The Bliss Baby Yoga® Team

Ana Davis (E-RYT 500, RPYT, YACEP, 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’s first book “Moving with the Moon: Nurturing Yoga, Movement and Meditation for Every Phase of your Menstrual Cycle and Beyond” was released in late-2018, and is now available in print-book and E-book formats.

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 Online L1 Restorative 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.

Nadine O’Mara (E-RYT 200, RPYT, YACEP, Yoga Australia Lvl 3 Teacher, DONA Certified Doula, B. App. Sc.) is an experienced prenatal and postnatal yoga teacher, doula, and our Bliss Baby Yoga Director and Online Course Content Manager, who is passionate about supporting women’s health, especially around birth.

In addition to sharing her knowledge via our Bliss Baby Yoga online courses and content, Nadine also runs her own business, Conscious Birth. Nadine provides doula support and yoga for women and their partners around Bellingen on the NSW Mid-North Coast. She also offers birth education, self care and restorative yoga workshops for mothers, facilitates mother’s circles, family yoga and retreats for women and/or families. She believes that a gentle birth and the creation of a positive family life helps shape a more peaceful planet.

Star Despres (E-RYT 500, RPYT, YACEP) 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 (E-RYT 200, RPYT, YACEP) 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 (E-RYT 500, RPYT) 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.

Tanya Neate has been exploring the power of yoga to support women’s health, especially women with fertility challenges since 2010. The journey began as a personal quest to discover which yogic practices most support fertility health and her discoveries were so empowering and transformative that she wondered why Fertility Yoga classes were nowhere to be found! A mission to get these practices to the women that needed them was born.

Tanya has undertaken extensive Hatha Yoga teacher training and many specialised trainings in yoga for women’s health, including the Bliss Baby Yoga 100 RPYT Prenatal and Postnatal training. Tanya has undertaken the 4-year yoga therapy teacher training in the tradition of Krishnamacarya to further enhance her yoga therapy skills and has become a qualified and registered counsellor which is another field of support she feels so blessed to be working in.

Tanya is the founder of Moon Tribe Yoga, a mum to two boys, a senior course facilitator for our Bliss Baby Yoga Online Fertility Yoga Teacher Training courses, and lead facilitator of our Supporting IVF with Fertility Yoga Online Module. She offers group yoga classes for fertility, prenatal and women’s wellness, yoga therapy, and counselling sessions in Melbourne. She also spends her time keeping up with the never-ending study and passion projects that come with this kind of wonderful work. One of Tanya’s favourite jobs is to do the video mentoring calls and chat to yoga teachers all over the globe who complete the Level 1 and Level 2 Fertility Yoga courses.

Lisa Fitzpatrick (E-RYT 200, YACEP) 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.

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.

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.

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.

*Our dear friend and colleague Maria sadly passed away in April 2021. You can learn about Maria’s life and work, and her journey with cancer, via the episodes of the Live Like You Love Yourself podcast that she recorded with Chara Caruthers, and via her website (linked below). She was an inspiration, and made the most of every moment she was given. She is greatly missed, but the legacy of her passion for yoga continues through all of the students and teachers she taught over many years, and all of the incredibly valuable resources she left for us all to continue to learn from – which was her wish. We are eternally grateful for Maria. She is forever in our hearts.

Emma Louise Roger (E-RYT 200, RPYT, YACEP, Post Grad Dip Counselling, Cert IV Ayurveda, IRest Lv 1), has been a dedicated yogini since 1996, she is a mother of two daughters and has a passion for supporting women through Yoga, Ayurveda and counselling.

Emma began teaching Yoga in 2001 and in 2002 taught her first prenatal yoga class. Magically Emma fell pregnant with her first child just 3 weeks later. Since then, Emma has specialised in yoga for women, in particular, teaching prenatal and postnatal yoga, Love Your Body for healthy body image, Women’s Shakti Yoga and Yoga for Trauma.  Emma has studied and trained in the U.S., India, Bali and Australia in traditional Hatha Yoga – Swami Satchidananda & Pattahbi Jois of Ashtanga, Yoga Therapy of Krishnamacharya and Tantric Yoga with Uma Inder.

