I’m a social anthropologist, psychotherapist, and yoga teacher exploring what it means to live meaningfully in a world of change.
My work bridges research and reflection — the social, the emotional, and the embodied — drawing on three decades of study into class, belonging, and transformation in post-industrial Britain, Europe, and the USA.
Over time, the questions I once studied in communities became questions I met in the therapy room and on the yoga mat: how we find balance, connection, and renewal.
Through writing, teaching, and retreats, I offer spaces to pause, listen, and return — to nature, the body, to one another, and to the quiet intelligence of being alive.
Hello!
I Am Gillian
My work grows from a lifelong practice of listening — to people, places, and the quiet movements of change. Trained firstas a social anthropologist, I explored how histories of labour, class, and belonging shape life in post-industrial landscapes. Over time, these questions about loss, resilience, and transformation drew me inward, toward the embodied worlds of psychotherapy and yoga.Today, my path weaves these disciplines together. Anthropology offers a lens on our collective stories; psychotherapy attends to the depths of the personal; yoga reveals the wisdom of the body. Together, they form an integrated practiceof attention — to how we are shaped, and how we might heal. My retreats and teachings arisefrom this philosophy: they are not escapes, but homecomings — invitations to rest, to listen, and to rediscover what truly matters, whether by the sea in Sardinia or by the fire in Somerset.
The path I walk today
My work moves between three interwoven practices — yoga, psychotherapy, and anthropology — each a different way of listening to the human condition. Together they form a conversation between body, mind, and world: how we live, how we make meaning, and how we come home to ourselves. Whether through movement, dialogue, or reflection, my intention is the same — to create spaces where awareness can deepen, healing can unfold, and life can be felt more fully.
Three Practices of Attention
My exploration of the conditions for human flourishing began as a yoga teacher, leading retreats in the Blue Zones of the world where humans are living the longest, healthiest, happiest lives. This allowed me to offer retreats that allows guests to come into conversation about how yoga and the practice of retreat can support our mutual flourishing and what this might mean when we return to busy lives, often in very different urban environments.
This allows me to also reflect as an urban anthropologist on the question of how we can create the conditions for mutual flourishing in our cities and urban lives. I am interested to reflect on what this means for the post-industrial condition of many European and American cities where flourishing is far from the ordinary experience of many people's everyday lives.
Conditions for human flourishing
Pleasure in balance, not excess.
Many Blue Zone communities share moderate, daily wine in social settings — a gesture of conviviality and presence.
→ Joy, shared wisely, sustains life as much as restraint.
Moderate Wine Consumption
Food that is fresh, local, and shared.
Diets in Blue Zones are rich in vegetables, legumes, and whole grains, with meat eaten sparingly. Meals are social, seasonal, and ritualised.
→ Eating becomes an act of connection — with the earth, with others, with time itself.
Plant-Based Diet
Stopping before we are full.
People eat mindfully, guided by cultural phrases like “hara hachi bu” in Okinawa — a practice that balances restraint with gratitude.
→ Awareness, not abundance, creates satisfaction.
The 80% Rule
A clear sense of why you wake each morning. Having purpose adds years to life and life to years. People who feel needed and connected to something larger than themselves tend to live longer and more joyfully.
→ Meaning and direction nourish the soul as deeply as food nourishes the body.
Purpose (“Ikigai”)
Shared rhythms that sustain life and connection.
In Blue Zone cultures, wellbeing arises through sociality and community — through laughter, shared meals, and collective care. My classes draw on this same spirit, creating a space where we breathe, move, and remember our interdependence.
→ Belonging becomes the foundation of health, not its reward.
Belonging
Regular moments of awe, beauty, and connection.
Whether through watching the sunrise, swimming in the sea, attending to nature, or sharing silence, Blue Zone cultures honour the simple marvel of being alive.
→ Wonder becomes a daily practice of reverence, not rarity.
Awe and Wonder
Regular rituals for rest, reflection, and release. Whether through prayer, naps, social time, or meditation, Blue Zone cultures consciously interrupt the stress cycle.
→ Slowing down becomes a form of wisdom, not weakness.
Downshifting
Life is active by design, not by discipline.
People in Blue Zones move naturally throughout the day — walking, gardening, cooking, climbing hills. Their activity is integrated into daily life, not separated as exercise.
→ A reminder that movement is not performance but participation in life itself.
Natural Movement
Anthropology has shaped the way I see everything. It taught me to listen for the patterns in people’s lives — how culture, class, and history shape the texture of everyday experience.
My research into post-industrial cities, education, and belonging revealed how deeply we are formed by our environments, and yet how creative and resilient we remain. Anthropology continues to inform my work: a reminder that every personal story is also a social one.
anthropology
In the therapy room, I offer a space for reflection and honest conversation. Psychotherapy, as I practise it, is a shared enquiry in the art of listening, attending carefully to the wisdom of the body, but also the stories we tell — about who we are, where we come from, and what we long for.
It’s a process of unfolding, of making sense of experience, and of discovering freedom within understanding. Healing begins not in fixing, but in being heard and getting to know ourselves more deeply.
therapy
Yoga, for me, is a practice of remembering.
It’s a way of listening to the intelligence of the body — to the breath, to sensation, to the subtle rhythms of being alive. My teaching is gentle, restorative, and rooted in awareness.
Through movement and stillness, we learn to inhabit ourselves again — we return to the body not to perfect it, but to have a sense of coming home.
yoga
Triyoga 200 Hours Yoga Teacher Training with Anna Ashby and Joey Miles
Faculty Member of the Triyoga Advanced Teacher Training Programme of Anna Ashby
Diploma in Transactional Analysis Elan Training, Manchester
Diploma in Integrative Psychotherapy - final year - certified to practice - Elan Training, Manchester
PhD Social Anthropology, Brunel University
MSc Social Anthropology, Brunel University
BA Honours Social Anthropology, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Member of the United Kingdom Association of Transactional Analysts
Member of the Royal Society of Arts
Member of the Royal Anthropological Institute
Member of the European Association of Social Anthropologist.
qualifications
- KAREN JENSEN-JONES
“Gillian’s special value lies in teaching us how to take yoga off the mat. She has constantly encouraged a gentle enquiry into all aspects of my life which has opened up an authentic connection within myself. Her guiding hand has helped to replace limiting barriers with an open heart and a more graceful way of being.”
