Pull up a chair...
Let's have a coffee...
Hi, I'm Dorothea!
Born and raised in Greece but Edinburgh has been home for over a decade.
HR professional by day, sound journeys facilitator and yoga teacher by night.
I'm currently also training in how to run retreats....yes yes, Greece is in the cards.
But if I'm totally honest, that's not really what I do.
I like creating spaces where shoulders soften, conversations get longer, and people leave feeling a little more like themselves than when they arrived. Like they don't have to perform. Like they can stop holding their breath.
I hope that when you leave one of my sound baths, classes or retreats, you don't remember a fancy yoga pose or something profound that I said. I hope you leave thinking "I felt like myself again."
A few things about me...
If we're getting to know each other, there are a few things you should know. Coffee is my love language, although Greek mountain tea runs a very close second (I make sure that every suitcase home from Greece has room for "just one more box").
I'm a hugger, the Disney-hug type. If we've met, chances are you've already had one and if we haven't met and you don't know what that is, it just means you'll have to meet me to find out!
I'm also wonderfully loud, if I may say so myself. For years I thought I should make myself quieter, but I've realised it's simply what enthusiasm sounds like. I laugh with my whole body, cry at films without the slightest bit of shame (yes, the animated ones too), and I'm convinced life is better with a soundtrack in the background. If there's music playing, you'll probably catch me dancing too.
You'll usually find me chasing water, whether that's trying to stand up on a surfboard, watching the sun shimmer across the sea, or planning my next trip before I've even unpacked from the last one. I have an incurable curiosity for learning new things, a habit of talking to strangers that has somehow gifted me friends all over the world, and an uncanny ability to remember your dog's name long before I remember yours #sorrynotsorry
The quickest way into my good books, it's surprisingly simple: when I ask how you are, tell me the long version. Say yes to spontaneous adventures. Share your food. Eat the food I'm sharing. And if you somehow remember my coffee order without asking... well, I can't promise I'll keep my composure.
My only real weakness? Loud chewing: it genuinely makes every fibre of my body tense... unless it's my dog making those exact same noises. Then somehow it's the sweetest sound in the world. Make that make sense.
The story behind all this...
People often look at me with eyes wide open when I tell them I am moving from working in banking to teaching yoga, hosting sound journeys and dreaming up retreats in sunny places. The truth is, it wasn't one dramatic leap but many tiny moments that slowly pointed me in a different direction.
For fifteen years I built a career that taught me so much. I met incredible people, developed skills I'll always be grateful for. But somewhere between meetings, deadlines and ticking off the next thing on the list, I realised I'd become wonderfully efficient at looking after everything... except myself. Not in a dramatic way, I just got very good at keeping all the plates spinning, while slowly forgetting what it felt like to simply be.
Yoga and sound found me at exactly the right time. They both gifted me something I hadn't realised I'd been missing: space. Space to breathe, to listen and ultimately to notice that my body had been trying to have a conversation with me for years, and I hadn't been very good at listening.
The more I practised, the more curious I became. Not just about sound or yoga, but about people. Why do some experiences leave us feeling more like ourselves? Why does sitting around a table with good food somehow feel healing? Why can one proper hug change the entire direction of a difficult day? Why does a dip in the sea, a good laugh or a quiet moment of stillness sometimes say more than words ever could?
I realised that what I was really interested in had never changed. It had always been people. The only difference was that I'd found a new way to meet them.
That's where Selfluence was born. Not as a business plan or a clever brand name, but as a question I kept coming back to: "What would life feel like if we became fluent in ourselves?"
If we recognised the difference between exhaustion and rest. Between fear and joy. Between what the world expects from us and what genuinely lights us up. Today, every class, every sound journey, every sauna ritual and every retreat I create is simply another invitation into that conversation. Simply an opportunity to slow down enough to be, to breathe, to reconnect...and to remember that the most extraordinary version of you has been there all along.
What on earth is Selfluence?
It's a word I made up...
It simply means becoming fluent in yourself. In a world that teaches us to speak everyone else's language first, I think learning your own might be the most radical thing you'll ever do for you.
Knowing when you're tired, what lights you up, what your body is trying to tell you.
Knowing the difference between "I should" and "I want to.". I can go on...
This is Selfluence.
And yes, I completely made the word up.
But I have a sneaky feeling you might like it and you'll start using it too.