As well as teaching for Bliss Baby since 2010, Emma founded Red Tent Yoga for women in Byron Bay in 2008, where she has taught regular prenatal, postnatal and women’s yoga classes, birth workshops and support groups for women. Red Tent Yoga still continues in the form of local classes and private sessions. From this experience, Emma has a good understanding of how a feminine centred and yoga business can operate. Emma is also a qualified PACFA Holistic Counsellor, and  specialises in Perinatal Counselling for pregnancy and mothers, and offers Havening therapy for trauma.

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!

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.

Our Bliss Baby Yoga Operations Manager, Robyn, is equal parts kind-hearted yogi, and administration nerd – who loves to keep things organised (and colour-coded). Robyn met Ana Davis as a guest presenter while completing their 200 hr YTT with Rachel Zinman (ISHTA System) in Byron Bay, and joined the Bliss Baby Yoga team as Operations Manager soon after in 2014. A shared passion for safe, gentle and mindful yoga drew Robyn to Ana and her nurturing, heart-centred yet scientifically grounded approach to teaching and teacher training.

Robyn’s philosophy is to treat yourself, the planet, and all beings with kindness. In their own teaching, their focus is making yoga accessible and inclusive for all, and their teaching has been inspired and informed by study with many incredible teachers including Dianne Bondy, Amber Karnes, Jivana Heyman, their mentor, Maria Kirsten, as well as Ana Davis and the amazing Bliss Baby Yoga team of facilitators.

Robyn feels incredibly blessed to be part of the Bliss Baby Yoga team – combining their passion for organisation, their experience in administration and operations management, with their love of yoga, within this role. In addition to working behind the scenes at Bliss Baby Yoga, Robyn teaches community focused Kind Yoga classes, which combine Hatha, Restorative and Chair Yoga.

Our Marketing and Social Media Manager Beth Ivy Buxton (RYT, RPYT, MA Art Therapy, BA Honours) has a dual passion for both marketing and women’s wellbeing. A creative and natural people person, Beth has worked in various roles to support mothers and children for over 15 years. During this time she has integrated yoga, art and movement forms alongside attachment theory to facilitate wellbeing and connection. She has also been a keen practitioner of yoga herself since 2001.

Beth loves to inspire and connect with her community, which is what drew her into working in marketing and social media. With over 8 years’ experience supporting both local and international brands, Beth has a feminine approach to marketing and loves to share content which resonates with the community.

In 2018 Beth completed her 200hr yoga teacher training and soon after became a RPYT. Witnessing first-hand the grounding and transformative effects of yoga and its ability to help navigate the challenges of motherhood, Beth felt deeply called to share this with other mothers and mothers-to-be. She now teaches women’s and prenatal yoga classes in Auckland, NZ (find her at Moon Mamma).

Beth is a mother of two small children and is currently completing further study as a Postnatal Doula. She is honoured to bring her passions together within her role at Bliss Baby Yoga, and excited to support this community of incredible women.

Kirsty Nugent (E-RYT 500, BA Honours Journalism/Communications) is both a senior yoga & meditation teacher with 30 years experience and a highly regarded marketing executive. During her advertising career she was responsible for a number of the worlds largest brands and most awarded ad campaigns. Yoga kept her healthy throughout her corporate years and allows her to live an active life despite injuries sustained during her time on Canada’s national gymnastics team. This inspired her to focus her business acumen on companies that promote wellbeing. She’s held top community and marketing positions in the yoga world. She’s written for Australian Yoga Journal and Yoga Life.

Kirsty is a Yoga Nidra specialist, a Restorative Yoga teacher trainer and studied Mindful Self Compassion at Berkley. She’s trained with many of the international teachers featured in ‘Moving with the Moon’ including Shiva Rea, Richard Miller and Donna Farhi. She’s thankful for the teaching foundation she received from ‘scientist yogi’ Simon Borg-Olivier, Lance Schuler and Clive Sheridan. Based in Byron Bay, she teaches privately and at Elements of Byron, Byron Yoga Centre and Workwellgroup.com.au.

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 book, “Moving with the Moon – Yoga, Movement and Meditation for Every Phase of Your Menstrual Cycle and Beyond“, released in late-2018.

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.