Katie Durgā, founder of Durga Mindfulness, shares the wisdom and practices of yoga - a yoga educator, an executive and life coach, a lover of India, and a breast cancer survivor. Katie takes a pragmatic approach in both her coaching and teaching, able to draw from her extensive experience in senior leadership, yoga and wellbeing to tailor programs to meet your needs. Katie draws from this varied experience, her spiritual wisdom, meditation and array of practices to create a framework for practical life change. Katie comfortably works in corporate environments, studio environments, private settings, YTTs and retreats.
Katie is a Level 2 teacher with Yoga Australia and a E-RYT® 200, RYT® 500, YACEP® Teacher with Yoga Alliance, but first and foremost Katie is a yoga practitioner. A seeker on the spiritual path of yoga - known as a mumukṣu. Always learning. Always evolving. Always experiencing life and making sense of the wisdom. Her personal path involves the Goddess traditions of ancient Tantra and these wisdom and practices are inseparable from her life. She lives yoga. In an increasingly busy world, she loves guiding people to find inner peace and clarity through divinely restful yoga practices, mantra, meditation and wisdom from the ancient scriptures. Katie finds great joy in sharing yogic wisdom and practices to those who feel a connection with her.
Katie has over 1,800 hours of training from some of the best teachers in the world including Kaya Mindlin, Om Tirth Yoga, Sarah Powers, Sattva Yoga Academy in Rishikesh, Sharada Vaidika, Heather Agnew, Seth Powell and Raj Balkaran. Katie also trained to teach yoga to women with breast cancer through REWIND Health in the US, as well as prenatal and postnatal yoga through Bliss Baby. Katie has trained extensively in Indian yoga philosophy and is passionate about the history and tradition of yoga, particularly the Goddess tradition, the Devīmāhātmyam and the Bhagavad Gītā. Sharing the ancient wisdom in a practical way is one of her passions.
With the teachings of her various teachers, Katie has contemplated and taken those teachings through her own life experiences including breast cancer, senior leadership roles, her India travels and her spiritual life - creating her own perspective of the wisdom. She has shared this wisdom at events such as the Belize International Yoga Festival.
Katie sees herself as a champion of rest, of bringing peace through the more subtle practices, teaching Restorative Yoga, Śṛy Yoga (Supreme Release Yoga), Yin Yoga and Himalayan Kundalini yoga - gentle, floor based practices that bring deep peace and gentle release of the spine and body. Katie is also a meditation teacher and she loves to help people find a meditation style that suits their lifestyle and help them see that meditation can not only build on their leadership strengths but also manage any challenge life may throw at them.
From a coaching perspective, Katie completed her Brain Based Coaching certificate with the renowned NeuroLeadership Institute in 2019 and has been offering life and executive coaching in the Corporate, Government and private environments. Katie has extensive senior leadership experience in both the private sector, including with firms such as Big 4 Accounting Firms, and the largest agencies in the public sector. She is a change leader and led many significant projects over the years. Katie has a Business degree and was a Chartered Accountant for over two decades. Katie has also worked with an Aboriginal organisation in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia on economic development strategy for Aboriginal people in that region – one of the highlights of her career. She has continued to mentor future Aboriginal leaders in the workplace.
Katie brings her wisdom, her passion, her pragmatism, her authenticity and her experience when working with you. She helps you not only to manage stress in your life, but to work to eliminate it. To understand what yoga truly is and how to let it bloom in your life. To guide you to actively pursue your dreams, to heal, to help you manage challenges and take advantage of opportunities that may arise, and to create peace in your life.
Trust her coaching process! Katie has a beautiful presence that radiates a sense of calm, instantly making you feel safe, supported and allowing you to be vulnerable. Katie guided me to reach within to identify and own my present state, where I want to be and how I will pave my own path forward to reach my mountaintop goals. This experience has challenged me to think beyond what I thought was achievable, empowered ownership to implement my strategies to conquer the mountains I set to climb.
I just wanted to say thank you so much for opening my mind to meditation and mantras. For the first time, I am starting to feel myself grounded and solid, not flighty and on edge. I see myself holding an inner calm and strong "metronome" even while the external environment might present chaos. I have learnt the power of pausing before offering my thoughts which has surprisingly reduced any emotional outbursts that come with reacting. I’m sure my husband and son also have wonderful things to say about how your meditation program has reduced my mood swings!
Practicing yoga under Katie’s guidance has opened up a whole new world for me. I have worked with other yoga teachers over the years, and was never introduced to the deep spiritual yoga traditions, or the power of mantra which I now appreciate greatly. I have come to a deeper moment by moment experience and reflective awareness since I started my practice with Katie. Through Katie, I now have another different, deeper, richer, joyous and also challenging path for the rest of my life. I now can experience, see and feel the connections to the rich spiritual yoga knowledge and philosophy built over thousands of years, as fresh and alive as ever in each moment. Katie is a sensitive and masterful guide, and I trust her considerable knowledge, heartfelt spiritual awareness, professionalism, expertise, and guidance. Thank-you, Katie. 🙏🏼
Katie's yoga classes are those of a true ‘artisan’.She brings to her studio a rare level of professionalism, authenticity and warmth.Her programs are exquisitely crafted with each class providing a focussed exploration of profound depth. She is present and connected with her students and her teachings.Katie’s deep vast yogic knowledge and experience is demonstrated and generously shared throughout her programs. She presents students with a rich experiential learning environment. Her classes are magnificently wonderful – as she herself is! We love Katie. We love her classes!!! Katie, thank you.