A dance teacher who suffered an emotional meltdown on an intense yoga course in Goa has won her fight for what could be a £200,000 payout from its British organizer.
Personal trainer and dance instructor Melissa Revell said ‘self-exploration exercises’ on the £2,250 yoga teacher training course triggered a breakdown which left her unable to work or look after herself.
Ms Revell, 35, said she had been in good physical health prior to embarking on Luton-based The Yoga People’s course in 2019 – but had since ballooned from a size six to a size 16.
She has blamed unadvertised psychological exercises on the course, which ‘retraumatized’ her after resurfacing memories of being adopted.
The teacher, from Richmond in west London, sued The Yoga People’s trading firm TYP International Ltd – run by British yoga guru Jamie Clarke, 59, and Mexican instructor Dulce Aguilar, 43 – seeking over £200,000.
London’s High Court has ruled that she is entitled to a payout after Mr Clarke confirmed the company would not seek to defend its previously lodged denial of liability for Ms Revell’s.
And now Ms Revell is in line for a payout after Mr Clarke told London’s High Court that the company has dropped its defence over liability for what happened to her.
Ms Revell said she had gone from fit, active and working to being ‘not able to care for herself’ and leading ‘an extremely reclusive, impoverished and dysfunctional life’ with ‘acute anxiety whenever she leaves the flat’.
The yoga company previously insisted to the court Mr Clarke, Ms Aguilar and its other staff did nothing wrong.
They denied there was any ‘psychological’ element to the training or that the emotional collapse Ms Revell says she suffered was a foreseeable risk of a yoga course.
However, Mr Clarke has now confirmed to the court that the company would no longer be disputing the issue of liability, having run out of funds.
The company parted with its lawyers and lost a key pre-trial skirmish meaning they were unable to adduce their own expert medical evidence.
‘The company is no longer trading as of July 2022,’ he told judge, Master John Dagnall.
‘We are now unable because of funds to defend the claim.
‘We feel it is not probable that the claimant would win on liability, but we are in the catch 22 situation where there is not money to pay for our defence.
‘With [the company’s former solicitors] Kennedy’s no longer acting, we find ourselves no longer with representation or funds to defend the claim.’
In documents lodged at London’s High Court, Marcus Grant, for Ms Revell, said that she paid £2,250 for a 200-hour training course in Goa in September and October 2019, with the aim of becoming a qualified teacher of Ashtanga yoga.
read more Dance teacher wins court battle with British yoga guru after his ‘traumatic’ retreat ‘gave her PTSD’
