Our team
Our staff are all fully qualified yoga teachers, in the tradition of Krishnamacharya with a minimum 500 hours of study.
Each teacher facilitates the students in front of them to have a positive class experience and is well acquainted with providing modifications, variations and extensions depending on the individuals’ needs.
Meet our teaching team
Barbara Brian
FOUNDER & DIRECTOR, YOGA THERAPIST, YOGA TEACHER TRAINER & YOGA TEACHER
Barb was a long-standing student of TKV Desikachar and is the founder and director of Āgamā Yoga Centre for Health & Healing. She has been teaching yoga since 1989, offering both group and private classes for the young and healthy, and for students in all stages of life. Now, Barbara mainly teaches private classes, trains and mentors Yoga Teachers & Therapists and conducts Postgraduate Studies.
Fiona Hardie
VEDIC CHANTING TEACHER, YOGA TEACHER TRAINER & YOGA TEACHER
I have been practising yoga since I was 18 - drawn to the mindful movement and spiritual aspects. After finding Āgamā, the focus on the breath in our classical tradition opened up other dimensions of the practice and I then undertook the teacher training course to find out what lay behind yoga and where it might take me. I discovered Vedic chanting and that has become my passion as well as my teaching specialisation. I trained as a Vedic chant teacher at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandarim in Chennai and now, in addition to teaching general and private yoga classes at Āgamā, run regular chanting sessions - for groups and private students. I am also a yoga teacher trainer - in the tradition of Krishnamacharya.
In addition to practising and teaching yoga, I have a busy family life (children, grandchildren, and a mother living with Alzheimer’s), I work part time in my family’s publishing and media business, and I run a cattle property (with a lot of help; mainly read and do yoga ...) in northern NSW.
I try to make my classes both fun and achievable, while having serious intent. I hope to see you there!
Lyn Camilleri
YOGA TEACHER, YOGA THERAPIST
Lyn began as a student of Āgamā Yoga Centre in 2005, when she was pregnant with her first child and was hooked! Since then, it has been an integral part of her life, helping to maintain physical, mental and emotional strength and flexibility. Lyn completed her teacher training at AYC in 2013 and has been a teacher at AYC since that time. In 2021, Lyn qualified as a yoga therapist, after completing a 1000 hour teacher therapy training course at AYC.
Jess Wozniak
YOGA TEACHER
I have been teaching yoga since graduating from teacher training in 2016, in the tradition of T.Krishnamacharya.
I’m inspired by nature and what we can all learn from the effortlessness of the processes that take place around us. I love to incorporate nature as a focal point in all classes while linking body, breath and mind to bring a sense of openness and balance. I teach the students in front of me and take care to ensure each student has positive experience - whether you can touch your toes or not! See you in the sunrise class!
Meg Tucker
YOGA TEACHER
I discovered Āgamā Yoga Centre in 2014 when I moved to South Melbourne. I have been involved with the Centre ever since - both as a student and a teacher. I completed my yoga teacher training with Barbara in 2020 and hope to complete more studies in this tradition in the future.
Larissa Lewis
YOGA TEACHER
Hello, I’m Larissa and I hope we get to meet in a class! I’m a mother of two and own and work in a business with my husband called Cookaborough which helps food businesses connect with their local community.
I will guide you through a series of mindful breath-led movements designed to maintain a strong and flexible body and mind. I’m really excited to join the accomplished teachers at AYC and share what I’ve learned so far with this community. I’m particularly keen to introduce adolescents to yoga tools as an engaging way to instill body breath and mind awareness. I’m also passionate about helping older bodies and minds remain strong and flexible.
Geetha Soosay
YOGA TEACHER
First and foremost I’m a loving mother of two gorgeous kids. I practice as an osteopath with a special interest in pelvic health, pregnancy and treatment of children.
In my practice, I’m dedicated to helping people overcome pelvic health-related issues using yoga and breath exercises along with manual treatment. In recent years I also discovered handstand training and delved into it as a form of fitness and fun. I fell in love with the joy I feel being upside down!
Since undergoing my yoga teacher training at Āgamā Yoga Centre, inspiring people to use mind, body and breath through the power of yoga, has become a passion. I am really excited to be part of the group of beautiful teachers at AYC and look forward to meeting you.
YOGA TEACHER
Imad van der Velde
I am very inspired by T. Krishnamacharya, as he openly introduced the teaching of Yoga to women. The courage to break with an ancient tradition, to do something he believed was right. We all benefit from actions like these. There was suffering and he found he could help. Actions speak louder than words.
