Pippa Matthews

Originally from Sydney, Pippa’s love of nature drew her to Canberra where the Namadgi National Park provides a great playground for cycling and hiking pursuits. She and her cat, Mishka, practice yoga together daily.

Pippa began her yoga journey in 1995 as a student of Yoga Synergy in Sydney, inspired by the constantly evolving teachings of our own home-grown, and internationally renowned, Simon Borg-Olivier and Bianca Machliss. With time she has experienced the benefits of a daily yoga practice and how they translate to a deeper relationship with herself and others on a physical, emotional and spiritual level.

With a growing desire to share the delicious blend of nurturing and transformation that yoga affords, Pippa completed her initial Yoga Teacher Training with Yoga Trinity in Canberra and is a Level 2 registered teacher with Yoga Australia. Through subsequent intensive training in India and Bali with Simon-Borg Olivier & Bianca Machliss, she has attained certification as a Level 3 (300hr) Yoga Synergy Teacher. With the understanding that effective teachers are also students, she is constantly striving to refine her own knowledge, yoga practice and teaching techniques through ongoing training.

Pippa’s work as a psychotherapist has helped her cultivate a sound understanding of how the disciplines of yoga and western psychology inform each other about the development of self and the maintenance of health in body, mind and spirit. With research confirming the links between neuroscience, psychology and contemplative practice she has a particular interest in the application of yoga in the clinical setting. To this end she has attained certification as a Trauma Centre Trauma Sensitive Yoga Facilitator (TCTSY-F) through the Boston Centre for Trauma and Embodiment (Massachusetts, USA) under the tutelage of David Emerson and Dr Bessel van der Kolk.

The knowledge that yoga is an experience of the body and the mind guides both her own practice and her teaching. However it is that our mind and body show up on the day, each time we come to the yoga mat we embark on an extraordinary journey of self-discovery, self-connection and self-acceptance. Her endeavour as a yoga teacher is to provide a safe space in which you can use your physical body as a vehicle to be in the present moment. With a regular yoga practice, the gifts of this journey may be increasingly enjoyed both on and off the mat. They might be experienced as a general sense of calm, increased and more sustained energy levels, a greater ability to deal with stress, and less reactivity in interpersonal relationships.

Pippa is a Yoga Synergy teacher. The Yoga Synergy Method is derived from the work of Professor T. Krishnamacharya, who was the teacher of three very influential yoga masters: Sri B.K.S. Iyengar (Iyengar Yoga), Sri K. Pattabhi Jois (Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga), and Sri T.K.V. Desikachar.

Yoga Synergy is a dynamic moving meditation which links postures and movement with breath (vinyasa) and incorporates pranayama (breath control). With the founders of Yoga Synergy having attained their physiotherapy degrees to inform their yoga teaching, the practice is tailored to suit the western body which is largely a seated/desk culture. Yoga Synergy teaches a safe practice regardless of your level of fitness. It is suitable for everybody, regardless of whether you have an injury or have never tried yoga before. Every posture is taught with a simple and more complex version so that you can choose the level of intensity which suits you from moment to moment, and day to day.

In your Yoga Synergy practice, you will learn to generate energy from within, rather than block energy, and how to develop a responsive practice, depending on present moment needs and capacity. Pippa believes that sharing this ancient practice as a teacher is indeed a profound honour. She looks forward to meeting you on your mat.