ABOUT

Hello, I'm Alison.

I'm a yoga teacher, Reiki Master and transformational coach, and the founder of Alison Foster Yoga and The Streetly Yoga Shala.

I've been teaching yoga since 2015, although my own exploration of movement, meditation and Eastern philosophy began many years earlier through Tai Chi.

My teaching has gradually evolved into an integrated approach that brings together yoga, breath, meditation, philosophy, mantra, sound, deep rest and self-enquiry. I'm interested in yoga as a practice for the whole person — body, mind and something deeper within us that can sometimes be difficult to put into words.

Whether someone comes to me for a weekly class, a workshop, a retreat or simply a little more stillness in their week, my intention is to create a welcoming space in which they can explore, experience and discover what supports them.

My path to yoga

My own practice began at nineteen, when I first encountered yoga and then became deeply immersed in Lee Family Style Tai Chi Ch'uan. I practised Tai Chi for more than ten years, and its principles — awareness, energy, breath, balance and movement — have continued to influence the way I practise and teach.

As life changed, my path gradually brought me back towards yoga. What began as a physical practice became an ever-deepening exploration of breath, meditation, philosophy and the relationship between our inner and outer lives.

Yoga has accompanied me through many different seasons of life. It has supported me physically, mentally and emotionally, and it continues to be something I practise and explore rather than something I consider myself to have 'completed'.

What informs my teaching

Yoga asana — from gentle, accessible practice through to stronger flowing classes
Pranayama and breath awareness
Meditation, Yoga Nidra and deep relaxation
Mantra, chanting and sound
Yogic philosophy and self-enquiry
Reiki and energetic practices
Transformational coaching and personal development
Seasonal and cyclical living
Nature, ritual and contemplative practice
Workshops, retreats and longer immersive practices

How I teach

I don't see yoga as a set of shapes we need to perfect. For me, the practice is a way of becoming more aware — of the body, the breath, our patterns, our thoughts, and ultimately of ourselves.

My classes often have a theme running through them. We may explore an aspect of yogic philosophy, the breath, the subtle body, seasonal rhythms or a simple question to carry into practice. Sometimes that exploration happens through movement; sometimes through stillness, meditation, sound or conversation.

I draw from traditional yogic teachings while leaving space for questioning and personal experience. Ancient texts can offer maps and perspectives, but yoga itself becomes the laboratory. We practise, notice, enquire and gradually discover what feels true through our own lived experience.

My teaching draws not only from formal qualifications, but from many years of practice, study, retreat, enquiry and lived experience.

Training & experience

I am an experienced yoga teacher and long-standing practitioner with extensive training developed through more than a decade of formal study, specialist courses, retreats, workshops and ongoing personal practice.

My foundation is a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training Diploma, alongside further specialist study in Yoga Nidra, pranayama, meditation, mental health, yoga philosophy, tantra, chakras, mantra and subtle practices. My continuing education has included extended courses and residential study with respected teachers including Swami Nishchalananda, Swami Gyan Dharma, Donna Farhi and teachers within the Satyananda and Mandala Yoga Ashram traditions.

I see training as an ongoing process rather than something that ended with my original teaching qualification. Over the years I have continued to attend courses, workshops, immersions and residential retreats, allowing my own practice and teaching to deepen and evolve.

Selected Training & Continuing Study

200-hour Yoga Teacher Training Diploma — Bliss Yoga Teacher Training Academy. Yoga Alliance recognised, 2015–2017
Yoga Nidra — 36 hours specialist training — Satyananda/Bihar School of Yoga tradition
Progressive Stages of Pranayama — nine-month course with Maarten Vermaase, 2019
Yoga, Mindfulness & Mental Health — two-day training with Amarajyoti, 2017
The Teachings of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra — Swami Nishchalananda, 2020–21
The Chakras — Swami Nishchalananda, Feb–Nov 2023
Bhagavad Gita — six-week course with Swami Nishchalananda 2022
Tattwa Shuddhi — four-day training with Swami Gyan Dharma, 2022
Centred in the Now — three Day Retreat with Swami Gyan Dharma, 2023
Yoga for Core Integration: Enhancing Structural Balance for Pain-Free Living — Donna Farhi, 13 hours, 2022
Foundations for Mental Health — Ashley Turner, five-week course, 2022
Multiple courses and residential retreats with Mandala Yoga Ashram, including The Power of Om with Swami Krishna Premananda 2018
Certified DreamBuilder® Coach — Mary Morrissey's Brave Thinking Institute 2024
Foundations in Woman-Centred Coaching — Claire Zammit / Institute for Woman-Centred Coaching 2025
IMPACT Mastermind Programme — Derek Rydall, six months, including Thought Leader Business Builder, Shadow Dancing and Life Code 2025/2026
Usui Reiki Level 3 Master 2024

A little more about me

Away from the mat, I’m usually happiest around trees, water, wild places, books, music and animals. I studied Geography at university and have always had a deep interest in landscape, the natural world and our relationship with place. Trees and woodland have held a particular fascination for me for many years, alongside mythology, folklore and the ways people have found meaning through nature, story and ritual.

I’m naturally curious and tend to follow threads wherever they lead — through yoga philosophy, psychology, spirituality, ancient traditions, personal development or the changing rhythms of the seasons. I enjoy exploring ideas, questioning them, and noticing where different traditions and ways of understanding life begin to overlap.

Nature is also an important part of how I restore and reconnect. I’m drawn to mountains, rivers, the sea, gardens and simple time outdoors, and increasingly these seasonal and natural rhythms find their way into my workshops, retreats and teaching.

Music, mantra and sound are another thread running through my practice, along with a love of gathering people together to share, explore and sometimes simply be still.

All of these parts of my life inevitably weave their way into how I teach and the spaces I create.

ABOUT

Selected Training & Continuing Study

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