about founder
alex giffoni
Alex is a devoted Yoga and Tantra student, teacher, therapist and bodyworker with decades of experience practising and teaching cross-culture healing arts.
She’s a keeper of the Sacred Cacao Medicine and a student and practitioner of Shamanic Healing Arts. She’s also a Reiki master teacher, an Ayurvedic Abhyanga massage therapist as well as a Therapeutic Thai Yoga massage therapist.
Her teachings are based on time-honoured truths and contemporary practices, to help others find a way to live and love with more gentleness, ease and openness.
Alex has been a curator and creator of community orientated, well-being experiences and events, for over 15 years.
In 2010, together with her family, she mindfully envisioned and created The Yoga Barn Devon, a sacred and creative community shala by the sea, where heart-led friends can meet, share and simply be. Tenderly.
a note from alex
I have a great passion for the arts in all its shapes and sounds. I studied performing arts for a number of years – I was an actress in Rio de Janeiro, my spiritual home – and that passion led me to further my experience in creative and conscious movement and in contemporary dance.
All those influences have definitely shaped the way I teach and share Yoga/meditation today.
I am devoted to and deeply grateful for, my beloved family and friends and for their unconditional support throughout my Yogic studies and practice.
I bow with most humble gratitude to all my teachers as well as to each and every one of my students, as their trust in me over the years, and their fearless openness, have encouraged me to follow my vision with unwavering devotion and a soft heart.
With love and unity,
Alex.
training modalities
Advanced Yin & Restorative Yoga and Sound training (Devon, UK) - 2023
Ayurvedic Abhyanga massage training (Devon, UK) - 2023
Crystalline Mandala therapy training (SP, Brazil) - 2023
Cacao Guardian Immersion & Initiation (Brazil & UK)– 2021
Shamanic Ancestral Healing practitioner training (SP, Brazil) – 2021 (ongoing)
Kundalini Tantra intensive immersion (Rishikesh, India) - 2020
Thai Yoga massage training (London, UK)– 2016 - 2017
Master Teacher Level Reiki (Devon, UK)– 2012 - 2016
Founded The Yoga Barn (North Devon, UK) – 2010
Yoga Teacher and Post-graduate Yoga Therapy training (Devon, UK) – 2006 - 2012
Shiatsu (foundation level) (Devon, UK)– 1998
Bachelor of Languages & Literature (RJ, Brazil) – 1998
My yoga journey began when I was 18 and my mother, Vera, invited me to join her in a class led by a gifted Brazilian teacher. At that moment, and ever since then I realised that the path of yoga was a path of home coming.
Since that first blissful encounter, I have had the honour to study and learn from so many other inspiring teachers, all around the world, and hope to always continue to do so. Above all else, I adore being a student.
Over the years, I have become increasingly drawn to the healing aspects of Yoga – asana, pranayama, meditation and mantra – and its power to transform lives in a profound and sustained way.
about the yoga barn
est. 2010
The Yoga Barn is situated in the idyllic coastal village Hele, in the outskirts of Ilfracombe, a typical Victorian seaside town, in North Devon county, England.
A four-minute walk from our studio door and we are on the water’s edge in Hele Bay, a quaint, sand and shingle cove, situated in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, adjacent to Hillsborough Nature Reserve. Students and clients enjoy combining their sessions with a swim or a walk.
Our practice room (underfloor heated) accommodates comfortably groups of 8 to 12 students, and our soothing therapy space, known as ‘Breathing Space Therapies’ is where you are invited to temporarily step out of ordinary reality to experience our exquisite therapeutic offerings.
We are fully equipped with bolsters, belts, blocks, blankets and mats. We have filtered water and tea making facilities available at all times. During business hours, there is ample road parking as well a public car park (two-minute walk, 40p p/h). Out of business hours ample parking is available just outside the studio.
TYB is available for hire and we are very grateful to be able to share our sacred space with like-minded teachers and facilitators.
Contact Alex to arrange a visit and for bookings.
