ABOUT

I’m Gem Maryan

A full-time yoga teacher, mentor, and teacher trainer with over twenty years of practice and fifteen years of teaching experience. I work with yoga teachers through trainings and an ongoing monthly mentorship, and with individual clients through yoga therapy case studies and therapeutic bodywork, all based at the Deeside Yoga Institute in Aboyne, Scotland.

I am also a qualified massage therapist, and I am currently working towards my 875-hour Yoga Therapy diploma and working towards certification with the International Association of Yoga Therapists (C-IAYT). This therapeutic work has become central to how I teach and it shapes everything from how I structure a cue to how I hold a practice in stillness.

After many years teaching and running training in Glasgow, I’m now based in Aboyne on Royal Deeside. Over the past year, I’ve been caring for my father full-time. This experience has broadened my understanding of the body-mind connection and has deepened my commitment to teaching in a way that supports resilience, nervous system regulation and real-life balance.

Yoga first entered my life at nineteen, during pregnancy. That moment began a lifelong relationship with practice that has carried me through every stage of life. I trained as a Bikram Yoga teacher in Los Angeles in 2011 and later completed further training in Ashtanga Vinyasa and Yin Yoga. My studies have taken me to teachers and trainings with Sri Sharath Jois, Phillippa Asher, Hamish Hendry, John Scott, Noah Maze, David Swenson, Sarah Hatcher, Paul Grilley, and Bernie Clark.

For many years, I taught full-time in Glasgow, co-founding Finnieston Yoga Shala and leading Ashtanga, Yin, and Mysore-style classes and teacher trainings. Those years built a foundation of discipline and connection that continues to shape how I teach today.

After some time away caring for my dad, I am now reestablishing my work through Deeside Yoga Institute, with a renewed focus on therapeutic yoga, yoga therapy case studies, and online yoga training and mentoring for teachers and dedicated students. My approach integrates the wisdom of classical yoga texts such as the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and the Gheranda Samhita with contemporary understanding of movement, breath and the nervous system.

Whether I’m working with a yoga therapy client, leading training, or offering massage, my aim is the same: to create a space of awareness, rest and deep renewal. Practice is not here to remove us from life, but to help us meet it with presence, acceptance and compassion for ourselves and others.