The Bliss Baby Yoga Team

Ana Davis (E-RYT 500, RPYT, Yoga Australia Registered Level 3 Senior teacher, qualified Doula, Dip. Remedial Massage, B.A. Honours) has long been passionate about exploring the benefits of yoga and meditation for women’s monthly and life cycles.

Ana has been a keen yoga practitioner since 1990, teaching yoga since 1996, and in 2005 founded Bliss Baby Yoga – offering specialised yoga teacher training courses in the areas of Prenatal, Postnatal, Restorative and Women’s Yoga. In 2013, Ana also founded Moving with the Moon which offers workshops and classes on yoga for the menstrual cycle, menopause and fertility.

Ana is currently writing her first book, “Moving with the Moon: Nurturing Yoga, Movement and Meditation for Every Phase of your Menstrual Cycle and Beyond”, due for release in 2018.

Ana, a mother-of-one, is passionate about sharing the benefits and joys of yoga for every stage of one’s life journey.

Ana is the lead presenter for our Bliss Baby Yoga Online Prenatal & Postnatal Yoga Teacher Training course, and co-facilitator of our Online Yoga for Fertility Teacher Training course. She also offers Online 1:1 Mentoring for yoga teachers and personalised yoga classes.

Star Despres is a devoted yogini, practising since she was 19 and teaching since 2006. She is a Senior Byron Yoga Centre qualified Teacher and Teacher Trainer, and has been facilitating Bliss Baby Yoga teacher training courses since 2010. Star’s passions rest in empowering women to reconnect with the divine feminine, no matter what stage of life they are in, and assisting them to find a more nurturing and sacred approach to life. She especially loves to support women through pregnancy, the postnatal period, perimenopause, menopause and times of exhaustion and depletion via the practise of Restorative Yoga and daily self care rituals.

Star is also the founder of Divine Star, an Online sanctuary honouring the feminine and offering private mentoring, retreats, workshops and circles to inspire women to reclaim their power and reconnect to their authentic selves. Her greatest role is as a mama of 2 daughters (17 years apart), and continues to fine tune the balance of work and Mamahood whilst also honouring her own needs.

Star is a Senior Course Facilitator for our Bliss Baby Yoga Online Prenatal & Postnatal Yoga Teacher Training course, and also offers Online 1:1 Mentoring for yoga teachers and personalised yoga classes.

Rosie Matheson is a passionate women’s health and wellbeing educator.  She has trained extensively in Hatha Yoga, and is a also a qualified Doula. Rosie’s many offerings for women include classes, workshops, and teacher training courses in yoga for fertility, healthy menstruation, women’s life cycles, and both the prenatal and postnatal phases of life.

Rosie’s foundational work in women’s yoga was conducted during a three year residency on Koh Phangan, Thailand. There she participated in over 700 hours of Yoga Alliance certified Yoga Teacher Training courses in addition to attending Yoga Therapy workshops, meditation courses, and a variety of women’s retreats and classes.

Teaching women close to home and across the globe, Rosie regularly leads trainings for students in the USA, Japan, Italy, and Australia. Rosie’s passion is in educating women on the power of their bodies, and the undeniable correlation between celebrating your feminine form and living an empowered and vital life.
Her genius is in presenting these ideas in a way that is accessible, nurturing, and inspiring to women everywhere.

Rosie is a Senior Course Facilitator for our Bliss Baby Yoga Prenatal & Postnatal and Fertility Yoga Teacher Training courses, online, throughout Australia and internationally, and also offers Online 1:1 Mentoring for yoga teachers and personalised yoga classes.

Kanako Yajima has been practicing yoga since 2000 and teaching since 2006. She has been trained in various styles of yoga including Solomon Yogalates, Ishta System with Rachel Zinman, and Vini Yoga & the Five Element Form with Peter Clifford. She has completed a number of Pre & Postnatal Yoga trainings and has been working with pregnant women and new moms since 2010.

Kanako has also worked internationally in many teacher trainings, retreats and workshops as both interpreter (for Japanese groups) and as a teacher trainer.

Thanks to her experience as a yoga translator/interpreter and her dedication to knowledge and growth, she has been immersed in various teachings including yoga philosophy, anatomy & physiology, pranayama and meditation and her versatile and unique teaching styles reflect that extensive knowledge and experience.

