My Biography

In 1979 my interest in the science of health and alternative and complimentary medicine took me to sydney to study macrobiotic philosophy, shiatsu, acupuncture and chinese medicine with Dr Daniel Webber.

I had started practicing yoga in 1972 as a young man. My first teacher Shandor Remete encouraged me to complete my first teacher training in the Iyengar method in sydney with Martyn Jackson in 1980. My experience now consists of various forms of Indian yoga, which include, hatha, iyengar, ashtanga, kundalini, vinnyasa, dru.

I also have had extensive experience of Japanese oki yoga, Chinese chi gung and Tibetan kum nye.

I studied feldenkrais, bio-energetics, bio-dynamic bodywork, gestalt psychotherapy and somatic psychotherapy in the early 80’s in Sydney and practiced as a somatic psychotherapist for 10 years. In this time I met and have continued a 30 year relationship with my mentor and good friend Gary Norfolk the originator of “Zenergetics Somatics”.

Through my quest for understanding I have been an regular practitioner of meditation and passionate about the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama “buddha” since the mid 1980’s. I have had the privilege of being a student of John Allen for the past 6 years.

In the late 1990’s I spent some years exploring the work of Bonnie bainbridge Cohen by participating in body-mind centering workshops with Carola Khrushe. In 2004, I completed a yoga teacher training with Donna Farhi. Also around this time over a period of 2 years through my continuing interest in how the body self regulates I participated in many training workshops studying craniosacral rebalancing and ortho-bionomy.

My relationships with many wonderful and compassionate teachers have moulded me as a person and my approach to the practice and teaching of yoga.

My Teachers

People tend to have a strong reaction to the unconventional teaching style of Shandor Remete. who's been known to have students stand on their tiptoes for as long as 30 minutes in order to cultivate Uddiyana Bandha.

His relationship with yoga goes back to 1950's Hungary, where he was introduced to the practice (and the bandhas!) by his father, when he was six. The family moved to Australia when Shandor was a young man, and there he was drafted and served on the front lines in Vietnam. After the war he discovered B.K.S. Iyengar's Light on Yoga and made his way to Pune to study with the venerable teacher. After a decade with Iyengar, he went to Mysore to learn Astanga from a person who had spent seven years studying with Pattabhi Jois in the late 1960's and early 1970's.

Shandor's other influences include the life and work of Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacarya and Japanese sword mastery (which focuses on the hara, below the navel, and which is remarkably similar to Uddiyana Bandha). Shandor, who's been studying yoga for 40 years (he's 61), is a scholar of the ancient texts, and he spends most of his time teaching around the world.

He teaches workshops titled "Yoking the Shadow." As Shandor explains ....the mind is in a constant state of wandering, changing its attachment from one thing to another and slowly depleting the life force of the individual. In Sadhanga (Hatha) Yoga the energy of the mind is forced back on itself through the practice of asanas and pranayama. This is the Yoking of the Shadow."

Throughout his workshops he returns again and again to original yoga texts such as Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and the more esoteric Hatha Yoga Pradipika. "All seeds from the yoga system should be plowed from the beginning,"  He recommends people try to find three books-The Yoga Vasishta Samhita, The Yoga Yagnvalkya Samhita and David Frawley's The Secrets of Marma-and read them.

Shandor, who is alternately stern and charming says "I will teach some of the stances and some of the easier seats, and then the practice of asanas," "Stances are like using the alphabet when a child goes to school. First he learns letters. Then sounds and syllables and then forming words, which creates a rhythm and requires longer breathing. Then they form short sentences and write a story.

In other words, let’s start from the beginning.

When asked where he learned these stances, he says, "From temple walls and martial arts."

He reminds us that yoga is "not about the postures. You can never master all of the poses anyway. Learn the basic stuff.... cultivate your intellectual power; get it to work for you." Shandor is working on a book that compiles 30 years of his research. It was almost finished when "I decided I want it written in verse form, to avoid over-explaining things, so people can interpret it for themselves."

