Melanie Cooper

A teacher of true true depth, without dogma

Approach

Melanie's teachings are built on the conviction that there is no single right way to practise – only the way that is right for the person on the mat. She teaches with warmth, humour, and a refusal to pretend that yoga is one fixed thing. Trainees describe her as a fountain of knowledge who somehow makes the depth feel approachable; she leaves real space for exploration, asks for nothing to be proved, and quietly builds the confidence for each teacher to find their own individual voice.

Melanie is a wonderful teacher trainer, with years of experience and knowledge. She is warm, generous with her time and leaves space for lots of exploration and personal growth. 300–Hour Trainee

Early years

Melanie came to yoga through her own healing. In the late 1990s, living with chronic fatigue, she found in the practice something that slowly returned her to strength. What began as recovery became a daily Ashtanga practice that carried her, year by year, through the Primary and Second Series and briefly dipping into the Third, for a long time strictly in the Mysore tradition. She has been teaching since 1997.

Training & influences

If her early years were defined by the rigour of Ashtanga, her teaching has grown into something altogether more open. A formative chapter was the time she spent in Goa with Julie Martin at Brahmani Yoga Centre – first as a trainee, then over many years running courses and trainings alongside her – an apprenticeship that broadened her understanding of what a teacher could be. The arrival of menopause, and the body's quiet insistence that practice evolve with the life around it, drew her further towards yin, yoga nidra, and the slower workings of the breath. None of it replaced what came before; it deepened it.
Pranayama she studied in Goa with Emil Wendle, teaching nightly classes there for many years. For over a decade she taught at the Stress Project – a charity making alternative therapies available to people self–referring with mental health issues – work that has shaped how she thinks about safety, accessibility and the quiet utility of breath. The approach she now offers her trainees is the one she has spent nearly three decades refining: nurturing and soft, still strong and intense.

Teaching today

Melanie teaches on both the Shala's 200–Hour foundation and the 300–Hour advanced programme, and she also leads specialist trainings in Yoga Nidra, Yin and Pranayama. Working alongside her long–standing teaching partner Jennie Wadsten Sharma, she has guided over 4000 students through Yoga Nidra alone. Her year moves between studios in the UK, Norway and Crete, where she can sometimes be found dancing on the beach.

Melanie is an inspirational font of wonderful knowledge and wisdom. She has a gentle quality that leads you in, delivering teachings with clear love, passion and experience NK · Pranayama Teacher Training

Specialisms

Teacher Training · Yoga Nidra · Yin Yoga · Pranayama · Sequencing · Yoga Anatomy · Adjustments & Assists · Menopause & Women's Wellbeing · Retreats