IYTA Faculty

Simon Borg-Olivier MScBAppSc (Physiotherapy) is a Co-Director of Yoga Synergy, one of Australia’s oldest and most respected yoga schools. The Yoga Synergy style is based on a deep understanding of yoga anatomy, yoga physiology and traditional Hatha Yoga. Over the years, Simon has studied with B.K.S Iyengar, K. Pattabhi Jois and T.K.V Desikachar. He met his main teacher, Natanaga Zhander (Shandor Remete), in 1985 and studied intensively with him for almost 20 years. Since 2007 he has continued his training with Master Zhen Hua Yang. Simon was born in Malta, lived in Germany and England before the family settled in Sydney in 1968. He studied and taught at Sydney University over a period of 20 years. In that time he completed a Bachelor of Science in human biology, a research based Master of Science in molecular biology and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Physiotherapy. Simon has been teaching since 1982. He is a registered physiotherapist, a research scientist and a university lecturer.

A senior IYTA and Yoga Alliance Yoga teacher based in Asia since 1995, Sarah’s extensive teaching experience includes Yin Yoga, Yoga Therapy, Yoga for Back Care and Pre and Post Natal. Sarah studied Chinese Reflexology whilst living in China and has trained in Tuina (Chinese Meridian Massage) and Yin Yoga whilst living in Singapore. She leads the IYTA Yin Yoga Training and has led the development and introduction of all of the IYTA Post Graduate courses.

Sal Flynn is a Yoga therapist, psychotherapist and educator. Her formal and informal training blends the disciplines of Yoga, psychotherapy, education and contemplative practice. Underpinning her work is more than 30 years of practice and study in the eastern traditions, along with education and internships in Western psychotherapy and Yoga therapies both in Australia and India. Sal has a private clinical practice where she see’s clients in Byron Bay and via Skype, she runs workshops and trainings for Yoga teachers and Counsellors nationally and internationally. Sal has a degree in Counselling and Human Change, a Clinical Diploma in Hypnotherapy and is trained to deliver John Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) programs, as well as various post graduate Yoga trainings. She is a member of the IYTA, AAYT, IAYT, Yoga Australia, and a full Clinical Member of the Counsellors and Psychotherapists Association of Australia.

Marion (Mugs) McConnell is the author of Letters From The Yoga Masters: Teachings Revealed Through Correspondence from Paramhansa Yogananda, Ramana Maharshi, Swami Sivananda and Others. She was first introduced to yoga as a teenager in 1973. She has been practicing yoga ever since, and teaching since 1978. Her passion for this ancient practice and its many boundless layers of wisdom beyond the physical led her to study under Swami Vishnudevananda. She graduated from the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre as a Yoga Acharya in 1978. In 1977 Mugs became a student of Yogiraj Dr. Hari Dickman, a disciple of Swami Sivananda, Paramhansa Yogananda, and many others. Mugs has been the Canadian Representative for the International Yoga Teachers Association (IYTA) since 1982 . She is a founding member of the South Okanagan Yoga Academy (SOYA) and co-creator of its teacher-training program, a Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga School that is unique in its adherence to IYTA standards. She is an Experienced Registered Teacher with Yoga Alliance and has served on Yoga Alliance committees since 2012. In 2012 Mugs received a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for offering yoga in Canada and abroad for nearly forty years. In 2013 she was the recipient of a Certificate of Appreciation from IYTA in recognition of her contributions to yoga around the world. Mugs lives with her husband, Robert, in British Columbia and Mexico.

During the late 1980s Rama studied Ayurveda and Yoga in Gurukula style for 8 years at the Bharathiyar University. After his formal studies he did private internships with some of Keralas leading Ayurvedic masters. He learnt Sanskrit from his father and various other teachers at school and university. Rama is a Sanskrit scholar from a long lineage. He also has studied hypnotherapy and mind-body counseling in Australia. For the past 20+ years he has been practicing Ayurveda internationally. He runs courses and consultations in most large cities in Australia. He was the keynote presenter at various international Ayurveda and Yoga conferences including the 2006 one at Madras, India along with Dr Chopra and Dr Svoboda. He has been involved in the organization of over a dozen international conferences in Sydney and India over the past 10 years. In his clinic Rama uses Ayurvedic and Yogic wisdom that he gained from university and his village. He has identified over 2,000 Ayurvedic herbs that are native to Australia. His future plan includes health villages in Australia and India. His passionate classes are fun-filled, simple and clear. He believes ‘the more you give, the more you learn’. During his yearly visits to Kerala, Rama still makes garlands for the temple deities along with his mother and sisters.

