Conversations with the people of Melbourne yoga. Each episode is one person's story, how they found the practice and how they came to teach it, whether that is Yin, Vinyasa, Iyengar or Ashtanga, plus what is coming up in workshops, retreats and trainings across the city. A project of Yoga in Melbourne, a guide to the people and studios of the local scene.
Masha Gorodilova - Determination, commitment and a true love of teaching
Masha Gorodilova arrived in Australia at 17. She had practised since she was 13, at home in Siberia with her father, after kidney stones and doctors who wanted to medicate her for life. "For me, it was a game." Listen to Masha';s story, from her arrival in Australia through to owning and teaching at one of Melbourne's most beautiful stusdios, Within in South Yarra.
8 Sept 2026
Rayne Watkin, faithful to her truth
Rayne Watkin came to stillness the long way around. An elite competitive rower
with an athlete's drive, an osteopath with a fast and busy mind, she built a
life on doing difficult things well. Then the practice she had kept at the edge
of that life quietly turned it inside out.
She talks about the mother who was a yogi before yoga was a thing, and the
daughter who wanted nothing to do with it. About the experience that woke her up
to herself, which she keeps private because it is hers. About finding Yin
through Qigong, and what it takes for someone always driven to be told: less.
Teaching was never the plan. She went to a training to keep a friend company.
"I'm not two different people. I don't put on my yoga pants and then just show
up and become a yoga teacher. When I stand in front of people, it's just my
heart."
She teaches Yin, Yoga Nidra and Qigong at Warrior One in Brighton and
Mordialloc, and Inndriya in Highett.
Read her profile, her full schedule and where to book:
https://yogainmelbourne.com.au/rayne-watkin.html
3 Sept 2026
Emma Strembickyj - Healing, Redemption and Love
Emma Stremickyj's journey through incredible life challenges to a place of healing, redemption and love is truly inspiring. Hear how yoga brought Emma to a place where she is now one of Melbourne's most in demand yoga teachers.
1 Sept 2026
Shelley Armstrong - From London to Melbourne
Shelley Armstrong began teaching yoga in London after developing a strong practice of Ashtanga and hot yoga. Hear Shelley's story of her journey into teaching, conducting European retreats and building a life as a well established teacher in Australia.
25 Aug 2026
Janita Doelken, her story
An injury, a corporate life she never felt at home in, and the long turn toward touch and stillness.
Janita Doelken took a teacher training with no intention of ever teaching. What changed her mind happened during it, and she talks about that moment here. The path from there ran through ZenThai Shiatsu, Thai massage and bodywork, and into a way of teaching where hands-on work is not an add-on but the point. She now teaches at Grass Roots Yoga in St Kilda and at Within, the South Yarra studio she also manages, co-leads The Yin Path teacher training with Alessia Frisina, and runs the Yin and Touch workshops with her.
Read Janita's full profile and current timetable at yogainmelbourne.com.au/janita-doelken.html
18 Aug 2026
Zoe Kanat... Journey into Rest
Postnatal depression and the conviction that rest is not a luxury. Zoe Kanat came to stillness the long way — through tea at Sacred Heart Mission, young offenders driven to community work, and a silent retreat where the teachers led the room through Yoga Nidra without naming it. She has been guiding people into rest ever since.
11 Aug 2026
Nova Rosaia, the Warrior One story
Nova Rosaia co-founded Warrior One with sixteen mats in a Brighton room. Today it spans Brighton, Mordialloc and Mornington, with some forty teachers and 140 classes a week. She tells the story of building it class by class, opening a brand new studio three months before COVID, and why the teaching team is the heartbeat of it all. The full feature is at yogainmelbourne.com.au.
18 Jun 2026
Alessia Frisina, her story
Rishikesh, two pregnancies, and the turn from strong to soft.
Alessia Frisina was twenty-one, studying Chinese and Hindi, and had never practised yoga when a university trip took her to an ashram in Rishikesh. What followed was London, burnout, a return to that same ashram at twenty-nine for a 500-hour training, and eventually Melbourne. Two pregnancies then turned a daily Ashtanga practice toward Yin, breath and touch, alongside the Vinyasa she now teaches across four studios. She co-leads The Yin Path teacher training with Janita Doelken and runs the Yin and Touch workshops with her.
Read Alessia's full profile and current timetable at yogainmelbourne.com.au/alessia-frisina.html
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