A fresh beginning for your practice
Arriving on your yoga mat is an invitation to pause. To feel the ground beneath you, notice your breathing and become aware of what you have brought with you from the day.
Even when we lie down to rest, we can still be carrying the day with us — physical effort, a busy mind, stress and the emotions stirred by our experiences. These are woven together in how we hold ourselves, breathe and meet the ground. Time, awareness and appropriate support offer space for the holding to soften, and the whole of us to settle.
This is where the Buttafly Technique becomes part of preparing for yoga. With a Standard Buttafly precisely positioned beneath the pelvis, you rest while your body’s innate intelligence responds through the spine. It's an opportunity for the spine to unwind from the doings of the day and discover a different starting point for your practice.
I recommend a short Savasana before and after the Technique. The first gives you time to arrive and recognise how you feel. Returning to the same resting position afterwards allows you to sense any changes for yourself — in how your body meets the floor, the movement of your breath, or your experience of comfort and alignment.
Like letting the dust settle, this pause allows you to become more aware of what is there. From that awareness, you can begin to move, carrying your discoveries into the rest of your practice.
Simple support, a deeper experience
The simplicity of the Buttafly Technique belies its depth. The precise positioning of the support creates the conditions for a response that belongs to your own body.
Through more than a decade of working with the Technique, I have observed changes in spinal alignment while people rest. Alongside these physical changes, people describe experiences of lightness, stillness and feeling more at home within themselves.
This continuing enquiry informs the way I practise and teach.
Stillness and the Buttafly Effect
Craniosacral practitioner Andrew Cook and others have described the Buttafly as acting as a still-point inducer. This resonates with my experience of the profound stillness that can arise through the Technique.
My understanding also draws on the relationship between the spine, craniosacral rhythms and the experiences described within yoga as the movement of kundalini energy. These connections form part of my ongoing exploration of the Buttafly Effect.
Your own experience is the starting point. Guided awareness offers a way to become curious about what unfolds, allowing the practice to reveal its depth in your own time.
Ginger Wilcox, an experienced yoga teacher shares her experience of the Buttafly Technique with Loulou James.
Carry the experience into your yoga
What happens when you begin to sit, stand and move again? How do your feet meet the ground? How does movement through your hips or shoulders relate to your spine?
Gentle exploration helps you carry your discoveries into asana. Simple anatomical understanding, breath and visualisation bring another dimension to this enquiry, helping you recognise how the whole body participates in movement.
There is an ease in yoga that unfolds as we deepen our awareness of movement arising from within and trust the body’s own way of organising.
— Loulou James
Learn the Buttafly Technique with Loulou James
Guided instruction helps you establish the positioning of the Buttafly, experience the Technique and explore its place within your yoga practice. Choose the setting that suits you.
Online instruction classes
Join a guided class via Zoom to learn and practise from home, with time for questions and exploration. You will need a Standard Buttafly; the Tall and Flat versions are not suitable for the Technique.
One-to-one sessions
For individual guidance, book a One-to-one session online or in person. We’ll work at your pace, with attention to your setup, your experience and your particular needs.
In-person workshops
Experience the Technique alongside practical anatomy, gentle movement and guided awareness. Visit the Events page for upcoming workshops, locations and booking details.
Personal practice and professional training
The Buttafly Technique is a therapeutic technique that can be practised for personal self-care or learned as a professional modality through dedicated training.
The instruction offered here is for your personal use. Yoga and Pilates teachers are warmly welcome to attend for their own practice. Participation does not authorise you to introduce or lead the Technique in classes or groups, teach it to others, or offer it professionally.
Professionals qualified and insured to offer hands-on modalities are welcome to enquire about the separate Buttafly Technique practitioner training pathway and the insurance requirements for professional practice.
This distinction applies specifically to the Buttafly Technique. Using the Buttafly as a yoga prop or meditation seat is a separate application.
Reviews of the Buttafly Technique
Surprisingly simple and effective.
— Angela Farmer, international yoga teacher
I currently suffer from chronic lower back pain - the difference when I tried the Buttafly Technique for the first time was incredible.
— Katie Cornish, yoga teacher
Incredibly beneficial for relieving tension and pressure in my back. I've used the Buttafly Technique every day for over two years now.
— Virginia Dutton, Naturopath
I could feel almost immediately something powerful was happening. Afterwards there was a pronounced realignment of my spine.
— Swami Satyadaya, Mandala Yoga Ashram
I love the feeling of my spine unraveling.
— Ingvild S Prestegard, yoga teacher
For my scoliosis, it gives relief from pain.
— Lalita Devi, Germany
Loulou's unique insights and practical tools have empowered us to approach alignment with greater awareness, leaving a lasting impact on both body and mind.
— Julia Chilcott-Coombes, yoga teacher, Southampton Yoga Association Chair
Experiences from teachers and sports therapists
The body has a deep intelligence and the capacity to bring itself back into balance. That said, we rarely, if at all, consider how this applies to the spine and posture. But it does, and the Buttafly Technique harnesses it beautifully.
— Loulou James, MCSP
Spine Health Specialist and the designer of the Buttafly