Caroline Coggins’ journey into Iyengar Yoga unfolds with both depth and grace. Her path began in the early 1980s in Sydney. The spark that set her course was ignited by B.K.S. Iyengar’s first visit to Australia in 1983—a moment she recounted as “electric, energy charged the room.” It stirred something within her so profoundly that she immediately resolved to study directly in India, and she never stopped.
In 1984, she formalised her teaching by founding The Yoga Centre, in Sydney and for over forty years Caroline has immersed herself in the Iyengar tradition. She travelled repeatedly to Pune to study with the Iyengar family—first with B.K.S. Iyengar himself and later with Geeta Iyengar, whom she described as “my teacher of the heart”.
Her teaching style is known for its warmth, gentleness, and spirituality, balanced with the precision and rigour expected of a Senior Iyengar teacher. Her approach honours the slow unfolding of knowledge and encourages integration of breath, mind, body, and spirit—a process she likens to finding freedom through deeply attentive practice.
Over the decades, she nurtured vibrant and evolving Iyengar spaces throughout Sydney—from Kings Cross to Haymarket, Mosman to North Sydney, returning again to Kings Cross and eventually East Redfern—bringing her osteopathic insight, reflective inquiry, poetic sensibility, and spiritual depth to each setting.
In recent years, Coggins has shifted her focus from running a physical school to guiding practice in more contemplative and integrated ways. In 2021, she closed her long‑standing Sydney school of nearly forty years and embraced a next stage of her journey—mentoring students, teachers, and spiritual seekers, and teaching through workshops and intensives from Yarrahapinni on the mid‑north coast of New South Wales. This place, set beside ancient granite rocks, became a sanctuary for practice, retreats, contemplative prayer, online teaching, videos, and teacher mentoring
This conversation with Caroline Coggins and Janet Nelson and Alan Goode was recorded as part of the Yoga and Christianity conference in Germany in August 2024