Welcome to Sandra’s yoga community
Please feel free to enjoy Sandra’s content below

Kia ora and welcome

I am so glad you are here

Everyone has the right to live a flourishing life full of ease and wellbeing and kind, trauma informed, embodied practices are the pathway to this life.

I am a Registered Psychologist and 500-hour + trained Yoga teacher. I am also a certified iRest(R) yoga nidra meditation teacher. I love to offer practices which focus on embodiment (getting to know your body just as it is) and regulation of the nervous system so life feels less stressful and overwhelming. Everything I do integrates yoga and psychology for optimal wellbeing and increased mind-body resilience.

As your embodiment and Interoception (what you are sensing in your body) increases, your sense of self and body-mind resiliency increases so you experience more calm and ease in your world, no matter what is going on around you.

In September 2022 I was diagnosed with stage 4 “incurable” gastric cancer and have been undergoing my personal cancer journey. This is leading me to be more passionate and interested in how yoga and meditation practices can support those living with chronic health conditions.

Given I am undergoing my own cancer journey and treatment, I have stepped back from many face to face offerings. Instead my focus has turned to offering self paced courses which enhance wellbeing. Perfect for those living with chronic health conditions but also great for those wanting to thrive (rather than just survive).

I am also excited to be offering online Embodied Yoga for Cancer classes in 2024. Go to the Cancer and Yoga tab for more information and to register.

I currently offer:

an online Yoga & Wellbeing studio with a focus on self paced courses and an online membership to enhance wellbeing
Online monthly Embodied Yoga for Cancer classes
In person one day retreats - Yoga and Lymphatics for Cancer
ACC ISSC funded Embodied Self Care one day retreats
a regular blog with a focus on body mind practices which support my cancer journey

Who am I?

I live with one foot in Auckland and one foot in Waipū in Northland, enjoying the variety of work and play both areas offer. I thoroughly enjoy learning to surf, walking on the beach, growing my own food, finding peace and stillness in the rural life and the opportunity to teach yoga and meditation practices online. However, I also love the vibrancy and energy of Auckland city. Who says gumboots and yoga clothes don’t work well together?

I was drawn to yoga by the calmness and clarity it provided me and I am curious about the interface of yoga and psychology to support well-being. I am on a lifelong journey to lead a slower, less stressed, more embodied and mindful life fuelled by my practices. My focus is on teaching accessible, slow, embodied, trauma informed yoga practices which support healing and awareness of self. My own journey with arthritis and more recently with cancer, has highlighted the importance of yoga being accessible.

My training has included:

500 hours of Yoga Teacher Training (Contemporary Yoga)
200 hours Yoga Teacher Training (Embodied Flow)
Certification in iRest yoga nidra meditation (2 year training)
Somatic Stress Release Year 1
Yin yoga training (Embodied Flow style) 50 hours, Joe Barnett 25 hours
Lymphatics and Yoga (Yoga Medicine)
Body as Voice Polyvagal Informed Dance Movement Therapy with Amber Gray
Mental Health Aware Yoga training - The Yoga Psychology Institue

I am a guest tutor and mentor on yoga teacher trainings in Auckland and Australia including:

Contemporary Yoga Studies
Mental Health Aware Yoga

**Free 7 Days of Embodied Self Care & Wellbeing**

Perfect for lockdowns or emerging from lockdowns!!! Or just any old time when you want to prioritise you.

I created these 7 Days of Embodied Self Care & Wellbeing practices to support you to nourish yourself, to create a refuge in your own home, a sanctuary of peace – like your own mini spa retreat at home.

These practices are an opportunity to fill your own cup, to nourish yourself and your own wellbeing and to put yourself at the top of your priority list. Self-care is community care. If you look after yourself, you are in a better position to look after others without running your cup dry.

And I wanted these practices to be embodied, which simply means they are somatic based or using the body as a doorway into self-care and wellbeing.

These Self Care & Wellbeing Practices are free and brief enough to fit into your day. They range from 5-35 minutes. Self-care is like meditation - better to do a little every day rather than one larger practice a week.

What you will receive access to:

Three introductory videos -

Taking a baseline or weather report
Setting up with props
Creating a home sanctuary

Seven practices over seven days - including gentle movement, yoga nidra meditation, a personalised loving kindness meditation, a somatics practice in the style of Thomas Hanna and embodied resourcing practices. No experience in yoga or meditation is necessary, just a curiosity and openness.

The access to these practices is open with no end date, so you can return to those you really enjoyed and benefited from and don’t need to feel pressured timewise. That’s why you’re doing it right? To find that spaciousness no matter what is going on around you.

Sign up now and get access to the online course immediately.

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An experienced teacher you can trust

I love to offer accessible, trauma informed, healing practices which focus on regulation of the nervous system. I teach slow, healing, embodied practices in a caring, safe online space so life feels less stressful and overwhelming The practices integrate yoga and psychology for optimal wellbeing.

As your body-mind resiliency increases you will experience more calm and ease in your world, no matter what is going on around you.

“The time will come

When, with elation,

You will greet yourself arriving

At your own door, in your own mirror,

And will smile at the other’s welcome” - Derek Walcott, poet

What People Are Saying

“Thanks Sandra. I’ve really enjoyed the iRest course. There really does seem to be something about this yoga nidra / irest thing that makes a significant difference in how I feel. You have a wonderful demeanour that allows your own light to inspire your students to what you’ve got and therefore to what you do.”

“Sandra leads a wonderfully relaxing Restorative yoga and iRest class. Sandra’s monthly classes at the very well-respected Studio Red always sell out. I cannot recommend Sandra’s classes highly enough, she “walks the talk” and is truly authentic in the work that she does”

“I unreservedly recommend Sandra’s Yoga Nidra (iRest) course. I absolutely loved it. Sandra is very ‘real’ and puts everyone at ease. Yoga nidra helped me at a very stressful time in my life and Sandra, herself, always has very wise counsel”