Yoga Therapy Specialisms
- Addiction
- ADHD
- Anxiety
- Emotional Difficulties
- Fibromyalgia
- Life Purpose
- Life Transitions
- Neurodivergence
- OCD
- Perimenopause
- Stress
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Qualifications
- • Yoga Therapist (Professional Diploma in Yoga Therapy — The Minded Institute 580 hours)
• Certified Vishoka Meditation Teacher — Himalayan Institute
• Yoga Scotland Accredited Teacher.
(500hr Yoga Teaching Diploma — Yoga Scotland)
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About
Shona MacLeod is a yoga therapist, yoga teacher and meditation teacher based in Newton Stewart, Dumfries & Galloway. She offers individual yoga therapy locally and online across the UK.
She holds a 580-hour Professional Diploma in Yoga Therapy from The Minded Institute, alongside qualifications in yoga teaching and Vishoka Meditation.
Shona’s approach to yoga therapy isn’t about fixing people or trying to eliminate difficult experiences. Instead, she supports individuals in developing greater awareness of how they relate to their thoughts, emotions, physical sensations and habitual ways of responding.
Through gentle movement, breath, meditation, mantra, somatic enquiry and self-enquiry, Shona supports people in exploring how they relate to the experiences of everyday life — their thoughts, feelings, relationships, challenges and habitual responses. Rather than trying to fix or get rid of what’s difficult, the invitation is to become more aware of what’s happening and how we meet it, with curiosity and compassion.
She has a particular interest in addiction and recovery, informed by her professional training and lived experience. Her work recognises that stopping an addictive behaviour doesn’t necessarily end the struggle, and explores how we might develop a different relationship with cravings, discomfort and the challenges of everyday life.
Shona also works with people navigating chronic health conditions, anxiety, ADHD, stress, emotional difficulties and significant life transitions. Her work is tailored to each individual and can complement other forms of therapeutic and medical support.
The person behind the practice:
The way Shona works therapeutically is deeply influenced by her own ongoing spiritual practice and her exploration of what it means to be with experience as it is, rather than constantly trying to change it. Through her longstanding relationship with her teacher, Swami GyanDharma, she continues to explore yoga as something lived in the ordinary, often messy circumstances of everyday life.
She’s also a mum of three, whom she raised as a lone parent, and knows something about navigating life’s challenges without always having a tidy answer.
Outside of teaching, you’ll find her running, mountain biking, chanting kirtan, enjoying music and theatre, or spending time in nature. She brings the same curiosity to her own life that she encourages in her work with others — although, like everyone else, she’s very much still practising.