Meet Our Team
We have a great team on board!
Read more about us and our amazing yoga teachers below.
Are you interested in working and teaching with us? View information on our current vacancies here.
Or click here for our teacher training opportunities.
Rebecca Harford
Founder, Owner and Teacher
BPHED Otago
Firstly, welcome to our Adapted family! Adapted Yoga and Pilates started when my baby Sophie was just six weeks old and, like her, we have grown and developed. We are no longer teaching classes in my garage, but the focus on using Yoga and Pilates principles and adapting the movements to help people and have fun and relax is still the same. Our Adapted family has grown (along with our second child, Jack). We feel so lucky to work with such fun and inspiring everyday people every day. Personally, I am really excited about the family and the community that continues to grow and flourish. It is great being able to attain our goals together and I look forward to new achievements with support and a lot of fun! I am really looking forward to getting to know you and working with you to achieve your goals.
Namaste x
Jeremy (Jed) Harford
Not a Yoga Teacher – King of Adapted Homebase
and behind the scenes guy
I’m not a yogi, but I do head to a class when I can to stretch out and feel better. BUT if you see me in lycra shoot me please!
I’m Jeremy (Jed) and I’m Rebecca’s worse half. I’m not from any sort of yoga, pilates, health or fitness background, in fact the near opposite. I’m the beer drinking, steak eating guy from a Transport and Manufacturing management career where big hours and big stress were part of the job. But when the opportunity arose in 2017 to come across and join my wife and make Adapted a true family business I was over the moon. I really enjoy the community that Adapted has created, and the fact that as a community we can make a difference in peoples lives, and not just in the Yoga & Pilates class! You may not see me at classes everyday, but you will find me on the phone, or email, and helping the operation behind the scenes.
Vanessa O’Rourke
Student Support
Hi my name is Vanessa O’Rourke. I’m married with two children. My son is first year at Otago University and my daughter is in her last year of High School. I am excited to have found myself firstly starting as a member at Adapted Yoga and Pilates to now also being a member of the team.
Tilak Raj
Head Yoga Teacher
Mr. Raj has been practising yoga since his childhood and is a qualified teacher. He has studied many ancient scriptures including Patanjali Yoga Sutras, Hatha Yoga Pradipkia, Yoga Vasistha, and others in depth. He deepened his yoga practice and teaching methodology under various senior yoga teachers from India and around the globe.
Alice
Yoga Teacher
I am a Yin yoga and Vinyasa yoga teacher. I have been practicing yoga for over 10 years. I find it the most nourishing practice to sustain me on a daily basis. I am a regular meditator and love to incorporate mindfulness practices into my yoga.
I have studied many years of yoga, music, art and English and I am very passionate about yoga and bringing it into peoples lives.
Julia
Yoga Teacher
Hi! I’m Julia from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I started my career as a dancer with lots of Yoga elements for flexibility and strength.
My aim is to improve people´s life-style, to spread knowledge, to see the students getting to know themselves by understanding how their body works with a special focus on respect and honesty.
Manju Bhargavi
Yoga Teacher
I am “Yoga Siromani” in Hatha yoga from Sivananda Yoga Vedanta, India. Yoga is my passion and my way of living.
My aim is to teach safe and meditative yoga and through that bringing self-awareness of improving your physical strength and mental serenity.
Mike Wilson
Yoga Teacher
Hello all, my name is Mike, and I’ve been with Adapted for some time now.. first as a student, then as a teacher trainee, and since December 2017, a fully fledged yoga teacher.
To me, teaching yoga is a means to give back to others and share tools that can improve our mental and physical condition. My focus varies class to class, but strength and proper posture underpin what I teach.
Gemma Dwane
Yoga Teacher
I left Ireland to travel around New Zealand for one year. That was 8 years ago!
Yoga philosophy has been very influential in my approach to life, yoga asana (poses) have helped me recover from injuries and both have aided in my recovery from depression. My goal is to integrate yoga and psychology to help individuals use both body and mind to flow through life’s ups and downs.
Petra Dennan
Yoga Teacher
My journey and deep relationship with yoga began when we decided to start a family and I wanted more clarity, to feel more centered and energised and follow through with my ideas and reach my goals.
I believe Yoga helps us reconnect our body, mind and self in a way that brings balance, alignment and joy, in both our Yoga practice and daily lives. I teach people how to move their bodies so they feel strong powerful, graceful and skilled.
Sarah Jackson
Yoga Teacher
I have always been active, and played many competitive sports growing up. While studying in my first year at University in 2013, I began my Yoga practice and I haven’t looked back since. I have been weightlifting since 2014.
Yoga for me keeps me grounded, and is the kindness I give myself to stabilize my body, mind, and soul. I’m passionate movement, and introduce it to everything in my daily life – even when snacking on the couch.
Belynda
Yoga Teacher
I’ve been a nurse for over 30 years, an Energy Practitioner for seven years, and a yoga teacher for two minutes!
I am Ashtanga trained and follow a more traditional but gentle practice, involving mantras (chants), pranayama (breathing), and asanas (postures). I incorporate chakra energy, stories about the postures, and therapeutic touch with guided relaxation at the end of class.
Hanya Gallagher
Yoga Teacher
I have recently returned from training in Auckland in zen buddhism which I undertook over the last decade. During this time I also completed my training as a hatha yoga teacher. I fell in love with yoga many years ago, as a teenager, trying to get some peace, improve my flexibility and avoid injury. My goal in my classes is to help people gain more awareness around their bodies through movement and its effect on their mind. Plus of course have fun!
Ready to Become Your Best?
Our Yoga and Pilates classes enable everyday people to become their best. We work for you. What you want and what you need, on and off the mat. If you want a community that not only understands but cares for you, then Adapted is the family for you.