Hello There!

I’m Maria de Sousa the founder of Posture Queen and Wise Yoga.

I’m a qualified Yoga teacher and a Feldenkrais Method Teacher trainee.

I also happen to have a BA (Hons) in business studies and speak four and a half languages (Portuguese, English, Spanish, French and I can find my away around in Italian too).

I’m from Portugal and I live in England, UK since 1997.

I lived in London for the first 17 years. In London, I had a 9 to 5 job, as you do! It was a good job with lovely work-colleagues and salary too but I knew it wasn’t for me. There was a call inside me and I decided to pursue it. In 2000, I started practicing yoga and a few years down the road I embarked on journey to understand the body mechanics: studied, trained and qualified (and still at it!).

In 2014 I decided to leave London and started a new life in Kent. If you are wondering why Kent, well, I haven’t chosen Kent, Kent chose me – a fellow yoga teacher and friend in Canterbury needed a house-sitter for a few months and that was my ticket out of London. Then, I moved to a small town near by, on the sea side called Herne Bay (again it chose me!), where I currently live. Here, it also happens that I found love, my man Raymond – yes, the Universe has its way!

What I learnt from my decision to pursue my call and life purpose is that you can only have the life you want by leaving the life you don’t.

Now a little bit about the birth of Posture Queen

The idea of creating something around posture awareness came about when I start realising how much of the pain I saw around me (working in an office then and on my yoga journey) was mainly due to poor postural habits and the lack of understanding of posture. Something else that was (and still is) painful for me to observe was the postural habits of children in this highly tech world. I used to think: “How much pain are these children going to be in by the time they reach adulthood or even before that?” I realised there was a big problem in the world, if not a crises. So, I refused to turn a blind eye to this and the Posture Queen was born.

That’s me on a yoga training in Thailand with two very inspiring teachers – Simon Low and Eija Tervonen.

Yoga and the Feldenkrais Method have given me the tools, knowledge and strength to embark on a journey to raise awareness of good posture and spread the seeds of good postural habits to prevent pain. My mission is to bring posture education to teachers and parents so that children are given the chance to grow up with the understanding and awareness of good posture, maintain a healthy spine and avoid the suffering that many adults go through due to the lack of understanding of the principles of good posture. Ultimately, my aim is to be of value and service to the world through posture education with compassion and respect because we all deserve a life without pain.

My training (includes 500+ hours of yoga) has been with The Yoga Academy, Simon Low and Eija Tervonen in Hatha Yoga; Birthlight in prenatal yoga; Gary Carter in Anatomy; The biomechanics of the body with Katy Bowman; Yoga Nidra with Uma Dinsmore-Tuli and Nirlipta Tuli; Ayurveda with Tarik Dervish and currently I’m undergoing a 4-year Feldenkrais Method practitioner training with Garet Newell.

Official Biography

Maria de Sousa is the founder of Posture Queen.

Maria is a yoga teacher and a Feldenkrais Method teacher trainee. She is also the creator of Wise Yoga, a gentle form of yoga aimed at improving mobility and posture.

Maria helps people to empower themselves through understanding posture. This understanding will not only prevent back issues but will also give people permission to present themselves to the world with power, elegance and confidence.

Maria also brings the teachings of posture to parents and teachers in schools and how they can introduce posture education to children in a non-disciplinary way. Other places where you can see Maria offering her teachings of posture are in offices where she teaches office workers how to use their bodies currectly to prevent aches and pains.

Maria teachess posture workshops/masterclassses throughout the UK and beyond.

Maria’s mission is to raise awareness of good posture and spread the seeds of good postural habits throughout the world.

Maria lives in Herne Bay, UK.

If you would like to invite Maria to do a workshop where you live or to your office or your child’s school send a message to [email protected]

And When I’m not Spreading the Seeds of Good Posture I’m…