Daniel Weber is one of the pioneers in complementary medicine. He began his studies in 1969, in Boston with Shizuko Yamamoto and Noburo Murumoto, and then studied with J. R. Worsley and J. D. van Buren in the UK from 1974 before receiving his BAc. In 1976 Daniel went to Japan and studied with Dr. Masahiro Oki.
Daniel has studied in China from 1984, visiting more than a dozen times with numerous awards and an honorary Professorship as well as being an advisor to Hangzhou TCM Institute in Hangzhou, China. He did his TCM residency at Shu Guang Hospital Shanghai, China in 1988 and has a Master of Health Science (Aust) and is completing his research Doctorate, a DSc in integrative oncology.

In addition to his eclectic studies in complementary medicine, Daniel has a postgraduate diploma in Somatic Psychotherapy as well as in Adult Education. He is a registered psychotherapist (MPACFA).
Daniel is not just an academic but also a committed clinician, innovator and educator: he has been in practice in Sydney Australia since 1977 and created the first English language database for Chinese herbal medicine in 1992, for which he was awarded his PhD.

This database was awarded 'Innovations in Australian Design' and put on exhibit in the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.
Stemming from his work in complimentary cancer treatments Daniel recently authored ‘Introduction to Integrative Oncology; Herbs, Compounds and supplements in the Cancer Clinic’ and ‘Dui Yao, The Art of Formula Construction’. His forthcoming book, ‘The Seven Stochastic Events of Cancer’ will be available in early 2010.
Daniel is committed to creating a dialogue between all types of health care professionals. His site www.complementaryoncology.com has ongoing research and articles of interest on complementary cancer treatments.

Frank Wildman GCFT. Ph.D.
Founder and educational director of The Feldenkrais® Movement Institute

A renowned author, speaker and educator, Dr. Frank Wildman is recognized as a pioneering advocate for the Feldenkrais Method®—a philosophy and system of movement that has revolutionized the treatment for pain and loss of energy associated with daily activity, exercise and aging. For nearly 40 years, Wildman has been a teacher, practitioner and mentor to countless medical professionals, athletes, fitness experts, musicians, dancers and a host of others who have embraced the proven health benefits of Feldenkrais. 

Wildman was a young choreographer and performer with Anna Halprin’s dance troupe in San Francisco when he met Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, the physicist, engineer and Judo Master who developed the Feldenkrais Method, a system of movement which describes how each motion is the result of many parts of the body working in concert with the mind. Simply put, the Feldenkrais Method is based on the premise that becoming more aware of one’s movements, and exerting less effort, can relieve stress, reduce pain, enhance agility and make life more enjoyable. 

Fascinated by Feldenkrais’ philosophy and teachings, Wildman went on to study with him for a decade while simultaneously acquiring degrees in Physical Education, Biology and Somatic Psychology. While studying patterns of animal movement and child development, Wildman recognized links between psychology and the science of motion. This insight grew into an innovative understanding that has influenced the entire field of movement studies and has led to advances in physical therapy that have been adopted internationally by hospitals, universities, physical and occupational therapists, and somatic psychologists.

In 1985, Dr. Wildman founded the Movement Studies Institute, which has gone on to become one of the world’s premier Feldenkrais training organizations. His goal was to make the techniques clear and teachable to future Feldenkrais practitioners as well as the general public across North America, Australia, Europe and Japan. As the first educational director of a Feldenkrais Professional Training Program, he has guided the certification of a host of practitioners and allied health professionals through the years.  Serving as a president of the Feldenkrais Guild of North America, Wildman has also helped develop and define the standards of practice that are current guidelines internationally. 

Dr. Wildman has directed over a dozen professional training programs in the United States, Europe and Australia, and has introduced the Feldenkrais Method to organizations as diverse as the Australian Institute for Sport and the American Back Society.  His signature programs, “The Evolution of Motion,” “Your Brain as the Core of Strength and Stability,” and “Reconstructing Dance Technique,” distill his lifetime of experience in science, education and clinical practice into brief but powerful courses.

Wildman is also the author of the popular Intelligent Body® series, a complete line of Feldenkrais lessons on audio and DVD, and the newly published Change Your Age, designed to rewind years of bad habits and encourage the discovery of innately healthy, pain-free methods of movement.

