Andrea is a Senior Yoga Teacher registered with Yoga Australia and the founder of Yoga Unite, with over 25 years of dedicated practice and teaching experience. Her journey began in 1998 while living in a monastery in Japan and has continued through extensive study in Australia and internationally. She intially completed a 500-hour teacher teaching certificate with John Ogilvie from Byron Yoga in 2010. Her deeper training developed through 15 years of rigorous study with Peter Thomson, a Senior Iyengar Yoga teacher, who taught her the method and understanding she practises, teaches and lives by today. Andrea also has a degree in Health and Physical Education.

She teaches a somatic yoga practice that integrates biomechanical principles with mindfulness, cultivating intelligent action in the body. Rather than emphasising fixed or idealised postures, the method guides practitioners to develop perceptual awareness from the point of contact the body has with the ground. By using the body’s own weight to create natural resistance, practitioners generate internal energy and extension, allowing structural support within the body.

Through this process the muscular and skeletal systems can realign for more efficient, integrated and functional movement, while also supporting bone health. The practice directly influences the nervous system, helping to regulate it and build resilience.

Equipment (props) such as blocks, belts, bolsters, chairs, blankets, rope wall etc are used to take the load of the body so it can open safely and progressively supporting all the systems of the body.

The practice can be dynamic and flowing, gentle or restorative depending on each practitioner and what their body can support at the time. This approach makes the practice adaptable and accessible to everybody, including those recovering from injury, during pregnancy, with limited mobility, or in rehabilitative contexts.

This style of yoga reconnects the body and mind. Here the mind is not understood as a cognitive process or the thinking brain, but as awareness expressed through sensation and feeling. Through this process the practice offers profound benefits for mental and emotional wellbeing, helping practitioners become fully present in the moment.

Andrea has extensive experience teaching students of all levels, from beginners to experienced practitioners. Her work spans a wide range of settings, including working with players from the Western Sydney Wanderers FC professional soccer team, community chair yoga classes for senior residents, children’s yoga programs, general group classes, online classes and private sessions. This style of yoga practice can be adapted appropriately to different ages, abilities, physical, mental and emotional needs, making the work accessible, supportive and transformative for everybody.