Meet Your
Instructors
Freya Mckernan
Breathwork | Pilates | Dynamic Flow | Power Yoga | Yin
Freya discovered yoga at 18, and what began as a physical practice soon became a lifelong pathway to self-awareness, resilience, and connection.
After moving to Dubai at 26 to work as a flight attendant, yoga became an anchor amidst the pace and unpredictability of life. Inspired by the transformative impact the practice had on her own wellbeing, she founded Free Yoga Dubai — a community initiative designed to bring people together through movement, breath, and meaningful connection. Through collaborations with House of Om and community events across the city, she helped cultivate a thriving wellness community for people seeking belonging far from home.
In 2019, Freya continued her teaching journey in Argentina, sharing classes at Buena Onda Yoga before returning home to New Zealand in 2020.
Over the years, her teaching has evolved beyond yoga alone. Alongside advanced studies in Vinyasa, Yin, Prenatal and Postnatal Yoga, Freya has trained extensively in Hot Pilates and Breathwork, becoming a certified Breathwork Facilitator and Master Breathwork Practitioner. Her work is deeply informed by the connection between breath, movement, and the nervous system, helping people move beyond stress, reconnect with themselves, and create meaningful change from the inside out.
In 2024, Freya became the owner of Breathe Hot Yoga & Pilates and, in 2026, took on the stewardship of Eastwest Yoga. Today, she teaches across yoga, Pilates, and breathwork, blending traditional wisdom with modern understandings of strength, recovery, and nervous system regulation.
Whether guiding a powerful heated Pilates class, a dynamic yoga flow, or a transformative breathwork journey, Freya's intention remains the same: to create spaces where people feel stronger, calmer, more connected, and more fully themselves.
For Freya, wellbeing isn't about perfection. It's about learning how to breathe, move, and live with greater awareness.
Brydie Colquhoun
Dynamic Flow | Power Yoga
Brydie is Ngāpuhi, and from Ahipara, Aotearoa. She became curious about wairuatanga and spirituality when her Te Ao Māori dance career merged with her yoga studies.
Brydie completed her 500YTT yoga training in India. This process of quietening the thoughts and unifying the body, mind and soul guides her classes, she is passionate about maintaining the ancient core principles of Eastern Yoga in a western environment. Brydie believes that how we walk through our life goes hand in hand with the relationship we have to our hinengaro, tinana and wairua. She uses breath and mindful movement to draw students into their present experience.
Maryam Al-Roubaiai
Yin | Dynamic Flow | Yin Yang | Sound Healing | Reiki
Born in Canada and shaped by her Syrian and Iraqi roots, Maryam has been guiding yoga and mindfulness practices internationally since 2019 at landed at Eastwest in 2022.
With over 1,000 hours of advanced training in yoga, meditation, and other embodied modalities, such as somatic movement and sound therapy, her work draws inspiration from global teachings, contemporary practices, and her own cultural heritage.
Known for their depth, elegance, and ability to cultivate profound self-connection, Maryam’s classes create space for presence, self-inquiry, and embodied transformation.
Summer Knight
Dynamic Flow | Yin | Yin Yang
Since beginning her yoga journey at a young age, Summer found a sense of home within this personalised practice — one that has continued to grow and evolve alongside her, offering support in the present moment. This is something she now aims to cultivate for others through her own teaching practice.
Around the beginning of her Fine Arts degree at Elam, Summer embarked on an expansive 200-hour YTT at The Contemporary School of Yoga NZ. Through deep study of the physical body alongside the mental and spiritual bodies, her passion for the connection between these three aspects of self began to flourish.
Her yin classes are simplistic, soft, and grounding, guiding students into connection with both body and breath through a calm voice and gentle approach. Creating a comfortable space where people can arrive, settle, and feel at ease comes naturally to her, and she warmly welcomes others to join her practice.
Alexandra Rangecroft
Yin | Dynamic Flow & Breathwork | Reiki
Alex is an experienced and dedicated Yoga Teacher, Reiki Master and Holistic Coach who has been offering her services to the world for over a decade.
Her journey started on this path whilst growing up in a holistic minded household in the UK, being taken to regular meditation circles and first being taught Reiki (energy healing) in 2003. It was here that the seed of inspiration was planted for Alex to continue to live a holistic lifestyle and to be of service in the world around her.
