I use this website as a platform to communicate retreats, events, classes and trainings.
These are predominantly therapeutic movement and mindfulness practices and Community Psychology events.
And I don’t mean therapeutic in that I think movement and mindfulness can cure everything (far from it) but I do think they can be soothing, helpful and/or enjoyable.
Studies in psychology and providing individual and group therapy have reiterated to me how useful it can be to have an awareness of - and tools to regulate - one’s self, body, emotions, sensations and thoughts.
How I approach these practices is largely informed by my studies in Community Psychology. Community Psychology considers all of the various factors that influence individuals’ wellbeing. Community Psychology recognises that individuals exist within communities, societies, environments and political landscapes and therefore takes a systemic and social determinants approach to health and wellbeing.
Theories and frameworks learnt through studies in Social Impact, Community Psychology and working in the area of community development and health promotion have helped me make sense of the ways in which movement and mindfulness practices can be beneficial for individuals and also the ways in which the wellness and yoga industry can be harmful.
For me this is a large and important part of my work in this space - addressing the ways in which the wellness and yoga industries in the Western world can be harmful. Through the way yoga is marketed, how it can be culturally appropriated and how it can encourage and facilitate hyper-individualism. That is, it can put the responsibility of one’s health and wellness onto individuals without sufficient acknowledgment of the systems and structures they live within.
So while the yoga and wellness industries have some flaws, I still teach in yoga studios and believe there are many benefits in movement, relaxation and the various knowledges that exist within yoga and eastern philosophies more broadly. I acknowledge that these practices and knowledges are not mine and I intend and hope they are infused through my work appropriately and with humility.
Qualifications
YOGA:
Trauma Sensitive Yoga Teacher Training (2017)
Embodied Flow 100 hour advanced (2015)
Jungle Yoga 200 hour advanced teacher training (2014)
Rainbow Kids Yoga Teacher Training (2014)
School Yoga Institute 200 hour (2013)
UNIVERSITY:
Masters of Applied Psychology (Community), Victoria University, (2017 - 2020).
Graduate Certificate of Social Impact, Swinburne University of Technology, 2015-2016.
Graduate Diploma of Psychology, Deakin University, 2014
Diploma of Languages (Spanish), Tecnológico de Monterrey, 2013
Bachelor of Arts (Psychology), University of Melbourne, 2010-2012
OTHER QUALIFICATIONS/TRAININGS:
Intersectionality training (2020), Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health
Capturing Change Masterclass, Monitoring and Evaluation for primary prevention of violence against women and family violence initiatives (2019), Women’s Health Victoria
Adaptive Research and Evaluation Workshop (2019) Melbourne University & Brotherhood of St Laurence
Rainbow Tick Trainings (2019)
The Body Keeps Score Workshop, Bessel Van de Kolk (2017)
Values and frames that motivate change workshop, Common Cause (2016)
Behaviour change course, Enabling Change (2015)
Facilitation course, Group Work Institute (2015)
Emotion Focused Therapy, Harte Felt Centre (2014)
Photos are from Yasmin Nebenfuhr, Rodney Hyett, Gertrude Street Yoga, Amy Nicholas, Jane Cowan (ABC) and Shaan R. Ali, Thank you.
