Meet Derya — Founder of Velāra

My name means ocean.

I am a certified Pilates instructor, a maker, and someone who has always believed that the way we move our bodies changes everything; not just physically, but in the quiet places we carry inside.

I grew up with movement in my bones. But it was Pilates that taught me what it really means to inhabit a body; to breathe into it, to listen to it, to treat it as something worthy of care and ritual rather than something to push through.

Velāra was born from that belief. A space where every woman who walks through the door is met with warmth, with patience, and with the deep knowledge that she belongs exactly as she is.

I teach from my home studio in Perth; a space I have built slowly, with intention, in the colours of the earth. There is always tea after.

Move. Create. Unveil.

THE VELARA PHILOSOPHY

What this space stands for.

Embodied

Every session begins here; in the body. Not in the mind, not in a goal, not in comparison. In breath, in sensation, in the simple and profound act of arriving in yourself. We come back to this, again and again, because it is where everything real begins.

Unhurried

We do not rush here. Movement is not a task to complete or a box to tick. It is an experience to be felt; slowly, with full attention, and with great gentleness. The pace of Velara is the pace of your breath. That is the only clock we follow.

Unveiled

Every woman who walks into this studio already holds everything she needs. My role is simply to help her find her way back to it; past the noise, past the self-doubt, past the years of being told her body is something to fix. She is not broken. She is becoming.

“This is not a class you attend. It is a practice you return to, and each time, you find something new waiting for you there.
”
— DERYA, VELARA.

CERTIFIED

Qualificatons

  • Certified Reformer Pilates Instructor

  • Certified Matwork Pilates Instructor

  • Prenatal & Postnatal Pilates

  • Injury Rehabilitation & Pain Management

  • Adult Pre-Exercise Screening — APSS certified

  • Certificate in Artistic Therapy
    (In progress — completing 2027)