Who We Are

Brad Felstead

Brad has over 25 years experience as an educator. He has a passion for helping students to achieve at their personal best while maintaining excellent health and managing the stresses of senior school. Brad is author of The Balanced Student, The Art of Relaxation and the upcoming Teen Sleep. He is also the creator of numerous educational programs including Study Calm, Be Your Best, Stress Management for Students and VCE Secrets of Success. He is also a popular meditation teacher, specialising in meditation within educational settings and meditation for teenagers. His classes are renown for being practical and enjoyable, with participants learning simple yet powerful tools to help them in their lives.

Chris Lyons

Chris is one of Australia’s foremost memory improvement and study skills experts.

He is a past Australian Memory Championship Holder and Record Breaker, having doubled the Australian Record by memorising Pi to 4,400 places.

Over the last 5 years Chris has delivered more than 100 presentations, training courses and coaching programs for high school students showing them how to study more effectively and improve their grades.

Chris has appeared on The Today Show, A Current Affair, Today Tonight, and ABC TV. He has demonstrated how effective memory improvement techniques can be on radio stations all around Australia including 2UE, 2GB, 3AW and frequently on the ABC.

We are privileged to be able to offer Chris’s exceptional talents to schools around Australia with his focus on delivering unique, fun and highly effective workshops and coaching programs that empower students to read faster, remember more, tackle information overload and achieve at their personal best.

Lani Brayer

Lani has been involved in education for thirty years. She has many years experience as a classroom teacher and as the head of highly successful language immersion programs. Lani holds a Master’s Degree in Education. She has a keen interest in communicating best practice standards in terms of the way in which students learn and how they can study more efficiently and effectively. She is also involved in international educational programs designed to give students greater understanding of important historical and cultural events.

Helen Ansell

Helen Ansell is a registered psychologist and an experienced teacher, having held a range of roles in the State, Catholic and Independent school systems. Helen commenced at Sacré Cœur in 2015, having previously held the position of Head of Counselling at Presbyterian Ladies’ College.

Helen completed a Mindfulness Teacher Training Retreat, Level 1, in Wales in 2012. This training was provided by the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice (CMRP), Bangor. Helen returned to the UK in 2013, to train to teach the Mindfulness in Schools program in Oxford and to attend the Mindfulness in Schools Conference in London, with Jon Kabat-Zinn as the keynote speaker.

Together with her former colleague at PLC, Andrea Heilbron, Helen introduced the Mindfulness in Schools Program as part of the Year 8 curriculum and co-facilitated this course for the Year 11 International Baccalaureate class.

Helen has recently attended the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice Conference in Chester, UK, and the six-day Mindful Self-Compassion Teacher Training Course in Shropshire with Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer.

Helen teaches a range of mindfulness courses including the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. She has also led MBSR for mothers of young children and many successful courses for school staff.

Kara Landau

Kara Landau is an Accredited Practicing Dietitian (APD) and Accredited Nutritionist (AN), who holds a bachelors degree in Nutrition and Dietetics. She is the head dietitian at Corporate Nutrition Melbourne, where she and her staff present on healthy eating to a range of clients, as well as work one on one with clients within a private practice. Kara is a confident presenter who has spoken to an array of groups, including, schools, corporate workplaces, and government sites. Having worked alongside Nutrition Australia and a number of health promotion companies, Kara aims to inspire all those that she encounters to help them make positive lifestyle choices.

Daniela Accary

Daniela is a Personal Trainer, Pilates Specialist, Educator and founder of Second Nature Fitness. Daniela has been educating people for over 25 years.

Passionate about good health and fitness and its benefits, she provides practical advice and training to students on fitness, posture, core strength, mobility, flexibility and wellness, through self-awareness, self-improvement and techniques to make it second nature.

She enjoys presenting to a range of students, who walk away feeling inspired to get out and exercise for all its benefits – be they physical, mental, emotional or academic. She believes that exercise creates energy and a positive mindset, which results in a ‘can-do’ attitude. Daniela believes, ‘If we do not make time for wellness, we will need to make time for illness.’

Daniela also advises on how students can practice good habits daily, such as focusing on behavioral goals, to get the outcomes they desire.

Christa Felstead

Since arriving in Australia in the early 1990s Christa has been at the heart of Felstead Education’s progress to becoming one of the leading providers of specialist wellbeing programs for students in Australian schools. Christa has an extensive background in advertising in both Europe and Australia. She holds a Master’s Degree in Applied Linguistics and is a highly sought after language teacher, currently teaching post graduate students at Monash University. She couples her rare combination of skills as both an educator and an advertising executive to be the perfect person to promote our message of healthy living and strong study skills to students throughout the country.

Aviva Kaufman

Aviva loves working with people and has done so in a variety of roles over the past 25 years. She has a Bachelor of Social Work and practiced for 15 years specialising in Child Protection and Disability Services. She then established a small communications business, facilitating communication services to small businesses and schools.
Aviva has a passion for education and understands the importance of physical and mental wellbeing to success not only at school, but in life beyond school. She combines her unique background as a social worker and a small business owner to help spread our vital messages into the education sector. As a parent with two teenagers, Aviva strongly empathises with all of us who are trying to make a difference and a positive contribution to the lives of children.