Our facilitators are experienced, passionate, heart centred, powerful women.
Claire 'Frenchy' French - Wonder-Full - Director & Facilitator Frenchy, originally from the UK, has been in NZ permanently for over 11 years. She is an international Event and Festival Producer, Social Worker, qualified Zumba Fitness, Chakradance and Hoopdance Instructor and Circus and Fire Performer with over 20 years professional experience in the Entertainment and Events Industry.
Frenchy loves directing retreats as she feels her cup gets filled along with the participants. She believes there is a real power and healing in bringing together circles of women and giving this gift to the world is something she is really passionate about.
Having built a gypsy caravan, and more recently a tiny house Frenchy is currently working on her 'Wonder-Full' business, teaching Zumba and Hoopdance, organising retreats, events and festivals and on the side works as a pyrotechnician and workshop leader. In her spare time she loves fitness, horse riding, outdoor adventures, yoga, meditation, tramping and snowboarding.
Juliette McConachy- Awakening Arts - Yoga and Facilitation Devoted to a path of enquiry and embodiment, Juliette has spent over 1,500hrs in professional training along side world class yoga teachers, travelled the world to sit at the feet of enlightened masters, and clocked countless hours in vipassana meditation halls and the shifting landscapes of her own personal practice.
She has been working one to one and in group therapeutic settings since 2012 and continues to learn and grow and weave the threads of various healing traditions into artful and relatable teachings and experiences of embodied awakening.
Juliette launched Awakening Arts in January 2019 as a home for seekers of truth-centric community and embodied liberation. QUALIFICATIONS
E-RYT® 500 Registered Yoga Teacher
YACEP® Continuing Education Provider with Yoga Alliance
Certified Embodied Flow™ Facilitator
Psychosomatic Therapist
Zenthai Shiatsu Practitioner
Yoni Mapping Therapist
Constanza Causay- Begin Within - Cacao Ceremony Connie is originally from South America and is a mother, Andean Wisdom Keeper, Plant Medicine apprentice, Adventure Guide, Yoga lover and student always.
Based at the Anahata Yoga Retreat here in Golden Bay she has facilitated her powerful ceremonies for many years and will be sharing the magic of cacao with our group.
Previous Wonder-Full Facilitator Teams...
Lisa Maia Ambrose - Studio Tula - Facilitation, Belly Dance, Yoga, Wellness Lisa is a belly dancer, yogini/yoga teacher, meditation guide & womens wellness facilitator. She is the founder of Studio Tula, an urban oasis of Dance, Yoga and Wellness, in her hometown Ōtepoti Dunedin. This is where she teaches classes in Yin Yoga, and Hatha/Vinyasa Yoga throughout the week.Lisa has been Belly Dancing since she was 13 years old, and so dance has been a close companion of hers for over 12 years. Lisa specifically loves Tribal Belly Dance for the way it cultivates teamwork and a sense of equality and sisterhood in dancers, and for its earthy antique aesthetic. She occasionally leads classes/courses in both American Tribal Style Belly Dance and Contemporary/Tribal Fusion Belly Dance at Studio Tula, but with the precedence that Yoga and her Studio takes in her life at the moment, she loves the opportunity to share her passion out and about, as and when the opportunity arises. When she’s not teaching or practising yoga, or dancing, she’s probably in her veggie garden, cooking, spending time with the people she adores most.. or watching funny animal videos online (her other passion)
Hana Jakubikova - Cacao Circles Facilitator and Breathwork Practitioner
Hana, born in Czechoslovakia, has been in New Zealand permanently for over 12 years. She is originally trained as an Occupational Therapist. She is certified Cacao Circles facilitator at Cacao Mama International. She is currently studying for a Breathwork Instructor Certificate at Soma and is an everyday breathwork practitioner. Sitting in many Cacao Ceremonies with Ancient Plant Medicine of Cacao has connected her back to true self, back Home to her Heart, embodying a fuller expression of her Soul. She has a profound desire to share this medicine with others using several different modalities to guide and hold space. She guides to go deeper within the self unlocking wisdom that dwells in our bones, connecting us with our body, higher self, Ancestors while sitting in the Sacred Space of Cacao Circle. Cacao and Her properties, known as Food Of The Gods, opens us to broader and more heightened experiences.
Breathwork has countless physical, mental, emotional and spiritual benefits. Breathing in rhythm brings us to heart coherence, deeply relaxed states, yet totally energised. Hana offers energised meditation combined with breathwork and gentle breath sequences that switch the nervous system from sympathetic to parasympathetic, to a place of relaxation, rest and digest, to the natural state of being.
Tali Vidal - Spiral Connections - Photographer As our in house photographer for our 'Goddess Photoshoot' for the last 2 events and our promotional photo provider we are blessed to have Tali along for the whole retreat this time around.
We will check in with everyone about photos at the beginning of the retreat and will respect any boundaries put in place. Photos will be sent to participants prior to public release and any you aren't happy with will not be used. All participants will get access to the photos after the event. Tali says 'My vision as a photographer is to shed light on the beautiful nature of us women in a way that feels encouraging& authentic. Join me, on an exploration through the lenses for an opportunity to empower & discover the rawness of what lies within.'
