Freya Bennett-Overstall

Freya Bennett-Overstall teaches qigong, yin yoga and meditation from Maitri Studio Brighton, a small studio of her own in the bayside suburbs of Melbourne. Movement and stillness have been part of her life since childhood, when she did yoga, dance and tai chi, and during more than fifteen years as a chiropractor she began sharing simple breath awareness with the people she saw. After leaving clinical work in 2013 she deepened her own sitting practice and went on to train widely: yin yoga with Bernie Clark and Jo Phee, Insight Yoga with Sarah Powers, Mindful Self-Compassion, and the YOQI method of yoga and qigong with Marisa Cranfill, for which she is now a certified instructor and ambassador.

Her classes are gentle and seasonal, often opening with a poem and a cup of cacao husk tea before moving into qigong, long-held yin postures and guided meditation; many are streamed live on Insight Timer so people can join from anywhere. She also runs longer qigong workshops on sensing and directing energy. Her award-winning book Wonder Full Women: Attune & Bloom draws on Chinese medicine, the seasons of the Kulin Nation and women's stories to offer ways of eating, moving and meditating through the year.