Dina Cohen
Teacher Trainer · Chair Yoga, Flow & MindfulnessFrom care–home chairs to festival fields, from Royal Ballet dancers to refugees, Dina has spent two decades meeting students wherever they are and inviting them into the practice on their own terms. Her Dynamic Yoga and Mindfulness teaching is grounded in the conviction that yoga belongs to everyone, and that an accessible class is not a lesser class. In fact, it is often the truer one.
A teacher who meets you where you are
Approach
There is a particular quality to Dina's classes that students notice before they can name it. The voice is unhurried. The instructions are precise but never clinical. Something in the room makes it easier to be in your body, whatever shape that body happens to be. Dina teaches with humour and a refusal to take herself too seriously, and the result is that students also stop taking themselves too seriously, and the practice opens up to new possibilities.
Making yoga accessible to all is a potent gift to give your community. Dina, on the Chair Yoga teacher training
Early years
Dina came to yoga in her twenties and never quite left. It became a sanctuary within the chaos of her hedonistic life in the music industry. When she discovered, on a trip to a yoga retreat in Ibiza, that practicing yoga didn’t mean denouncing her passion for music and dancing, she was hooked. The early years were a long apprenticeship in two directions – one in the yoga studio, learning about her own personal practice, and one out in the world, finding that the practice had something to offer everyone, including those that thought yoga was weird and wacky contortionism. By the time she had been teaching for a few years, she had already taught in places yoga doesn't always reach: refugee centres, dance studios, festival fields and care homes.
Training & influences
Twenty–five years plus teaching is, also twenty give years of being a student – and Dina's training has been deliberately wide, studying with Shiva Rea, Donna Farhi, Sarah Powers, Richard Miller, Uma Dinsmore, Martin Aylward and Judith Lasater. Flow Yoga gave her the architecture of a sequence. Yoga Nidra gave her the discipline of rest and stillness; Mindfulness gave her a language for what students were experiencing on the mat that Asana alone couldn't reach. Chair Yoga came a little later, in some ways as a culmination of everything that had gone before: the precision of alignment, the permission of rest, the dignity of practicing in whatever body you have today.
Dina speaks often of her 'second spring', of slowing down, tuning in, and learning to rest deeply as essential acts in a noisy world. That orientation now sits underneath everything she teaches.
Teaching today
Dina now divides her time between open–to–all online Chair Yoga classes, corporate and charity sessions, and teacher trainings in Flow Yoga, Yoga Nidra, Restorative Yoga, Mindfulness and – her signature offering – Chair Yoga. The thread between them is the same one that has run through her teaching since the beginning: yoga belongs to everyone in the room, and the teacher's job is to make sure it gets there.
Slowing down, tuning in, learning to rest deeply – sanity maintenance in an insane world. Dina
Specialisms
Chair Yoga · Accessible & Inclusive Teaching · Flow Yoga · Yoga Nidra · Restorative Yoga · Mindfulness · Corporate & Charity Yoga · Teacher Training
What Dina Cohen's students say
An excellent training by a very inspiring teacher. Dina is a fantastic teacher – patient and very clear, providing an accessible and inclusive learning environment. I have come away feeling confident that, after a little more practice, I can safely and competently teach a chair yoga session
SC, Chair Yoga Teacher TraineeDina was amazing – she is so kind and compassionate and her passion shines through. It was refreshing to be on a yoga training where you are encouraged to follow your own ideas too. The range of postures shared to use in a chair was phenomenal. I wanted to teach the elderly, but it has expanded into much more for me.
Chair Yoga Teacher TraineeAn AMAZING course – so much knowledge shared in a totally absorbable way – I loved it!
LF, Chair Yoga Teacher Trainee
Interested in training with Dina Cohen?
Whether you're considering one of our trainings, a specialist CPD, or simply want to ask a question — we'd love to hear from you.