According to Kathryn Ross-Nash, founding president of the Pilates Guild, “Frank is about teaching and educating the person, instead of forcing someone through an exercise by repetition of a movement. He has given me another vantage point and a whole other vocabulary to communicate with my students.”

Jeff Barlow (B.A., B.Ed., M.Ed.) is a psychotherapist, supervisor and trainer in Contemporary Somatic Psychotherapy. He has a private practice located in Melbourne (Australia) and is the Director of the Australian College of Contemporary Somatic Psychotherapy which runs training programmes in Melbourne and Sydney.

Jeff has been working as a psychotherapist since 1977 when he commenced his private practice at the Gerda Boyesen Centre in London. He returned to Australia in 1981 and commenced a private practice in Melbourne where he has worked since then. Jeff was actively involved in the first training programmes in body-inclusive psychotherapy in the late 1970's in London, Germany and Austria. He commenced the first training programmes in body-inclusive psychotherapy in Australia with Robyn Speyer in 1983 and initiated the establishment of the first professional association for somatic (body-inclusive) psychotherapists in Australia in 1986.

Jeff has also been actively involved in the establishment of PACFA (the Psychotherapy and Counseling Federation of Australia) which is a national body for the registration of psychotherapists and counselors in Australia, and SCAPE (the Society for Counseling and Psychotherapy Educators) a professional association for those involved in the teaching of psychotherapy and counselling.

Julie Henderson, PhD

Julie Henderson was born in Dallas, Texas (USA), in 1941. Her family on both sides has produced a fine mix of artists and scientists for several generations. Her father was an actor and engineer; her mother, an actress, college professor, and somatic psychotherapist. Julie says playfully that she feels this left her no option but to find a way of making a living that combined gnosis and scientia, direct knowing and analysis, art and science.

As early influences, she cites her parents' complete confidence in her capacity to learn anything she put her mind to, including chemistry, horseback riding, belly-dancing, and cooking. This was followed in her college years by a voracious investigation of a number of sciences, theater, languages, and various psychotherapies. Ultimately, she settled on an interest in being happy.

In the West, her most influential teachers in this area have been Milton H. Erickson, M.D. (indirect communication and altered states), George Thomson, Ph.D. (redecision therapy and the real possibility of change), Richard Bell (networking and lateral shifts), Tony Richardson, M.D. (medical somatics), and Kathy L. Kain (the premise of form as aware), and Robyn Lee Speyer (clarity and courage within an understanding of psychodynamics).

From 1975, the influence of her Tibetan teachers has been all-pervasive, though often non-obvious to the point of being apparently invisible. They have taught her through one-on-one instruction, transmission, and the learning through appropriate situational provocation that the Tibetans call nyongtri. Their teachings have transformed the meaning of everything else she has learned. Her main "root" teachers are Kundun Gyalwang Drukpa, the Vairocana Tulku, Chagdud Tulku, and Gyalsay Tulku. Her lineage is Ka-Nying.

She calls what she teaches Zapchen (at the suggestion of Gyalsay Tulku Rinpoche), from a highly ambiguous Tibetan word that allows for the positive impact of startling behavior. Her work includes mind-training, energetics, bodywork, and story-telling, like Erickson and her Tibetan teachers. The form of teaching is indirect and non-obvious. All subjects of instruction are subsumed in a direct movement towards primary well-being, which includes clarity, compassion and potency.

Julie warns against making any assumptions about what she does before you have a personal experience of it. She lives in the countryside near Napa, California, with a big yellow dog and two cats.

The late Robyn L Speyer was trained in London by the neo-Reichian therapist Gerda Boysen. She was an extraordinary teacher, who influenced so many of the current somatic psychotherapists in private practice. Robyn was my personal therapist for 2 1/2 years and I was fortunate to receive supervision and personal training with Robyn in her expertise in biodynamic massage and gentle body work in psychotherapy. I also participated in many workshops and training groups over a three year period. Robyn had very special qualities. As a supervisor she imbued me with her essential qualities and knowledge which allowed me to just think of what she may do in a particular situation with a particular person in therapy and and intuitively an answer would come. We spent many hours where I learned her skills in touching mind through body and body through mind.

