Frank Jesse

Frank Jesse : All classes at Griffins Hill yoga retreat are taught by Frank Jesse, who is one of just 27 Senior Iyengar Teachers in Australia.

Senior Teacher is the highest designation that a teacher is accredited by the BKS Iyengar Association of Australia.

Frank has spent more than 40,000 hours teaching and practicing yoga in the past 25 years and has attended classes run by the founding master of Iyengar yoga, Mr BKS Iyengar, at his school in Pune, India. He has taught many other Iyengar teachers practicing today.

Frank Jesse started Clifton Hill Yoga Studio in 1995, building it into the highly successful Iyengar yoga school that it remains today. Frank introduced innovations in teaching methods, such as the week-long morning intensive courses (before work hours for five working days), which are now commonplace in many yoga schools.

Griffins Hill is another innovative idea, combining a full program of yoga and delicious organic vegetarian fare, mostly home-grown, with the chance to walk around the spectacular local bushland and visit neighboring sights.

Running yoga retreats and weekly yoga classes at Griffins Hill, Frank has further refined his teaching skills and become highly regarded for his ability to cater to the differing needs of individual students, who range widely in age (up to 80) and ability.

Here’s how Frank discovered yoga, and why it became so important to him.

“building a mud brick house changed my life. My parents purchased a bush block in the Yarra Valley back in the ’70s. I was a teenager, and my brothers, sisters Mum and Dad all set about building this massive three-story house out of mud bricks all individually made.

I didn’t realise at the time, but this experience shaped my attitude to life. Later, when I first started to practice yoga, I realised that becoming a yoga teacher was the same sort of journey. We built that house one brick at a time. I built my yoga practice one pose, one muscle at a time. 
I learned to love big projects, like starting Griffins Hill retreat, and to enjoy working slowly over a long period of time, little by little to create something really worthwhile.”