Kanako is grateful everyday for being a mother to her daughter as it has been the most challenging yet beautiful and transformational yoga sadhana in life and she loves sharing the magic of yoga practices with students from that heart-felt space.

Kanako is a Senior Course Facilitator for our Bliss Baby Yoga Online Prenatal & Postnatal Yoga Teacher Training course.

Lisa Fitzpatrick is a physiotherapist, best selling author, mother of two, yoga teacher, yoga teacher trainer (specialising in Anatomy & Physiology), and coach who revels in supporting women to find their soul purpose.

Lisa has over 20 years experience working with people to improve health by promoting Mind-Body awareness. She has a specialised interest in women’s health, well-being and spiritual consciousness, and has a talent for making complex anatomical concepts simple and fun. As the founder of Sacred Women’s Business, a coaching and training business, Lisa provides coaching for intelligent and conscious entrepreneurs with a legacy to leave.

Lisa is a presenter on our Bliss Baby Yoga Online Prenatal and Postnatal Anatomy & Physiology Extension Module.

Jennifer Allen (E-RYT 500, RPYT, YACEP) is a yoga teacher and yoga therapist, who teaches a variety of classes in Vinyasa Flow, Yin Yoga, Prenatal & Postnatal Yoga, Yoga Therapy and mat/reformer Pilates. Jennifer has worked as a Senior Bliss Baby Yoga Prenatal, Postnatal and Restorative Yoga course facilitator, and teacher trainer for Byron Yoga Centre Yoga Teacher Training courses in Australia and internationally for a number of years. Jennifer also facilitates her own Jayayoga 200 hr and 300 hr YTT courses through her studio in Auckland, New Zealand.

As a mother of two, Jennifer has experienced first-hand the many benefits of a regular yoga practice to support her through the amazing journey of pregnancy, birth and motherhood, and is keen to share her knowledge and experience.

Jennifer is a presenter on our Bliss Baby Yoga Online Prenatal and Postnatal Anatomy & Physiology Extension Module.

Anna Watts, a beloved guest teacher for Bliss Baby Yoga since it’s beginning in Byron Bay, is a professional Childbirth Educator and Doula Trainer (Celebration of Birth Doula Academy) who has been working with pregnant women/couples for over 28 years.

Her wide experience includes Diploma in Childbirth Education, Diploma in Counselling, Cert IV Training & Assessment, training prenatal yoga teachers, facilitating women’s circles, birth classes, prenatal yoga and supporting many births as a doula. Anna is a mother to two beautiful, adult daughters.

Anna is a specialty guest presenter on our Bliss Baby Yoga Online Prenatal & Postnatal Yoga Teacher Training course.

Maria Kirsten (ERYT-500, YACEP) has been practicing yoga since 1989 and began teaching in 2000. Maria, a mother of two, is an Occupational Therapist, Yoga Therapist, Yoga Teacher and Teacher Trainer, and specialist in Applied Anatomy & Physiology for yoga teachers.

Maria facilitates workshops for teachers throughout Australia and internationally, and is driven by a passion to make yoga safe and accessible for everyone. Her style of teaching is dynamic and fun, making anatomy come to life in movement.

Maria is a special guest presenter on our Online Prenatal & Postnatal Yoga Teacher Training course, sharing safe yoga practices for postnatal women.

Mari Notaras (E-RYT 200, RPYT, YACEP, Yoga Australia Registered Level 3 Senior teacher, Dip. Remedial Massage, B.Arts) has taught yoga for over 18 years. She was teaching Hatha Yoga when her passion and interest in prenatal yoga flourished during her pregnancy with her first child 14 years ago.

She has since studied extensively in the specialised areas of Prenatal, Postnatal and Restorative Yoga with many experienced teachers from both Australia and Internationally. She completed her Bliss Baby Training in 2011 and was invited by Ana Davis to become a facilitator on the Bliss Baby Yoga Teacher Training courses soon after. Mari is now a senior facilitator for Bliss Baby Yoga and teaches throughout Australia as well as Internationally, and is also a course facilitator for our Online Prenatal & Postnatal Yoga Teacher Training course.

