Asana International School: holistic, transformative arts and nature-based learning for teenagers, adults, teachers and researchers on the Atlantic southwest coast of Ireland, established in 1993 by a family of teachers. After some years of mainstream ELT teaching, in 1995 we had a life -changing encounter with the great Mario Rinvolucri, which exposed us to the world of humanistic learning. Excited by our discovery, we trained in Yoga, Counselling and NLP and quickly changed our name from 'Land of Scholar Tours' to 'Asana' (meaning yoga posture), we stopped moving between Dublin and Kerry and settled in Cahersiveen, an incredible little town (Land of Scholar tours was a mobile English language programme for adults) on the famous Ring of Kerry. Our approach to learning became more holistic -meaning that we became more and more aware of the need to see our students as sentient beings rather than the language learning part of the brain! Having the good fortune to work in a place that is blessed with the most beautiful nature imaginable, made our journey towards more holistic teaching all the more enjoyable. Music is another theme that runs through Asana, and like Nature, it becomes yet another portal into the soul world that is so evident in a mystical place like South West Kerry. Most of our team has done the Camino de Santiago at some stage over the years and this too has becomes another strand of the many cloths that has woven the philosophy at the heart of Asana. More recently, we have branched into Teacher Training and Volunteering in India, giving future teachers an opportunity to get their teaching practice as part of a very worthy educational project in a developing school. We are eternally grateful to the incredible teaching colleagues, host families and local service providers that have made our work possible. Thank you.