As well as a fascination with energy, the mind - body connection and all things mystical, Alex has always enjoyed movement and after years representing GB in gymnastics and then going on to gain a degree in contemporary dance, Alex found yoga when she began to look for a more sustainable and nurturing way to move, live, connect and flourish. Teaching her first ever yoga classes in 2014 in Portugal, Alex continued to travel around the world, teaching in Switzerland, Melbourne, Sydney, and is now based here in New Zealand.
Throughout the years Alex has been on various different self development journeys, taking part in numerous workshops and learnings and also completed a diverse array of trainings in: Ashtanga, Vinyasa, Tantrik Hatha, Yin Yoga, Yoga Nidra, Breathwork, Myofascial Roll and Release Technique, Dynamic Movement Therapy and PNF Stretching, as well as becoming a certified Reiki master and undergoing extensive training as a holistic coach.
With a wealth of experience and embodied wisdom Alex’s classes offer a grounded, mindful and well rounded practice, leaving you feeling nourished, balanced and uplifted.
Simone Lawry
Dynamic Flow | Yin | Yin Yang
About ME.
Simone (Simmy) Lawry grew up in a rural small town Greenhithe, exploring the forest with her cat, rabbits and goat. Eating the peaches from the neighbour’s trees. The eldest of 3 girls. Listening to the sounds of Deep Purple, Simply Red, Fleetwood Mac & Margret Urlich.
Obsessed with dance, movement and music at the age of 4. Expressing herself through rhythmic gymnastics and ballet. Representing New Zealand at the Australian Championships. Winning the New Zealand Rhythmic Gymnastic Nations at the age of 12. A girl who only had boys as friends at school. Struggled to find her peers, always feeling different from the rest. Always being told she was bossy. Obsessed with love beads, crystals, Pearl Jam, Oasis & Madonna. Smoking pot and not following the rules seemly drifting as a free spirit but with a determined purpose. Always having the highest of respect to humans that inspired and harnessed her innate wisdom to be herself.
At the age of 25 a dear friend took her to her first yoga class. This was IT. The beginning of the true, raw unfurling of what her life would be. The breath work, the movement, the focus and grounding that came from the practice was electric. The more she practiced the more real happenings in her life off the mat occurred.
Her career as a carer and creative artist always came back to matters of life, spirituality, yoga, health and wellbeing. It was always asking her to let it become ALIVE. So in 2017 she started her journey of becoming a yoga teacher. Studying Baron Baptise and Meghan Currie. Being lit up by Denise Ferguson, Cara Williams. The learnings of her own journey has enabled her to witness the effects on her mindset, soul-set and heart-set. Knowing that the skills and education she has absorbed and experienced on herself work and have saved her in many ways.
Carolina Sanchez
Power Yoga | Dynamic Flow | Yin Yoga
Originally from Mexico, Carolina’s journey with movement began through dance at a young age. Introduced to yoga by her grandmother, a lifelong practitioner and teacher, she deepened her connection to the practice after moving to New Zealand in 2018 — turning inward and reconnecting.
This path led her to complete a 200 hr Yoga Teacher Training in 2022 and a 25 hr Yin Yoga training in 2024. Now a group fitness instructor, she teaches Power, Dynamic, and Yin Yoga, holding space for others to explore movement, build confidence, and feel supported on their journeys. Emphasising the connections between mind, body and breath.
Eleanor Purdey
Ashtanga
Eleanor is a dedicated Ashtanga yoga practitioner with 25 years of committed practice behind her. She completed her YA500 Ashtanga teacher training through the Yoga Academy in 2007.
For more than two decades, Eleanor has travelled regularly to study with Dena Kingsberg, who has been her senior teacher and a profound influence on her practice and teaching. Dena’s guidance has deeply shaped Eleanor’s respect for traditional Ashtanga while also reinforcing the importance of adapting the practice to the individual. Her teaching is grounded in consistency, discipline, and a long-term commitment to practice that supports life beyond the mat.
Outside the shala, Eleanor works in the corporate world and is a wife, mother, and proud boxing-and-rugby mumager. Her Catholic faith also plays an important role in her life, underpinning her values of humility, service, discipline, and devotion.
