Barbara Bürscher

About

I’m Barbara. I grew up in the countryside of Upper Austria, trained as a journalist in Vienna, and have taught in Goa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Australia and Bali. I now live in Canacona, South Goa.

Portrait of Barbara outdoors, looking up and smiling.

Vienna

Journalism first

I studied journalism and communication at the University of Vienna and lived in the city for about nine years. I wrote for a health magazine, turning medical information about illnesses and treatments into articles for readers without a medical background. Later I was managing editor of an online magazine, editing other people’s work and guiding younger journalists.

That work shaped how I teach. I explain what we are doing and why, and I try to say it as plainly as I can.

2018 to 2020

Leaving, and a first long training

In October 2018, a few days after finishing my master’s degree, I flew to New Zealand on a working-holiday visa and volunteered at a yoga community north of Auckland. For the next few years I lived between New Zealand, Australia, Bali and India, and did marketing and social media work for yoga and retreat businesses.

In 2019 I completed a 900-hour teacher training at The Yoga Institute in Mumbai. In 2020 I trained in active meditation and in sound healing with Tibetan singing bowls and gongs, in Goa.

A woman standing on a ridge above a deep glacial valley.
New Zealand, 2019.
Barbara holding her certificate beside a teacher at The Yoga Institute, in front of a wall painted with Sanskrit verses.
Graduation at The Yoga Institute, Mumbai, 2019.

2021 to 2024

Going deeper, and teaching

From 2021 the trainings became longer and more specific: Integral Chakra Therapy at The Yoga Institute, a 300-hour Kundalini training in Rishikesh, then Yoga Nidra and Yin.

I taught in Palolem at Anand Yoga Village and Patnem Palm Garden, spent a season teaching German-speaking guests at an Ayurvedic clinic in Sri Lanka, and taught at retreat centres in New Zealand and Australia. Out of the Kundalini and chakra trainings came Chakra Kriya Yoga, the class I have spent the most time developing.

A practitioner holding a singing bowl beside a person lying on a mat, brass bowls placed around them.
Sound healing training, Goa, 2020.
A student watching the teacher, who sits cross-legged at the front of an open-air hall.
Teaching in South Goa, 2023.

2024 to 2025

Embodiment and women’s work

I trained in embodiment coaching with Embodiment Unlimited. It gave me a way to work with one person at a time, through posture, breath and movement as they show up in everyday life.

In 2025 I trained as a Tao Tantric Arts facilitator with Shashi Solluna and Minke de Vos in Bali, and facilitated and co-facilitated tantra events there. My women’s work, including Tao Tantric Arts, is for women only.

A woman at the mouth of a stone tunnel, looking out at forest.
Bali, 2025.

Now

Canacona

I live in Canacona, South Goa, and teach in English and German. I’m looking for regular work with studios, retreat centres and women’s spaces nearby, and I offer one-to-one sessions.

For studios and venues

How I teach

  1. 01

    Plain language

    I explain what a practice is and why we are doing it. You don’t have to be spiritual to take part.

  2. 02

    The source, named

    When something comes from Hatha, Kundalini or Taoist practice, I say so. I keep apart what a tradition teaches, what physiology says and what I have seen in a room.

  3. 03

    Your consent

    Nothing is asked of you that you have not agreed to. You can always rest, change a posture or sit something out.

  4. 04

    Clear limits

    Yoga and embodiment work support wellbeing. They are not medical treatment or psychotherapy.