My own working background is teaching Resilience programs to primary and secondary school groups to find and grow their comfort zone. Empowering young people to discover, have a go, and find their own voice, in this noisy world.
When living in Europe, I worked as a Youth worker with refugees. As more refugees came to Europe, young adults were struggling to find a place in society. I worked to support this difficult transition In Australia, I work as an Outdoor education guide for secondary schools and as a yoga teacher where invited to. I started studying Yoga, I think, because I wanted to understand more. Yoga studies helped me bring many different experiences together, and discover a common thread.
Yoga is a very powerful tool. As we practice, so we learn. We don’t have to know exactly how it works to begin. Showing up, moving, breathing and paying attention, Yoga can empower us with our living, in this ever-changing flow of life. This informs my Yoga teaching, Yoga to empower, to discover.
Applying the tools of Yoga I enjoy teaching classes for people of all ages, from primary school age to senior ages. Looking forward to meeting you!
Dr. Nadia Chaves
YOGA TEACHER
I am an infectious diseases and general specialist and local to the area. I have practiced yoga since a teenager but found in 2020 that it was the perfect antidote to the challenges we were facing, so have beeng studying yoga for the last two years at Āgamā Yoga Centre. I now use yoga principles with my patients and my colleagues and find that it gives me the tools to deal with the challenges we all face and reminds us to find contentment and joy in the small things in life.
YOGA TEACHER
Rebecca Nathan
I am a qualified Naturopath and Clinical Nutritionist and have a keen interest in mind-body medicine and how chronic stress can directly affect our health. This came from my own experience of exploring yoga and meditation where I have noticed the many physical and mental benefits.
I wanted to share what yoga has meant to me so I completed my teacher training with Barbara and have continued to learn and expand my teaching through further study in the Krishnamacharya lineage.
I love the community aspect of joining together to practice yoga and aim to make my classes fun and accessible for all, no matter what level of experience. We will focus on creating a balanced and calm mind while improving the strength and flexibility of the body.
Meet our guest teachers
Jill Harris
YOGA TEACHER, YOGA THERAPIST AND YOGA TEACHER TRAINER
Yoga has been part of my life since my early 20’s and now at 50 I look back on how intrinsic it has been in guiding me in all areas of my life.
My official teacher training ‘path’ was completed in 2004 with Barbara and I have been studying and teaching consistently since then in the Krishnamacharya lineage.
In 2021 I completed a 4 year (1000 hour) study in Yoga Therapy through Āgamā Yoga Centre exploring how the tools of yoga can be adapted to assist wellness and healing in many conditions such as depression, anxiety, auto immune disease and more. My real passion is yoga as a philosophy of the mind and the way it can inform how we live in our modern world, particularly with our challenges around mental health.
In 2019 I designed and taught yoga protocol on a research project - Yoga for Anixety & Depression through Deakin University in Geelong. This has since been published with signficant outcomes. And in 2021 I began working on a research trial utilizing Yoga as a Pain Management Intervention for women with Endometriosis. This is still ongoing.
This year I am excited to be stepping into research around how Yoga Therapy can assist people with Eating Disorders. The more published research that is completed using Yoga as a mind/body intervention for assisting healing, the more it will lead to changing attitudes to health in the public space.
Aside from teaching group classes and programs at my yoga space in Ocean Grove, I often take on the role of Trainer for the 500 hours Teacher Training that is offered in this lineage. At other times I am fulfilling another dharma to my family and our pet Kelpie who gets his daily 'yoga practice' running on the beautiful Ocean Grove beach.
Denise Duprat
YOGA TEACHER
Denise comes from Argentina where she had most of her Yoga experience. Although her early days were in the realms of Ashtanga, it was through Krishnmacharya’s lineage that she got into a deep understanding of the vast tools and philosophy underpinning this Discipline. It is through the lens of this school that she has been teaching for the last 15 years.
She has extensive experience in Āsana, Prānāyāma and the more meditative elements of Yoga: Mantras and Vedic Chanting. Having not only shared her knowledge in Group classes and Personalized home practices, but also being part of the Krishnamacharya’s Teacher Training in Argentina where new Yoga Teachers of this tradition are formed every year. As part of the Extension Studies offer to Yoga Teachers, she has been training teachers in Prenatal Yoga.
