Haven Founder, Yoga Teacher & Lifelong Yoga Student,

Health-At-Every-Size & Non-Diet Personal Trainer

& 'Body Respect' Cheerleader

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I'm Anna, Founder of Haven, a special fitness community designed to help our members cultivate a peaceful relationship with their bodies through movement, yoga and self-compassion.

 

Like many folk in our appearance-focused society, as a child I was influenced by the culture around me that elevated thinness as the epitome of health, social currency and morality. As an 80s babe, low-fat-everything & leotards were in! Skipping a few meals here & there seemed harmless as a 10 year old - little did I know that it would snowball into a troubled relationship with food, exercise & my body that would last decades. 

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My professional interest in fitness started in 2012. Seeking buddies to run with, I started a running meetup (secretly fueling my disorder, but also something I loved), growing into a group of over 300 casual runners (Inner West Joggers), and over the next few years led daily events including street runs combined with yoga or art events, trail runs and retreats. For free! I just loved it. I completed my Certificate III & IV in Fitness purely to give me the skills to dabble in my own business, 'Run This Way', offering sightseeing running tours around Sydney's beautiful tourist sites, but I went onto become a Personal Trainer, working in women's gyms and visiting folk in their homes, those who felt unwelcome, intimidated or uninspired at traditional gyms. 

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Fast-forward a couple of years, and conventional fitness culture was starting to feel toxic to me (you know, that 'no pain-no gain' approach, being driven by aesthetics, weight loss messaging everywhere, lack of body diversity and judging results based on the number on the scales) as was changing my own beliefs and values around bodies and movement. On a personal level I worked with a coach & a therapist around Intuitive Eating and body image, but also soaked up resources & trainings including Body Positive Fitness, Accessible Yoga Training, Body Positive Counselling, Eating Disorder Training for Professionals and more. Haven was born in 2018 from a desire to offer my clients a community that I could guarantee was free of diet talk, body shaming or toxic gym culture - the antidote to traditional weight-centric fitness culture.

 

And, Haven was born!

 

We're proudly community-centred, anti-diet, body affirming, fat-positive (all-body-positive) and LGBTQI-friendly. Haven is the real deal and the OG of true 'body positivity' in fitness!

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Special Interests

Welcoming newcomers & fostering community. Supporting clients working on their relationship with food and body image through compassionate listening and peer support.

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Favourite way to move:

Spending hours on foot in the mountains. 

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Quote of the moment

"Eat like a grown-arse woman"

Summer Innanen, Body Image Coach

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