Faculty
Dr Jean Byrne
BA Hons, Grad Dip Ed, Dip Childbirth Education, PhDJean began practising yoga and meditation at age 19 while completing a B.A. in Religion and Philosophy. Following her undergraduate studies she spent a year in Asia studying meditation and yoga in monasteries and ashrams throughout Thailand, Malaysia and India. In later years she became interested in the practice of Zen Buddhism and attended numerous Zen retreats in Australia, both in the Japanese (Diamond Sangha) and Korean lineages (Kwan Um). Jean is a student of Ashtanga Yoga Master Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and she is one of six Australian women Authorised by him to teach and returns yearly to Mysore, India to study. For Jean, mindfulness is at the heart of her spiritual practice and her teaching. Jean is a qualified school teacher and was previously a university lecturer in Eastern Philosophy at The University of Queensland (Brisbane) and Bond University (Gold Coast). She has a PhD in Eastern Philosophy, is a Senior Member of the Yoga Teachers Association of Australia and a Certified Childbirth Educator (Dip CBE). Jean is co-editor of the book, Yoga: Contemporary Perspectives (Routledge 2008) and has just completed her second book Enlightenment Between Two: Luce Irigaray, Nonduality and Sexual Difference. Currently Jean is a Honorary Research Fellow in Social and Cultural Studies at UWA and is undertaking a Mindfulness Based Childbirth Education project with an interdisciplinary research team. Jean has also undertaken the 8 day Mindfulness Professional Training Retreat with Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn and Dr Saki Santorelli of the Univeristy of Massachusetts Medical School.
Rob Schütze
BA BJourn Dip Psych BPsych HonsRob began practicing meditation at the age of 18 which then led him to the practice of yoga at age 23. He is now a dedicated student and teacher of Ashtanga Yoga and one of five Australian men authorised by Ashtanga Yoga master Pattabhi Jois to carry on this precious lineage. He returns yearly to study in Mysore, India. He has studied meditation in Australia, Thailand and India and practised both Theravada and Zen Buddhism, attending numerous retreats at ashrams and Buddhist monasteries. His practice of mindfulness meditation has resulted in a natural integration of mindfulness into his private psychology practice where he offers counselling to a wide range of people and runs mindfulness groups. Rob also conducts mindfulness based research on chronic lower back pain at Curtin University where he is completing his Masters of Clinical Psychology. Together with Curtin University physiotherapists he has designed an Mindfulness Based Functional Therapy Program for Lower back pain. Most recently his publications include a paper in the eminent medical journal Pain, presenting the outcomes of research undertaken at Sir Charles Gairdner Pain Clinic in 2008. His research showed how mindfulness might be added to the fear avoidance model of chronic pain (Vlaeyen & Linton 2000), moderating the relationship between pain and catastrophising. Rob is a a member of the Yoga Teachers Association of Australia and the International Association of Yoga Therapists. Rob has also undertaken the 8 day Mindfulness Professional Training Retreat with Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn and Dr Saki Santorelli of the Univeristy of Massachusetts Medical School.