June first studied yoga with Ailsa Gartenstein in Brisbane. She undertook her initial yoga teacher training in Melbourne with Margrit Segesman of The Gita School of Yoga, and with Thea Mangiamele in Yoga and Creative Movement, becoming a full IYTA Member in 1969. She worked with Roma Blair in Sydney, and obtained additional yoga teacher qualifications with Dr Jonn Mumford, of Samkhya Scientific Yoga Teaching Assnociation Sydney, following which she undertook residential yoga teacher training in India at Ananda Ashram, Pondicherry, The Yoga Education Centre in Santa Cruz, The Govt. of India Goraksia College of Yoga and Cultural Synthesis, Lonavla, and The Bihar School of Yoga, Munger. June's experience teaching yoga led her to pursue her interest in yoga in the context of health care, and to become a registered psychologist. Her particular interests include application of evidence based attentional control training (meditation), iRest, traditional and secular Yoga Nidra as Emotional and Cognitive Empowerment Training, Swara Yoga in the Psychobiology of Healing, as well as imaginative involvement in the context of health care. June is a certified iRest teacher, a member of the Australian Association of Yoga Therapists and the International Association of Yoga Therapists.

Donna Farhi is a Yoga teacher who has been practicing for 39 years and teaching since 1982. She is one of the most sought after guest teachers in the world, leading intensives and teacher training programs internationally. Her approach to Yoga is informed by the refinement of natural and universal movement principles that underlie safe and sustainable Yoga practice. This concentration on fundamental principles allows student of all levels of experience and from all traditions to build their own authentic Yoga practice. Considered the “teacher of teachers”, students return to Donna’s intensives year after year to be a part of the inspiring evolution of Donna’s own practice and teaching. Donna is the author of four contemporary classics; The Breathing Book, Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit: A Return to Wholeness and Bringing Yoga to Life: The Everyday Practice of Enlightened Living. Her fourth book Teaching Yoga: Exploring the Teacher-Student Relationship is a curricular text for teaching trainings worldwide. She has been profiled in four separate publications on exceptional contemporary teachers of our time, including Yogini: The Power of Women in Yoga. After nearly four decades of practice Donna believes that Yoga is about learning to befriend our self and to be in friendship with others as a means to building greater fellowship with all of humanity.

Chris has been teaching yoga, meditation, and the vedic sciences since the early 1980's and has personally trained hundreds of students, teachers, and teacher trainers Worldwide. Chris is the author of most of the internationally famous Dru Courses, and is currently involved in developing yoga as a therapy, and making it applicable to all teaching styles and schools. Chris has recently launched an on-line course teaching Vedic Astrology as a tool to aid self development and to aid therapists in their work. He is widely known for his engaging sessions and his ability to make the Vedic sciences practical and applicable to everyone in daily life. or Chris is an internationally renowned speaker and trainer and has taken Dru Yoga and meditation to many parts of the world. Over the years he has trained hundreds of yoga and meditation teachers and has pioneered many groundbreaking courses over the globe. He has a deep understanding of the energy bodies and how to activate and balance them. He is a practising jyotish, and has trained many students in this ancient discipline of vedic astrology. Chris is a master in the uses of pranayama and prana kriya to move energy in the subtle body and he regularly trains students in these skills. His understanding of the science of yoga, as applied to health and healing, is vast, and he is renowned for his ability to make difficult subjects easy to understand. Chris is often sought after to train others and bring them closer to self-understanding.

Dr. Ananda currently serves as Deputy Director of the Centre for Yoga Therapy Education and Research at Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth University, Pondicherry, Chairman of the International Centre for Yoga Education and Research at Ananda Ashram, and YoganjaliNatyalayam, the premier institute of Yoga and Carnatic Music and Bharatanatyaman. He is also an Honorary International Advisor to the International Association of Yoga Therapists, the Australasian Association of Yoga Therapists, the World Yoga Foundation and Gitananda Yoga Associations worldwide. Dr. Ananda is a Gold Medalist in Medical Studies (MBBS) with postgraduate diplomas in both Family Health (PGDFH) as well as Yoga and the Advanced Diploma in Yoga. A Fellow of the Indian Academy of Yoga, he has authored 19 DVDs and 23 books on Yoga as well as published more than two hundred papers, compilations and abstracts on Yoga and Yoga research in National and International Journals and travelled widely as a guest presenter to all parts of the Globe.