Debora is a yoga teacher, acroyoga teacher, massage therapist and full-time mama living in Golden Bay, New Zealand. You can book a private massage treatment during your stay with Debora for an additional cost. Her teaching focuses on addressing and integrating all layers of the individual. They are based on her Classical Tantra Study with Christopher Wallis. Using empathy and intuition, knowledge & experience, she addresses specific needs of the individual as well as the class as a whole. She invites students to develop a quality of observation that is nonjudgmental and equanimous which she believes is the first step toward transformation. Her yoga classes are regenerating and restorative while at the same time offering opportunity for a deep journey for transformation physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. She offers Vinyasa, Yin and partner yoga classes and has been practicing and teaching yoga for 13 years.
Linda Ross - Nourishing Ways - Chef, 'The Yoga Of Nourishment' Workshop Linda is an Integrative Nutrition Therapist, Mind Body and Eating Coach and Wholefood Chef. She says 'I support and empower women of all ages transform their relationship with food, health and self. Blending Functional Nutrition, Food medicine, Mind Body Wellbeing and Nourishment Psychology I facilitate a safe and sacred space to meet you where you’re at, explore personal growth and healing and help you fill your bowl - nutritionally, physically, emotionally and spiritually'.
Toni Hutton - Yoga Teacher, Wilderness Guide and Heaphy Track Ranger
Toni has practised yoga for 15 years, appreciating many teachers offerings in modalities such as Hatha, Iyengar, Yin, Bikram, Vinyasa and Slow Flow. Toni Says... 'I am passionate about bringing connection to ourselves, with others, with our environment and our truth. A very special teacher of insight meditation brought learnings into my life in 2014, offering clarity which led to powerful changes in my life.'
She did teacher training with Golden Flow yoga back in 2017 which has led to training new teachers in the Golden Flow methodology of Level 1 asana. Toni regularly teaches yoga at Bay Yoga Shala, Retreat Classes, Introduction and deepening practise courses of her own design, teacher training immersions, Private sessions, Weekly classes within local business health and wellbeing programmes and at Tukurua Collective - a newly opened yoga and arts studio.
Apart from the yoga Toni is also a ranger on the Heathy track and guides guests through the wilderness. In her spare time Toni grows vegetables, fruits and nuts, has chickens and bee, creates art and homesteading solutions, offers accomodation and is madly in love with her live away partner.
Alissa Mathieson - Chef / Catering
Alissa, born on the farm lands in the Northern island of New Zealand in an environment where food was raised and grown on the land, this determined an eventual future path into a life of sustainability.
She says 'My career took off spiraling around the sun for many years as a highend fashion designer, then like a lightning strike I left society to enter in the realms of permaculture, community living, exploring the fringe. Leaving my career behind, my focus became an exploration of permaculture, regenerative living, yoga and meditation. Living in these spice rich communities gave me a vast knowledge and experience base of living in harmony with the land and the body. Healthy soil, healthy body. From student to teacher I began to teach yoga, furthering the mind body connection, deepening my love for food and how it effects who and what we are. You are what you eat. Studying Ayurveda food practices lead me to continue my path into gardening, cooking and teaching yoga into eco retreat center's.'
Kate Has been a Yogini for over 35 years. She has been devoted to the path of yoga as a tool for personal growth and spiritual transformation. Yoga has supported her through addiction, motherhood, separation, and menopause.
She has been teaching for 20 years and it still continues to be her passion. Kate has explored many styles of yoga over the years, which ultimately led her soundly home to a traditional way of teaching.
Her work with students these days is to open the pathways of breath, consciousness, and light which allow abundance, love, and awakening to naturally flow.
Kates classes and individual work draw heavily on mantra, yantra and tantra. The background feeling to Yoga is always a connection, which for Kate is primarily experienced as the Divine Feminine.
Hagar - The Organic Cook - Chef and catering A mother of four and Israeli born, Hagar arrived in Nz 30 years ago and lived in Auckland where her relationship with cooking first started. As a young vegan she was working as a chef in the cafe scene in Auckland. She moved to Coromandel where she lived for 12 years where she owned a small health food shop and was part of a funky community cafe. She now lives in Dunedin, where she is still working as a chef - in her own business as “The Organic Cook”, providing catering and private chef services, as well as cooking classes. She recently started a radio show called Sustainable Gastronomy on OAR FM a local community radio station and her my free time I do a bit of ‘Selecting’ a reggae record DJing which she LOVES…. As well as her love for community and music she is passionate about natural healthy food, and nourishing others gives her much pleasure.
Steff Willmore - SWAY - Massage Therapist, Aromatherapist, Yoga Teacher, Hoop Dance Teacher and Fire Performer Steffi has been working in the health and wellness field since 2005 and is passionate about teaching these therapies to maintain a healthy and strong body and mind. In this world of ever increasing stress and distraction, she believes that having a regular movement practice is essential to well-being. She hopes to convey some of her movement and body knowledge to you through her calm and grounded nature.