Tiffany

  • Tiffany Mendel

    TEACHER + TRAINEE THERAPIST

    During my adolescent years my mum took her interest in meditation, self development + healing much further. Exploring several different modalities she found working with crystals to be most resonant. Through her teachers she received a copy of the book ‘Messages from The Body’ by PHd Micheal J Lincoln. This book along with her training in EIP’s (Energy Interference Pattern, slightly reflective of EFT in parts) communicated the profound impacts emotional patterning, stress and trauma all have on the body and one’s ability to move forward in life. This really set a precedent for the direction my life and work would eventually take. In around 2000 my brother trained in counselling + worked in drug rehabilitation. This further inspired my thinking around the necessity to observing mental + emotional patterning and healing.

    My relationship with yoga + meditation classes didn’t begin easy though. I walked out of my first two yoga classes and sat in fury during my first meditation class! As a young adult I’d yet to learn the benefits of being with stillness. It was a revolutionary moment in one yoga class to experience that continual mental analysis didn’t actually offer the best remedy for solutions but acquiring stillness and presence did! I committed to the practice at that point in my late 20’s and when my son begun school.

Training+ Teachers

The depression & anxiety I had been previously experiencing began to lesson with thanks to my commitment to practice. Around this period I was visiting my late dad in Far North Queensland and by chance I picked up a yoga magazine which introduced me to the 8 limbs of yoga. Discovery of this philosophy was a life changing moment.

I went on to train as a 200 hour vinyasa flow teacher in early 2013. By the autumn of 2014 I was enrolled on the Vajrasati 500 Hour Plus two year training which offered an exceptional grounding in Hatha yoga and where I now assist as a mentor. Here I began teaching modern postural yoga with confidence, reverence and with the skills necessary to welcome all levels to my classes.

During the spring of 2020 I begun to explore more training. I’d felt for some time it was important to find a therapeutic training where I’d be able to work deeper with students in a one to one setting. From exploring yoga therapy to considering body based psychotherapy and counselling diplomas I came full circle as in the end I couldn’t sit comfortably with any therapeutic training that was devoid of eastern teachings or cherry picked versions of them. What I’ve so far learned through Yoga, Buddhism and other eastern teachings is a simplicity and a clear path to personal responsibility + freedom. The multi faceted model of yoga proves to be a continual fascination and inspiration to me and happily I begun a 2 year diploma in Yoga Therapy this year with the schools True Yoga + Yoga Campus who joined just for this cohort.

During the years between I’ve undergone many shorter trainings including Yin yoga with Norman Blair, Yoga and Mindfulness for Children with the inspiring Jo Manual, training with the dynamic Shiva Rea, my teacher Khadine Morcom and her beautiful Mahavidya course, two wonderful anatomy courses with fascia expert Joanne Avison, a nourishing online Yoga Nidra + half way through a Bhagavad Gita course with Kaya Mindlin and more recently Charlotte Watts wonderful training; Yoga & Somatics for Healing & Recovery. Charlottes course really consolidated my thoughts around yoga, somatics, trauma and the bridging of it all together.

My Practice

My practice has gone through many cycles and I feel strongly that a varied practice is the most useful.

In my Vajrasati training it was reinforced clearly and consistently that what is to be cultivated through various asana and meditative techniques is in fact ‘yoga’. It is a state of which we point ourself and students alike towards as opposed to it simply being an ‘activity’. This effort to maintain full spectrum awareness of yogas intentions is really what equates to everybody being able to practice yoga and why I hold this training with such high regard.

Through the years of exploring asana practice I can see that different movements at different times each have the potential to generate this outcome and this is dependent on many factors moment by moment. My yoga therapy training is now making this clear as to why!

I also have intermittently enjoyed an Iyengar yoga practice through this time and found it strengthened my relationship to understanding the access points of stability within classic postures and the importance of this in regular practice.

Through my current yoga therapy training I am understanding how the Ayurvedic system details the necessity for individually prescribed practices along with recognising how individual circumstance + personal stories effect the subtle body and our overall health reinforcing what I was fortunate to grow up understanding.

Reading + studying various text is an important area of my practice and one I place increasing meaning to.

The Yoga Sutras from the Sage Patanjali is a deeply psychological text. It is a methodology for freedom that offers understanding to the mind ‘stuff’ that arises and which blocks one’s ability to experience presence and or pure consciousness and feelings of deep connection. Detail on how to achieve such freedom is explained clearly. The 8 limbs of yoga that most modern schools of yoga are based upon stems from this very text. Whenever I revere back to it I find it blows up any illusion and ignorance I might be attaching to that I am then fortunate enough to see!

I aim to not separate the practices from its philosophical roots but to continually explore how it all lands so as to offer something forward that is authentic. I will introduce science and new findings as I view appropriate and useful to supporting one towards the goal of yoga. Which ultimately is freedom. I will only ever teach what I practice.

My Teachers

Jim Tarrans dedication to yoga practice, learning it’s history and study of texts has been a continual source of inspiration for me. I was fortunate to find myself on his Vajrasati training and little did I know how influential he would become. Jim is my number one teacher for experiencing + exploring the philosophy through practice.

Senior Vajrasati teacher Khadine Morcom whose steady, calm and clear dedication to the practice and again commitment to learning the history of yoga and study of texts has served as an important inspiration and guide to me.

Other Mentions

Revered Zen Buddhist Monk and leader the late Thich Nhat Hanh. The simplicity of his delivery of Buddhist teachings can penetrate the most dense of western minds. I’ve found his gentle voice to be an incredible balm during periods of intense grief and encourage all to listen to his recordings.

Spiritual activist & retired Jain monk Satish Kumar. His books and talks have been of huge education, inspiration and motivation to me. There is no element unconnected when he is teaching the total connectedness of nature.

The late Stanley Keleman whose book Emotional Anatomy I stumbled across by chance and later propelled my thinking even further regarding the body and it’s continual mirroring of the mind.

I feel beyond grateful to have been introduced to Yoga and hope you do also. I look forward to welcoming you here and sharing all I’ve been fortunate to learn.