Amanda Ferris is a 26-year practitioner and Level 2 Authorised Ashtanga yoga teacher who brings clarity, warmth, and attentiveness to her teaching. Deeply rooted in the traditional teacher-student relationship at the heart of Ashtanga yoga, Amanda’s strengths lie in maintaining steady practice containers and nurturing authentic growth in her students through compassion, consistent presence, and guidance.

Amanda has cultivated a daily yoga practice in the Ashtanga tradition without interruption since 1999. She is a direct student of Pattabhi Jois, Sharath Jois, and Saraswati Jois, with whom she started visiting regularly in Mysore, India in 2004. She teaches the primary and full intermediate series, and additionally completed 500 hours of training with Yoga Arts Byron Bay in 2001. Amanda is recognised by Yoga Australia as a senior teacher and was mentored by Dena Kingsberg from 2001-2007.

While her primary focus is the Ashtanga tradition, Amanda also draws on yogasana for rest, restoration and therapy, occasionally sharing this varied approach with students. Her teaching is informed by her ongoing studies in Gestalt Psychotherapy and her completion of a course for teachers of presence with Eckhart Tolle in 2023.

A deep thinking, creative, and articulate person, Amanda draws on her extensive yoga experience alongside her broad educational background and life experiences. Born and raised in the midwestern United States, she holds an undergraduate degree from Sarah Lawrence College and studied Landscape Architecture at postgraduate level at the University of Melbourne. Now a dual US/Australian citizen living in Melbourne’s Inner Northern suburbs, she is mother to a teenager and a certified Tea Master (Australian Tea Masters, 2020).

Whether expressed through teaching and practicing yoga, parenting, tending to plants, or preparing tea, Amanda places high value on self-awareness and presence. She creates spaces where students feel safe to explore, grow, and develop sustainable practices that honor their individual needs and capacity. Both an active and reflective person, Amanda can be found rowing at NARC or resting quietly in contemplation. She dabbles in the garden, reads and listens broadly, and feels life deeply as it unfolds.