Eleanor believes yoga is about empowerment through steady practice, resilience, breath, and self-awareness — not performance, aesthetics, or social media trends. Dedicated to practising on the mat five days a week, she believes the lessons cultivated through practice naturally transfer into the way we move through everyday life.
Stephanie Cornwall
Pilates HIIT | Pilates Sculpt
High-energy, fun, and full of rhythm, Steph’s classes are made for anyone who loves to move. As a former dancer trained in yoga and Pilates, she blends strength, flow, breath, and intention in every session. Her Vinyasa Flow classes are dynamic, creative, and intelligently sequenced to build strength and resilience.
Fueled by her love of music, expect playlists spanning all genres of house - from funk to disco, soul, and afro. Steph’s classes are about celebrating movement, feeling strong in your own skin, and challenging your body, leaving you sweaty and completely energised.
Niahm Ryan
Dynamic Flow | Yin | Yin Yang
Niamh is a yoga teacher devoted to helping students feel at home in their bodies. Her teaching is rooted in embodiment — the practice of sensing, listening, and responding from within rather than striving from the outside. She creates spaces where strength, curiosity, and self-awareness can grow together.
Her Vinyasa Flow classes are dynamic, creative, and intelligently sequenced to build strength and resilience. With an emphasis on embodied movement, students are encouraged to move with breath, notice sensation, and explore their edges in a way that feels honest and empowering. There is space to play, wobble, adapt, and discover what strength feels like in your own body.
In Yin and Yin & Yoga Nidra, the invitation is to soften and turn inward. Through long-held shapes and guided rest, students are supported to slow down, regulate the nervous system, and reconnect to a quieter inner landscape. These classes offer a grounding pause from the pace of everyday life — a place to feel, release, and simply be.
Whether flowing or still, Niamh’s classes are warm, welcoming spaces where embodiment comes first — where you’re invited not to perform, but to experience yourself fully.
Akiko Kosaki
Ashtanga | Reiki
Akiko is a yoga teacher from Japan who discovered Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga in 2019 at Eastwest taught by Sheryn Gieck, where she immediately felt drawn to the dynamic and disciplined practice of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga.
She later completed 800 hours of training at Auckland Yoga Academy, earning her RYT-500 certification. Akiko further developed her teaching through the Ashtanga Yoga Apprenticeship with Peter Nilsson and Jude Hynes, gaining the skills to teach Mysore-style classes. In addition to Ashtanga, she teaches Yin and Restorative Yoga to offer a balanced and accessible practice for students of all levels.
She is also a Reiki teacher certified in Japan. Inspired by the physical and mental benefits of yoga, Akiko is passionate about supporting others on their wellness journey through mindful movement, breath, and meditation.
Finnbar Rainger
Ashtanga
I trained as an Ashtanga teacher at Auckland's Yoga Academy in 2023, gaining an 800hr accreditation.
In my classes we follow a traditional progression of asana through the Ashtanga Primary Series.
We explore the ujayi breathing technique in combination with the bandha (energy points) and drishti (gaze points).
We also weave in Vipassana (insight) meditative techniques and principles.
I'm here because I trust and cherish our yoga community, and I hope to keep sharing and receiving gifts from the practice.
Katie Baker
Pilates HIIT | Pilates Sculpt
Katie turned to Pilates for recovery after years of pole dancing — another one of her passions — and running had taken their toll on her body. She quickly discovered the power of Pilates not only for rehabilitation, but also for building strength, control, and performance, and was immediately hooked.
“My classes are all about that same balance: strong, sweaty, and empowering, with a focus on moving well and feeling even better.
See you in the hot room!"
Claire Robbie
Dynamic Flow
Claire Robbie is a meditation and yoga teacher, writer and founder of SOMM, The School of Modern Meditation.
She has spent two decades immersed in the study and practice of meditation, yoga, recovery, and human behaviour, and has taught meditation, breathwork, and yoga for more than 15 years.
Her approach is grounded, non-dogmatic, and practical, drawing on Buddhist, Yogic, and Vedic traditions alongside modern psychology, nervous system education, and self-inquiry.
Claire is an ashtanga-influenced, 500-hour-trained yoga teacher with additional training in yin, pre- and postnatal yoga, Buddhist meditation lineages and breathwork. Her yoga classes combine strong, intelligent movement with breath, awareness and longer periods of release, with an emphasis on how practice can help us feel more present, connected and at home in ourselves.