilling discipline and compassion.
When Anna’s not on the mat, she loves spending time in nature with her husband Paul, daughters Ola and Maja and dog Charlie.
Claire Verner
Claire is a yoga and somatic movement teacher. Yoga has been intrinsic to her life for over two decades and she has been teaching others for over 15 years.
She holds an RYT 500-hour qualification with Yoga Alliance UK and a 200-hour Somatic Movement Coach qualification with Align Somatics.
Claire’s formal yoga training was in the Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga method initially with Brian Cooper and Nawajoti in 2007 and then in 2015, she completed a further Ashtanga teacher training course with John Scott, Lucy Crawford, Greg Nardi and David Keil.
She has a gentle, caring and intuitive approach to teaching with a functional anatomical focus. She loves to constantly learn and evolve in life and in movement practices, so Claire continues to study yoga with her main teacher Lucy Crawford.
When she’s not practising or teaching yoga or somatic movement education you’re likely to find her sea swimming, surfing, cycling, hanging out with her husband, family and friends or chilling in her campervan.