Practitioners

Who Manages YOUR retreat?

The entire health retreat is overseen and managed by Heidi & Joe Veraa. In addition to their Ayurvedic and individual transformational specialties, the whole team at Sundara work with proven alternative and holistic methods to treat a variety of health concerns. Their lives are dedicated to empowering individuals to reclaim the inner healing potential we are all born with. It is evident within all of the practitioners of their compassionate and detailed approach to their healing practices. 

All of the practitioners, therapists & teachers at Sundara will work closely with you to prescribe customised treatments based on your current mental, physical, and medical condition. We are with you every step of this retreat and process, encouraging you and supporting you along the way so that you gain the most benefit from your immersive retreat experience.

Enjoy the personal attention of our highly experienced team of wellness and transformation professionals, here for you every step, so you can focus completely on deep rest, deep relaxation, cleansing and the opportunity to reset every layer of your being.

After 25 years of study, practice and a dream, Sundara has become a reality for Heidi.  She wanted to create a place where people can find the tools to heal themselves through a number of proven holistic and alternative medicine modalities.

A fully qualified Ayurvedic Practitioner (Adv. Dip. Ayurveda) & yoga teacher (RYT 500), Heidi has been studying and practicing what she loves for the last 25 years.  Yoga started her on the path of healing and then she discovered Ayurveda while studying in India. After returning to Australia, she studied and received her Advanced Diploma of Ayurveda from the Ayurveda College.  Guiding and assisting people out of pain and dis-ease and unravelling our highest potential, is now her way of life.

After running a successful Ayurvedic clinic in Brisbane, Heidi moved to the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast and is the co-founder, with her husband Joe, of the Life in Balance Ayurveda clinic and the Sundara Retreat.  Heidi & Joe also take small groups on Sacred Journeys to India, combining sacred self-journeys with Ayurveda & Yoga.

Heidi offers Ayurvedic consultations that will identify your individual constitution or Dosha as it is known in Ayurveda, review your illness patterns, previous injury, structural condition, dietary habits, lifestyle and any presented imbalance in your body.  This is done through taking a full case history as well as using Ayurvedic diagnostic tools of eye, tongue and pulse analysis.  She will also guide you through an understanding of how every experience in your life, and with those around you, have shaped who you are today.  Her strategies assist you to untangle some of these experiences that create our habits.

Heidi always continues to be curious about life and learning. Last year she completed her studies in CranioSacral Therapy and she is currently studying Holistic Counselling and other ways of unravelling the human mind.   Now, Heidi is dabbling into her own podcast, Inspiring Change, sharing conversation with everyday normal and academic people who are inspiring change and transformation.

“Our Sundara Retreat integrates emotional healing, physical detoxification and rejuvenation methods that allow every layer of your being to reset and remember its magnificence.”

Joe Veraa has many feathers in his cap. He has been an early childhood specialist and school teacher, guitar teacher, Reiki practitioner and in the more recent years, a yoga and meditation teacher. Joe is also an experienced mentor and life coach and has resolved many disputes as a qualified mediator.

Joe initially started practising yoga 17 years ago. Then, after 9 years of road cycling and long-distance running, he returned to yoga with a passion (needing plenty of yoga to stretch out his tight tendons from cycling!). He has also undertaken meditation training with a number of different meditation teachers.

Joe completed his Anusara yoga teacher training in Brisbane in 2013 and helped establish the yoga studio at Life in Balance, then located at Noosaville, that same year.

Having suffered several sporting injuries over the years, Joe knows the importance of caring for the spine, the joints and the muscles. While he is well aware of the physical benefits of yoga, he also fosters the spiritual element of the practice, which is why he likes to combine yoga and meditation.

Joe sees yoga as helping to move prana throughout the body, helping to take your attention out of your busy mind, being present in your body and allow yourself to be curious about life. He is the co-creator of Life in Balance Ayurveda & Yoga and the Sundara Retreat Centre.

Esther-Maria in her essence is a deeply compassionate wisdom keeper, and has shared her spiritual gifts and contentedness with clients, audiences and students internationally. She is deeply passionate and committed and shares the wisdom she gathered and channeled with immense sincerity and integrity. As confirmed by many astrologers, respected mediums and wise elders she holds a pure light through which she gains clear access to to her worlds and channels straight from source.

Esther has been apprenticed to a variety of Medicine Peoples and Shamans from various traditions and is deeply committed to the teachings and practices she received from them. Her Inner Alchemy body of work is shaped by and unites all these foundations to reconnect her clients to the sacredness of conception of self.

Inner Alchemy The word Alchemy in itself indicates the transformation of a combination of simple elements into gold.  It is a process of transformation.  As we are looking at inner alchemy we are re-connecting to the basic four elements that are inherent within us – Air, Fire, Water and Earth – as well as the cyclical and seasonal nature of our human design

At Sundara we will spend a few sessions with each other where we will dance between the external and internal worlds and nature; slowly activating the energies of Air, Fire, Water and Earth within us to allow the magic of nature to return into balance within us.  This can be achieved through the simple processes that are connected to specific times of day, these will include small ceremonies, visualisation, meditation, contemplation, and so much more.

Nienke & David are devoted to unite and uplift humanity through sound and silence. Sound Healing or vibrational medicine, is an ancient practice that employs the vibration of the human voice as well as musical instruments, to trigger the relaxation response and activate the body’s natural healing abilities.  Sound can clear blockages in the subtle energy bodies (biofield or aura). It can disperse excess energy, and bring back nourishing life force energy. Sound can penetrate through our cells, tissues and organs, and bring balance and harmony back in the whole body.

Together they offer sound baths as part of our retreats at Sundara.  With their original mantra music, accompanied by acoustic guitar, harmonium, Native American flute, didgeridoo, shaman drum and a colourful array of sound healing instruments. Their gentle voices and heart warming harmonies, soothe the soul, and create space for deep healing, self-expression, and connection…. taking you on an internal journey.  nienkeberghuis.com 

Kaz McElroy

Biofield Tuning

Kaz has been a busy Naturopath for over 20 years and in her private sessions she shares Biofield Tuning. this unique sound healing modality uses a combination of weighted and unweighted tuning forks either on the body or in the biofield/auric field around the body, to deliver specific sound and vibrational frequencies into the body to promote healthy function, healing and balance. The tuning forks help bring a more coherent energy flow and cellular function into the body, removing stagnation and blockages – whether it be physical, energetic or emotional. Other sound healing instruments such as drums, chimes and crystals may be used to aid in energy flow and clearance.