She is a mother of 2 daughters aged 14 and 12, and strongly believes that yoga is an incredibly powerful tool that helps women find peace, strength, and a strong connection to the feminine energy that resides deep within. She uses the tools of yoga in her teachings to promote and support positive experiences as well as a healthy transition through womanhood and all that it brings!

Tanya Neate has spent the past eight years passionately pursuing knowledge of how to employ the power of yoga to support the fertility health of women.

The journey began as a personal quest to find a way to overcome her own fertility challenges. What she discovered was so empowering and transformative, she wondered why fertility yoga classes were nowhere to be found! It was this experience that inspired her dream to become a yoga teacher and share these practices with other women dealing with infertility. Tanya’s mission is to make fertility yoga classes as accessible as prenatal yoga now is.

Tanya has undertaken extensive Hatha Yoga teacher training and many specialised trainings in yoga for women’s health, including the Bliss Baby Yoga 100 hour RPYT Prenatal and Postnatal training. She is also studying counselling to further support her work with women experiencing infertility.

Tanya runs weekly fertility yoga, prenatal and women’s health yoga classes from her Melbourne-based studio Moon Tribe Yoga, and is a Senior Course Facilitator for our Bliss Baby Yoga Online Fertility Yoga Teacher Training courses.

Emma Grant has been practicing yoga since 1996 and teaching since 2001. She has trained and studied with Swami Satchidananda of Integral Yoga in the U.S., Pattahbi Jois of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga and Desikachar, son of Krishnamacharya in India.

Upon returning to Sydney, Emma was offered to teach a prenatal yoga class and within a month she was pregnant with her first child. She has maintained her practice of Yoga, Meditation and Ayurveda throughout her 2 pregnancies and into motherhood. She has trained in pregnancy and postnatal yoga, iRest Level 1, and has studied Ayurveda at Naturecare College (Sydney), as well as with Ayurvedic Doctors in India.

Emma founded a womens studio in Byron Bay, Red Tent Yoga which she ran and taught in for 8 years, and now continues in the form of local classes and online courses.

Emma works as a Senior Bliss Baby Yoga teacher trainer in the areas of Prenatal and Postnatal Yoga internationally, and teaches regular Prenatal, Postnatal, Mums n Bubs and Mums n Toddlers yoga classes in Byron Bay.

Dr Lauren Tober is a mother of two, yoga teacher and clinical psychologist, who has also trained in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, iRest Yoga Nidra™ and Life Force Yoga. Her passion is in bridging the gap between Western and yogic psychology to help people to heal and to live full and wholehearted lives. She is also the founder of “Capturing Gratitude” and “A Daily Dose of Bliss“.

Lauren is a specialty guest contributor for our Bliss Baby Yoga Online Prenatal & Postnatal Yoga Teacher Training course in the area of Perinatal Mental Health. Get to know Lauren at www.laurentober.com.

Our Bliss Baby Yoga Operations Manager, Robyn, has had a passion for yoga for over 10 years and in 2013 completed her 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training certification through Byron Yoga in the Ishta System with Rachel Zinman.

Robyn’s philosophy is to treat yourself and others with kindness. She believes that yoga should be a nourishing and nurturing experience, which she promotes through her business, Kind Yoga. This shared philosophy on yoga is what drew Robyn to Bliss Baby Yoga and Ana Davis’s approach to nourishing and nurturing women with yoga, through the various stages of their life.

Robyn feels incredibly blessed to be part of the Bliss Baby Yoga team – combining her passion for organisation, her experience in administration and operations management, and her love of yoga, within this role. She is also incredibly grateful to be able to share the gift of yoga through teaching her own weekly yoga classes.

Sophie Duncan has been a member of the Bliss Baby Yoga team since 2012. She is the creative genius behind the beautiful illustrations in our training manuals, Ana Davis’s ebook, “The Dark Moon – Nurturing Yoga for Healthy Menstruation”, as well as Ana’s forthcoming book, “Moving with the Moon”

When not in the Bliss Baby Yoga office, Sophie runs her own business, Deer Daisy, creating environmentally conscious stationery.

Sophie’s other passions in life include gardening, sustainable lifestyle, natural beauty and spending time with friends and family.