From my heart to yours.

Hey I’m Mel van Deventer – creative, organic backyard gardener and yoga & meditation teacher, and founder of  Namakind.

My intention is for Namakind™ to be a holistic platform. A space where we explore the intrinsic interconnected relationship of our mind-body connection as it integrates with everyday life + wellbeing.

My vision is to create and bring together a village of like-minded people in a space where you can connect, share, learn, practice and be your whole self – no matter your location.

Our village gathers in digital spaces (like this website), online offerings, social platforms and more – fostering an embodied sense of well-being for individuals, teams and communities across Australia and beyond.

 

As a practitioner + teacher of Personalised BioMedical (Mind-Body) Yoga + Meditation as Lifestyle Medicine, Yin Yoga and Yoga for Pregnancy, Birth & Beyond (prenatal yoga, post natal yoga and mums’n’bubs yoga), I believe in working in collaboration and co-regulation with my students – where my role as a practitioner is to gently guide and empower you to find your path of practice; your breath, your body, your compassion, your yoga.

I personally found yoga (or rather it found me) over 10yrs ago and it quickly became an essential part of my toolkit for supporting my own health & wellbeing, managing day-to-day stress of my deadline driven work as a creative, and living stage 4 endometriosis and chronic pain. Having exhausted the conventional Western Medicine approach to managing my conditions, through practice, study and self-study (Svādhyāya), I uncovered a complementary practice that would support not only my biological (physical) wellbeing, but also my psychological and social wellbeing – known as a biopsychosocial approach.

For me, yoga is a form of lifestyle medicine that integrates western science with eastern philosophy as a complementary therapeutic approach to supporting my whole being, and it is my hope to share this approach with individuals, practitioners and the wider community.

With a special interest in supporting women’s health through all of life’s stages and cycles, chronic pain management, and elevating teams, corporate wellbeing and company culture, I invite you to join me on your mat, from any location, to find balance, move your body with love and uncover new perspectives, on the good days and the challenging ones. Please know this is a sacred and safe space to make your own – and what it looks like is completely up to you.

Flow. Restore. Energise. Relieve. Relax. Connect. Centre. Nurture. Breathe. It’s your choice!

At Namakind, I aim to integrate conscious movement, mindfulness and our innate ability to change into our daily lives. Through observation, surrender, acceptance – may we change what can be changed and accept what cannot with loving-kindness and compassion.

Whether you’d like to join an online yoga or prenatal yoga class, book a private 1-on-1 or team session, or simply enjoy the content, I welcome you wholeheartedly to share, participate and feel supported by this community. Namaste yogi 🙏

Kindly, Mel

 

Qualifications:
As a certified, registered & fully insured practitioner and member of Yoga Australia and the Mediationa Association of Australia, I hold the following certifications:

  • Advanced Diploma of Personalised Biomedical Yoga & Meditation as Lifestyle Medicine (500YTT)
  • Yoga of Birth (80PYTT)
  • Yin Yoga

Further studies:
I am also currently undertaking further studies in the field of women’s health with Mindful Birth Australia and Bhakti Rose.

  • Mindful Birth – Yoga for Pregnancy, Birth & Baby (150YTT)
  • Ayurveda Goddess 

Join the Namakind Village.

Mel is truly passionate about building a community of like-minded individuals. It's an innate human need to connect with self and others and something we wholeheartedly aim to foster at Namakind by integrating opportunities for you to gather both in-person and online with the Namakind village.

Whether you're looking to join a class, grab a cuppa with a fellow villager or find resources on to support your journey, please know I will do my best to connect you with our village.

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