Joy Denis, DO, MOST.  Osteopath & Yoga Teacher

Originally from France, I studied Osteopathy at the European School of Osteopathy in England and worked in several clinics in UK for 4 years. I arrived in Portugal in April 2019 after over a year of travels, looking for sunshine and the ocean and a new place to settle. I always had an attraction for water; hence the new passion for surfing was not a surprise. Before I realised, I was settling down in Peniche.

 

I discovered yoga as I started to work as an Osteopath in 2014 and I become passionate about it in no time. It felt as yoga and osteopathy had always been linked together but I'd never realised. It became a daily routine and I started to see the changes on myself and with the people surrounding me. I realised that yoga was not only about what happens on the mat but actually a way of living, without knowing I was applying what I learnt in yoga classes unconsciously in my daily life. 

 

When I left England and travelled in Asia and New Zealand, I thought I was not ready to teach and maybe not interested but I decided in the end to take my yoga teacher training in India and loved it. The osteopathic knowledge was an advantage but there was still so much to learn. Like Osteopathy, Yoga is a forever-learning journey. 

 

I stayed at the school in India after finishing and taught there for a month straight after graduating, it was an amazing opportunity that made me realise that I loved teaching, it was just so precious to be able to share the thing that changed my life the most, every yoga class can be different, challenging, restorative, flowing, it becomes what you make of it, as a student and as a teacher.

 

Every time I teach, I try to do my best to share my knowledge so the student learn about the correct alignment as I have found that often lack of cue and anatomy knowledge leads to incorrect practice which can lead after few years or even months to injuries I have seen in my osteopathy practice. 

 

My first passion, Osteopathy, is an on-going journey. Every patient is a new challenge, a new problem to solve.  Experience has allowed me to achieve quicker results in finding the real cause of the problem, with a whole holistic gentle approach adapted to every individual. 

 

It was inevitable with my love for animals that I would end up practicing osteopathy on animals. It happened in India, while volunteering in an Animal centre, I could not keep my hands away from trying to relieve some of their pain. That's how I started manipulating dogs, sheep, and calves. When I got back to Europe I did a training specialised in Osteopathy for dogs. 

The diagnosis process can sometimes be more of a challenge, as we need to rely only on palpation skills, knowledge and the information provided by the owner but the results are worth it all the way. 

 

Let me help you get better today, do not hesitate to give me a call or send me an email if you need more informations about treatments or yoga classes.