Gary Norfolk

Gary began developing his unique approach to Somatic Education in the earl 80’s, which he calls Zenergetics Somatics.

Gary has extensive training in Somatic Psychotherapy, primarily with Dr Julie Henderson, and her revolutionary Somatic work called "Zapchen", a Tibetan word meaning "salubrious mind changing naughtiness".

Zapchen has become the fundamental foundation of Zenergetics.

Gary first participated in Julie’s workshops in 1979 and in 1995 he completed a three-year Somatic Psychotherapy training where Julie was a principal teacher and trainer.

It is the ways she has observed of how people have found to reduce stress and tension naturally and how we can move toward feeling as good as we can in spite of our circumstances.

Some of the exercises, games, or things we do are yawning and sighing, jiggling like kids used to do, rocking like old people do, and napping like infants and people in touch with their need to rest do, stretching like cats and dogs do.

I draw from a range of other disciplines/traditions such as Tibetan Kum Nye "movement with meaning", a gentle self-healing system of meditative yoga from Tibetan Buddhism and a powerful internal system of moving energy and integration. I have also had extensive experience teaching Bioenergetics, an exercise system that was developed out of body orientated psychotherapy practices.

Gary Norfolk has consistently been developing, changing, and modifying Zenergetics Somatics for over twenty years, continuing through to this day. Gary draws from his training, study, research, practice and experience in Bioenergetics and Gestalt - two therapies concerned with the integration of mind and body.

He also draws from his experience in the Healing Arts - Drama, Dance, Feldenkrais - Awareness through Movement, Massage and Bodywork - "Talk and Touch" and his spiritual journey - that began in the early 70’s with his relationship with                 J. Krishnamurti, Zen buddhism and Osho.

Gary is an innovative, playful and passionate therapist and teacher of somatically based transformative practices, who is committed to passing on what has offered healing and inspiration for his life.

Donna Farhi is a Yoga teacher who has been practicing for 30 years and teaching since 1982. She leads intensives and teacher training programs internationally. Donna is best known for her unique ability to help students and teachers alike access a deeper connection with the body as a vehicle for the regeneration of the spirit. Her work focuses on the refinement of natural and universal movement principles that underlie all 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. Donna has been the asana columnist for both Yoga Journal and Yoga International, and is the author of four books: Teaching Yoga (Rodmell Press), The Breathing Book, Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit: A Return to Wholeness, (Henry Holt) and Bringing Yoga to Life: The Everyday Practice of Enlightened Living (HarperSanFrancisco).American born, Donna now resides in North Canterbury, New Zealand.

John Allan has explored the Buddhist way and its many traditions since 1970.  In 1972 he was the attendant for Phra Khantipalo when he conducted the first series of Buddhist meditation retreats in Australia.  John spent 1974 as a samanera in the Thai Forest Meditation Tradition.   

 

Over the years he has also studied and practiced various Chinese and Tibetan approaches and is also partial to Sufi poetry.  John worked for 20 years as a psychotherapist, following a career as a fine woodworker and community artist, and for many years pioneered groups in NSW to help men overcome violent and abusive behavior and for a decade ran the ‘Standing Up Alive’  men’s gatherings.

For 10 years he has led weekly Buddhist conversation and meditation groups in Lismore and Byron Bay. John conducted several ‘Waking up in the Bush’ Retreats  http://www.peacebus.com/WakingUp/  at the Lao Forest monastery in Western Sydney and was given the name Ajhan Vajiromano by senior monks there.  He has also worked with senior Aboriginal Elders from the Kimberly, Central Australia and Arnhem Land and facilitated intercultural sharing of Traditional Law.  Because of this, in a rare ceremony, he was given the name/title ‘Wititj” meaning Rainbow Snake by Galpu Clan Elders in 2001. John was director, for several years, of The Spirit of the Land Foundation  www.spiritofland.org – the foundation is now closed, but website still exists for archival purposes.

John encourages a big view of Dharma.