About
Our Founders
Phillida Bartik
Phillida is a Senior Yoga Facilitator and Teacher Trainer, whose work sits at the intersection of traditional Yoga, Tantra and Ayurveda and the realities of contemporary life.
Specialising in the therapeutic application of these wisdom technologies, she has devoted herself to the study and practice of these traditions, exploring their capacity to transform our relationship with the body, mind, energy and consciousness. Her work is grounded in the understanding that these traditions are not simply systems of belief or philosophy, but sophisticated and applicable life technologies for knowing ourselves and engaging more masterfully with the conditions of being human.
Phillida is interested in what becomes possible when we turn our attention inward, when we learn to observe our patterns, understand our unique dynamism with life, work with our individual energy and become more intimate with the forces shaping our experience.
With 13 years of experience facilitating Yoga, and 7 years serving as a 1:1 Mentor, Phillida brings together Somatic Practices, Tantric Philosophy and Meditation, Traditional Hatha Yoga and Ayurvedic lifestyle principles to create personalised pathways of practice.
Phillida has studied extensively with teachers and scholars including Sally Kempton, Tara Judelle, Dr Sumit Kesarkar, Swami Khecaranatha, Mark Dyczkowski, Carlos Pomeda, Rose Baudin, Dr Robert Svoboda, Swami Lakshmanjoo, Bhagawan Nityananda of Ganeshpuri, Rod Stryker and Ana Forrest, among others.
Her relationship with the Indian Himalayas began when she first travelled to India in 2013. In 2023 she was guided into high-altitude by one of her teachers. Since then, she has continued to explore increasingly remote and demanding sacred locations, bringing her personal practice into direct relationship with the terrain, its elements and the demands of the journey. In 2024, she co-facilitated the inaugural Shava Yoga Himalayan Immersion with Jesse Alexander.
Through Shava Yoga, Phillida facilitates personalised mentorship programs, international immersions, workshops and advanced educational pathways, creating spaces where traditional knowledge can be encountered through direct experience. Offering the knowledge, practices and frameworks through which anyone can develop a more conscious relationship with themselves and, ultimately, with life itself.
Jesse Alexander
Jesse was born on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia. He started his proactive spiritual journey in 2013 with a trip through India, Laos and Thailand. Since then, he has spent time in Australia, Bali, Italy and India, immersing as a student of Yoga, Tantra and (more recently) Ayurveda, under several master teachers.
His teachers include: Bhagawan Nityananda of Ganeshpuri, Swami Lakshmanjoo, Sally Kempton, Swami Khecaranatha, Mark Dyczkowski, Carlos Pomeda, Andrea Boni, Emily Kuser, Tara Judelle, Dr. Robert Svoboda, Rod Stryker, Brad Hay, Dr. S. Ajit and Dr. Sumit Kesarkar.
Jesse is a facilitator of Tantric Yoga, Tantric View (philosophy), and Ayurvedic Lifestyle. He offers advanced education modules, international multi-day immersions and 1:1 guidance and mentorships.
In 2023, Jesse travelled through India’s Himalayan ranges, guided by one of his teachers. During this pilgrimage, he was totally possessed by the unspeakable magnitude of the mountains. Enraptured, he returned to India with Philli in 2024, to co-facilitate the first Shava Yoga Himalayan Immersion, and to afterwards complete a more remote and higher-altitude expedition to the sacred Kakbhushundi Lake.
Jesse is moved to offer Tantric, Yogic and Vedic life-technologies through guided immersive experiences which, serve as profound catalysts for the expansion of self-knowledge and the capacity to consume life whole.
