My relationship with yoga began more than 25 years ago while I was living in Hokkaido, Japan.
One day, I watched a woman in her eighties effortlessly hold a headstand. She looked strong and mobile. I remember thinking, I want to be like that when I’m her age.
So I bought a Bryan Kest Power Yoga VHS and began practising in my tiny apartment. At the time, I had no idea that simple decision would change the course of my life.
Today, after more than 23 years of teaching yoga, working as a birth doula and Hypnobirthing educator, and supporting women through every season of life, The Nook brings together everything I’ve learnt along the way.
It’s the studio I wish had existed for every version of me.
After returning to Australia, I was hit by a car while crossing the road. The accident left me with chronic back pain, and yoga became part of my healing. It helped me rebuild strength, move with less pain and begin trusting my body again.
But it also gave me something I hadn’t expected.
When life felt uncertain, yoga gave me somewhere to return to.
At the time, I was working in advertising. I’d studied Japanese, economics and marketing at Wollongong University and followed the path I thought I was supposed to follow, but I hated it. I was far more interested in getting to yoga than getting to work and was regularly late because I’d squeezed in a class before work
Eventually, I realised yoga wasn’t something I wanted to squeeze in around the edges of my life. It was the work I wanted to do.
It was the work I wanted to do.
In 2003, I left advertising, jumped on a plane to Koh Samui, Thailand, completed my first 200-hour Ashtanga Vinyasa teacher training and began teaching soon after.
A few years later, I opened Yoganic, a yoga and pilates studio on Sydney’s North Shore that I ran for ten years. The studio specialised in pre and postnatal yoga and pilates, and it was during this time that I trained as a birth doula.
Then, after 13 years of supporting women through pregnancy and early motherhood, I became a mum myself.
Like so many women, motherhood changed me. It changed my priorities and my relationship with yoga. My practice became less about what I could achieve on the mat and more about having somewhere to reconnect with myself in the middle of a very full life. Around the same time, I studied Health Coaching, which sparked a lifelong interest in women’s hormones and the role movement, nourishment and rest play in supporting our wellbeing.
Two years later, I made the difficult decision to sell Yoganic, and our family moved to Milton on the NSW South Coast.
There, I opened a small home studio called Mamatoto Retreat (later rebranding to Birth of a Mum). Alongside teaching pre and postnatal yoga, I trained as a Hypnobirthing and Matrescence educator and attended births as a doula.
A few years later, my husband Justin and I opened Empower Wholefoods in Ulladulla. While Empower became our family’s focus, I continued teaching yoga sporadically, hosting monthly women’s circles and, more recently, running women’s retreats under my personal brand, Melissa Field.
Over the years, I’ve realised my body needs different things at different times. Through pregnancy, postpartum and now perimenopause, my practice has continually evolved to meet me where I am.
There have been seasons where I craved strength and challenge, and others where Yin Yoga and Yoga Nidra were exactly what I needed.
Looking back, the greatest gift yoga has given me hasn’t been flexibility or strength. It’s taught me how to listen. To trust my body, honour the season I’m in and allow my practice to evolve alongside me.
That understanding has shaped the way I teach and is at the heart of everything I do at The Nook.
Over the past few years, I’ve been hosting monthly women’s circles and, more recently, running retreats with Justin. I loved this work, but it gradually became clear that these offerings needed a home.
As Banjo has grown older, and both he and Empower have become more independent, I’ve found myself with the time and space to return to what I love most: holding space for women.
The Nook brings together everything I’ve learnt over the past 25 years. It’s a place for yoga, pilates, mobility, deep rest, women’s circles, workshops and retreats, where women can find the practice they need for the season they’re in.
A place where women can move, rest and belong.
That understanding has shaped the way I teach and is at the heart of everything I do at The Nook.
Over the years, I’ve learnt there’s no one perfect way to practise yoga. What serves us in one season of life may not serve us in the next.
That’s why every class at The Nook is designed to meet you where you are. You’ll always be encouraged to listen to your body, move in a way that feels right for you and rest when you need to. Every pose can be adapted, and you’ll never be expected to keep up or push through.
Whether you’re completely new to yoga or have been practising for years, my hope is that you leave feeling a little more connected to yourself than when you arrived.
Although I’ve been teaching for more than 23 years, I still believe I’m a student first. Every training has helped shape the teacher I am today.
Yoga
Centered Yoga Teacher Training (Ashtanga Vinyasa) – Paul Dallaghan
Ashtanga Vinyasa Apprenticeship (1 year) – Angelika Knoerzer
Power Yoga Teacher Training – Bryan Kest
Advanced Yin Yoga – Anneriek Favelle (Yoga 4 You)
Relax and Renew® Restorative Yoga Level 1 – Judith Hanson Lasater
Daring to Rest™ Yoga Nidra Facilitator – Karen Brody
Yoga for Fertility – Bliss Baby Yoga
Pilates
Certificate IV in Pilates Matwork Instruction – Polestar
Comprehensive Pilates Reformer Certificate – Polestar
Children’s Yoga
Rainbow Kids Yoga Teacher Training – Gopala Yaffa
Radiant Child Yoga Program (Levels 1–3) – Shakta Kaur Khalsa
Mini Yogis Teacher Training – Shana Meyerson
Women’s Health
Pre & Postnatal Doula – Australian Doula College
Postnatal Doula – Julia Jones (Newborn Mothers)
Hypnobirthing Australia Educator
Matrescence Educator – Nicci McCahon
Certified Health Coach – Institute for Integrative Nutrition
University
Bachelor of Arts (Japanese)
Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing & Economics)
I’d love to welcome you to The Nook. Whether you’re stepping onto a mat for the first time or returning after many years, you’ll be welcomed exactly as you are.