Nathan Dobbie
Certified Iyengar yoga teacher.
Nathan is a certified Iyengar yoga teacher. He has been teaching for over 15 years in Cairns. He has attended numerous Iyengar workshops in France and Australia. Nathan loves doing handstands.
Kewarra Beach, Cairns northern beaches
About Decades of Yoga
Decades of Yoga, in the Iyengar hatha yoga tradition, is located in Kewarra Beach, on the Cairns northern beaches in Far North Queensland.
The studio
Kewarra Beach studio
Decades of Yoga is owned and operated by Susan Stackhouse, who has over 30 years experience and has travelled around the world to train alongside some of the world's best teachers.
Previously based in Palm Cove, and before that on Sydney's northern beaches, Decades of Yoga has relocated to a purpose built studio, tucked away under tropical palms and mango trees with the smell of the fresh sea breeze just a moment away.
At our Kewarra Beach studio we cater for teens and up, and are fully equipped with mats and props, so you need only bring yourself.
The studio is a few minutes from Palm Cove, Clifton Beach and Trinity Beach, and about 25 minutes from Cairns Airport. Buses between the beaches stop right at the door.
How we teach
Iyengar yoga
We teach hatha yoga through carefully arranged sequences of postures (asanas) as developed by B.K.S. Iyengar. The focus is on precision, alignment, strength and flexibility.
Never more than ten
The personalised classes are kept to a maximum of 10 people, allowing our teachers to get to know each student and give them the attention they need to avoid injury and make progress.
Adjusted to the room
Each class is adjusted to suit the needs of the students, making for variety and interest in students' practice. Where poses are challenging, students are assisted by the use of props, eventually working beyond the support to independence in postures.
Certified teaching
The Iyengar certification process is one of the most comprehensive in the industry, and the extensive training it provides ensures a very high standard of teaching. This enables our teachers to work with students of all levels, and especially those with injuries.
Principal teacher
Susan Stackhouse
Principal teacher. Certified Intermediate Iyengar yoga teacher.
Susan is the principal instructor at Decades of Yoga and is a certified Intermediate Iyengar yoga teacher. She was introduced to yoga, both postures and breathing exercises, at high school, and the profound effects left a lasting impression.
She was trained by senior Iyengar teachers Faeq Biria in France and Ramanand Patel in the USA, who has been a great mentor on her path through life. Her work on bandhas came about through her studies with Shadow Yoga founder Zhander Remete and with Ramanand Patel. In Australia she continues to study with senior Iyengar teacher Pixie Lillas.
Susan has been to the Iyengar Institute on four occasions for the Japanese intensive and general classes. She has attended several Iyengar conventions both in Australia and abroad, and advanced workshops in France, the USA, the Caribbean, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and Australia.
She co-sponsored world renowned yoga teacher Rodney Yee's visits to Australia in 2000 and 2002.
Susan is also a trained teacher, English (TESOL) teacher, teacher trainer and university lecturer (M.Ed. TESOL, NZ Teachers Cert) with the University of New England and the Australian Catholic University in New South Wales.
Teachers
Our teachers
Pam Tuck
Certified Iyengar yoga teacher, France 2016.
Pam initially started Iyengar yoga classes in Sydney in 1998 to overcome recurring lower back pain. From 2001 she continued her yoga practice in France, where she lived for 19 years. Since returning to Australia in 2019 she has regularly attended classes at the Yoga Room in Burleigh Heads and at West End in Brisbane.
Trained in France, Pam became a certified Iyengar yoga teacher in 2016 and taught weekly yoga classes, in French and English, until she left France to return to Australia. Prior to relocating to Cairns, Pam taught yoga at the Yoga Room in Burleigh Heads.
Pam has regularly travelled to workshops and Iyengar Yoga conventions in France, Australia and Switzerland, under the teaching of senior teachers from the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, five of which were conducted by B.K.S. Iyengar's granddaughter Abijita.
In 2017 Pam had the privilege of deepening her yoga practice and knowledge in the Iyengar yoga method with Prashant Iyengar and Sunita Iyengar, and other reputed teachers at the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, India.
Pam is particularly focused on imparting the Iyengar yoga method to help her students evolve into the yoga postures and value the connection between body and mind.
When off her yoga mat, Pam teaches English as an Additional Language to immigrants and refugees in the Adult Migrant English Program at TAFE.
Clive Parker
Iyengar Introductory teacher training, RYT 500.
Clive was born and raised in Zimbabwe and has lived since in South Africa, West Africa, Japan, the Middle East and Australia. Initially a competitive swimmer and martial artist, he first became interested in Iyengar yoga through encouragement from his wife to join classes while living in Tokyo in the early 1990s.
On returning to Cairns in 1995 he started Iyengar practice in earnest under the tutelage of Nicky Knoff and James Ryan, and has practised consistently since then, studying further under teachers Geeta Iyengar, Pixie Lillas, Gulnaz Dashti and Darrin McNally, completing the Iyengar Introductory teacher training with Darrin in Adelaide. He started teaching in Dubai in 2007 and achieved RYT 500 hour status in 2016.
While still swimming for fitness, it is regular yoga practice that Clive believes keeps the body feeling naturally strong, aligned and flexible, and provides undoubted mental contentment. In his words, “Without my practice, I don't feel right”.
Clive feels that yoga self practice and teaching have a symbiotic relationship, in that they sharpen the focus and development of each other. His interest in teaching also stems from the desire to pass on what is an invaluable resource for keeping healthy and centred throughout life.