My Journey

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I have always been curious about people — how each of us is profoundly unique, and yet deeply interconnected in ways that are often invisible until we slow down and listen.

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My earliest relationship with embodiment began through movement. In 1986, I graduated in Exercise Science and began working as an Exercise Specialist within corporate health programs. I managed health spas in Sydney’s CBD and on Hayman Island, learning early on how movement, environment, and nervous system state shape wellbeing. Even then, I sensed that health was never just physical — it was relational, contextual, and deeply human.

 

Learning to Live in the Unknown

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In 1996, my life took a turn that I don’t often speak about — yet it shaped me more than anything else. I left behind the security of home, my family and friends, and the familiarity of work, and set off on an overland bike-packing journey from Sydney to France with my best friend (now husband).

Twenty months. Sixteen countries. Many deep breaths.

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That journey taught me — in my body, not just my mind — that growth is always a voyage into the unknown. It is rarely tidy. It asks for humility, courage, and a willingness to be changed by what we encounter.

 

Along the way, I spent time studying in a yoga ashram in Rishikesh, India. I visited sacred sites including Borobudur, the Ganges, and the Shwedagon Pagoda, and learnt to meditate in Sunnataram Forest Monastery in Thailand. These experiences didn’t give me answers — they gave me a deeper capacity to listen.

I returned home with a mind, and a body, ready to learn and to share.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Healing Arts, Breath, and Belonging

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Wanting to understand the mind behind the body, I began studying Eastern Medicine and the Healing Arts. I trained in Reflexology, studied Tui Na Chinese Massage with Master Zhang Hao, and was introduced to Taoist philosophy and the lived experience of interconnection.

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One teaching remains with me vividly. Zhang once said:

“With each breath, you take in the whole universe — and breathing out, you exchange yourself.”

This understanding — reinforced through my Shiatsu studies with Lilian Rytt — continues to inform how I work today.

 

In 1998, I undertook a Vipassana meditation retreat at Dhamma Bhumi in the Blue Mountains. Vipassana, meaning to see things as they are, offered me a profound sense of coming home within myself and marked the beginning of my mindfulness practice.

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From there, yoga became not something I did — but something I lived.

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Yoga as Relationship, Not Performance

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I began teaching yoga in 1998, initially training in Kundalini Yoga — the Yoga of Awareness — within the Saraswati tradition. I was mentored by teachers who emphasised inquiry, humility, and lived experience over form.

 

Over time, I continued studying through Satyananda Yoga Ashram, The Yoga Institute, and The Yoga Therapy Institute, alongside somatic yoga and the art of touch with Donna Farhi. These teachings deepened my understanding that healing happens through relationship, choice, and respect for the nervous system.

 

I have been fortunate to be a long-term student of Sue Ehinger and to study with many gifted practitioners, including Leanne Moore in Ayurvedic Reflexology through the Padaveda method — each reinforcing that people are not problems to be solved, but individuals to be met.

 

Yoga Therapy, Trauma, and Healthcare

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In 2017, I completed a 750-hour postgraduate certificate in Mindful Yoga Therapy in the Krishnamacharya tradition. I became Canberra’s first registered Yoga Therapist and began developing trauma-sensitive yoga therapy within mental health settings, including clinical work at Hyson Green Mental Health Unit at Calvary Private Hospital.

 

My work increasingly focused on trauma, mental health, and the need for evidence-based, non-coercive yoga practices. Further postgraduate study followed, including Yoga as Medicine with Dr Timothy McCall, trauma-informed yoga for anxiety, depression, and body image, and advanced study in yoga therapy assessment through the tri-guna model, Ayurveda, and iRest Yoga Nidra.

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Embodiment, Trauma & Advocacy

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With a growing awareness of the global mental health crisis, I became a certified Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) facilitator through the Trauma and Embodiment Centre at the Justice Resource Institute in Boston. This training affirmed what I had already witnessed: when the body is included, healing becomes more possible.

 

My interest in nervous system science led me to explore the intersection of Polyvagal Theory and yogic philosophy, becoming a certified Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) facilitator, supporting individuals with trauma, anxiety, sensory processing differences, ADHD, and autism.

 

In 2023, I studied at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram in Chennai. While grateful for the learning, I also encountered coercive, colonised expressions of yoga — an experience that strengthened my commitment to advocating for trauma-aware, choice-led yoga spaces.

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Furthering my work in post-traumatic growth and embodiment, I became internationally certified in TRE® (Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises), supporting the body’s innate capacity to discharge stress safely.

 

Living the Practice

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Today, I mentor yoga teachers and therapists interested in trauma-sensitive care and welcome students into my classes and courses with openness and humility.

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My greatest teachers, however, remain close to home. My children, Oskar and Marvin, continually teach me patience, presence, and the lived practice of Karma Yoga.

 

Some of my earliest memories are of moving alongside my mother as she taught gentle exercise classes in packed community halls. Her greatest lesson still guides me:

Learn from students — and always treat them as individuals.

 

With deep gratitude to my teachers, my students, my family, and the living wisdom of the healing arts, I continue to walk this path — listening, learning, and creating spaces where people can return to themselves safely and in their own time.

 

Why I Work This Way

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I work this way because I have seen — again and again — that the body is not the problem.
It is the messenger.

Across decades of practice, study, and relationship, I’ve witnessed how often people are asked to override their bodies in the name of healing — to calm down, push through, reframe, or perform wellness. I’ve also seen the quiet harm this can cause, especially for those living with trauma histories, emotional intensity, neurodivergence, or long periods of stress.

 

What I’ve learned is this:
when people are given choice, time, and respect for their nervous system, something shifts naturally.

As a trauma-informed facilitator, I don’t work to fix or correct people. I work to create the conditions where the body feels safe enough to speak — and where its signals are met with curiosity rather than judgement. When a person’s relationship with their body begins to change, their relationship with their mind often changes too. Not through control, but through understanding. Not through effort, but through permission.

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This approach is shaped by both evidence and lived experience. Trauma science, yoga therapy, and nervous system research all point toward the same truth: healing is relational, rhythmic, and deeply embodied. It cannot be rushed, and it cannot be forced.

I work this way because I believe healing should feel humane.

Because people deserve to be met as individuals, not diagnoses.

Because safety, dignity, and agency are not extras — they are foundational.

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And because I trust the body’s innate intelligence to guide the way forward, when it is finally given the space to do so.

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