Yoga Therapy Specialisms
- Aging
- Children and Adolescent Mental Health
- Children and Adults with Additional Needs
- Life Purpose
- Life Transitions
- Menopause
- Perimenopause
- Perinatal Mental Health
- Postnatal Care
- Pregnancy
- Runners
- Senior Health
- Womens Health
- Yoga for Students
- Young Adult Mental Health
Qualifications
- Minded Yoga Therapist 600-hour
- Dissertation: Yoga Therapy for Endometriosis
- Additional specialised training with Minded
- Yoga Therapy for Menopause
- Youth Mental Health First Aider
- Rocket yoga. 50 hrs with Katarina Rayburn and Helen Russell-Clark
- Yin yoga training. 50 hrs with Tarryn James Thomson
- Mandala Vinyasa training. 20 hrs with Dulce Mandala.
- Yoga for Kids. 23 hrs with Kidding Around Yoga.
- Vinyasa Flow yoga teacher. 200 hrs with Ximena Lopez. Chile.
- Prenatal and Postnatal yoga teacher 90 hrs training with Lauren Shields. Meraki Mama Collective. Georgia. USA.
- Vinyasa flow yoga teacher. 200 hrs training with Kim Saunders. Georgia. USA.
- Dentist and Periodontist
About
Melissa Cartaya is a yoga therapist based in South West London, offering compassionate, person-centred practices that support physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing. With over 20 years of personal yoga experience, she approaches yoga therapy as a collaborative process, helping individuals reconnect with their bodies, build resilience, and move toward a life with more ease and joy. Bilingual in Spanish and English, Melissa supports a diverse range of clients with sensitivity and accessibility.
She is particularly passionate about working with mature individuals, children, adolescents, and women throughout the various stages of life. With a background as a trained dentist, Melissa brings strong scientific and anatomical knowledge into her sessions, ensuring practices are safe, informed, and thoughtfully tailored.
Melissa also supports sportspeople and active individuals through practices that enhance flexibility, strength, breath efficiency, focus, and recovery. Dedicated to accessibility, she teaches in community centres, nurseries, schools, and offers personalised one-to-one and small-group sessions.
Outside her therapeutic work, Melissa enjoys karate, tag rugby, running, and playful forms of movement, activities that inspire her teaching and her commitment to helping others feel more empowered, grounded, and at ease in their bodies.