I’m Andrea Bruce
A yoga teacher and mental health professional with over 15 years of experience holding space for others.
My background
I’ve worked across many sectors — including youth refuges, homelessness services, family violence, the justice system, eating disorders, and mental health. This experience, particularly supporting people living with complex trauma, deeply shapes the way I teach today.
This background informs how I support people to practice yoga: by offering safe, simple, and supportive spaces that honour choice, agency, and self-awareness — commitment to depth and connection, transparency and trust, and showing up in ways that feel authentic and relatable.
Now, I’m sharing these same foundations with other teachers — so together, we can create safer, more inclusive movement spaces.
The journey that led me here
THE TRUTH IS...
I never set out to be a yoga teacher.
Growing up, I didn’t have a clear “plan” for what I wanted to be. I’ve always been a follow-the-crumbs kind of person — multi-passionate, deeply curious, and never quite able to commit to doing just one thing forever.
But one thing that’s always been constant? People. Their stories. How they move through the world. I could sit and people-watch for hours.
There’s a word — sonder — that describes the realisation that every random passerby has a life as vivid and complex as your own. That concept has always fascinated me.
I worked in hospitality throughout my teens and early 20s — a natural fit for someone endlessly curious about people. Made an interstate move from Brisbane to Melbourne when I was 19. Met my partner (still together and in love) and I was eventually led into the community sector, via a friend who was working in it, I was pretty much thrown into the deep end… but also landed in one of the most supportive teams imaginable.
I learnt a lot in those early years — being mentored and moving across various parts of the sector: homelessness, family violence, justice, mental health, and trauma support. It was gritty, human work — and I loved it.
From community sector to fashion
After a few years of working in the sector I decided to study something completely different: Fashion & Textiles Merchandising. I still stayed in the community sector part time and studied full time.
I told you — multifaceted! I even studied a semester abroad in New York, and that’s where I found yoga. Or maybe, that’s where yoga found me. When I returned home from NY, I kept practicing, finished my degree, and fell pregnant. Somewhere between becoming a mum, I also launched a swimwear business. There was a lot going on.
Eventually, I stepped away from the community sector and the swimwear business, and took a full-time job with a major fashion retailer, dreaming of becoming a buyer.
I hated it. Every fiber of my being felt off. I’d cry before & after work. The only thing getting me through was my yoga practice — and the chats with people in the office (because again… people).
I was obsessed with yoga.
I practiced every morning before work at 6am. I’d found a studio near home that felt like a second home. And slowly, over time — about four years after practicing — yoga started shifting from just a physical practice to something much deeper.
Around the same time, I was doing a lot of internal work around body image. Yoga gave me a soft place to land (there is a whole story on this) Then one day, in the middle of one of those many office chats, a colleague said - “Why don’t you become a teacher?”
My first thought was, No way. I can’t do that. That little voice in my head said, No one would come to your class. You don’t look like a yoga teacher (Body image struggles, again.)
But the conversation stuck. It kept coming up. And eventually… I started to wonder: maybe I could.
I began researching teacher training, and the day I was about to enrol — I found out I was pregnant with our second baby.
Naturally, I thought: How am I going to make this work? A year-long training. A toddler. A newborn.
But that's the practice - throwing you a little challenge and seeing how it will work.....I had quit my fashion job, and went back into the community sector, managing an op shop — and I loved being back in the community. Talking with locals. Supporting volunteers. It felt good.
So there I was: pregnant, practicing yoga every day, studying teacher training, working in an op shop… and feeling pretty content.
Following the nudge
“When I’m a teacher, I want everyone to feel welcome, and do what feels best for them”.
One of my favourite modules was the trauma-informed module (no surprise there). I remember sitting in the lecture and thinking…
That intention still shapes everything I do.
Our son was born in Feb 2020. I finished my training in July and we moved from Melbourne to the Sunshine Coast. To be honest, the next few years were a blur.
Two kids. A big move. Settling into a whole new season of life. Eventually, I landed my first teaching gig — it was up in Noosa (a 45-min drive), but I was just happy to start finding my voice. I knew then that I really loved teaching and wanted to do more. I started putting myself out there — meeting studio owners, replying to community ads, slowly picking up more classes. Eventually, I had a handful each week.
I also started a little poster business, celebrating the 8 Limbs of Yoga and showing people that the practice can be found off your mat. I still sell these poster here!
I returned to the community sector, this time working in disability support. I began as an employee but eventually became an independent worker, which gave me space to really use my skills and connect with folks navigating complex trauma.
At this point, I was teaching yoga and working in mental health — but still saw them as two separate parts of my life.
I didn’t realise yet how much my professional experience was shaping the way I taught. Or how deeply I valued safety, consent, and curiosity in a movement space.
New beginnings
Realigning as a yoga teacher.
My classes grew. At one point I was teaching 10+ a week. But the cracks started to show. I was burnt out. My personal practice was gone.
So I pulled back. Refined. Found the sweet spot of what actually felt good.
I also trained further — in yin, restorative, and trauma-informed yoga — and over time, I gained real clarity around the teacher I wanted to be. And it became clear that the next step for me wasn’t just teaching classes.
It was supporting other teachers to integrate inclusive cueing and trauma-aware principles, shaped by both lived experience and professional training.
So here we are, in the next chapter of my teaching journey…
Qualifications
Advanced Diploma of Yoga Teaching. 350 hours - Australian Yoga Academy.
Mindfulness based Restorative Yoga Teacher Training. 25 hours - Sara Farell.
Yin Yoga Teacher Training.
50 hours -Dr. Karina Smith.
Teaching Yoga for Trauma, Anxiety, Depression and Body Image. 50 hours - Sarah Ball.
MY INTENTION HAS AND ALWAYS WILL BE THAT