Once upon a breath…..
An Australian massage therapist and a Chinese-Canadian school teacher crossed paths in Saigon, Vietnam, drawn together by a shared love of wellbeing, mindful movement and the healing arts. From that meeting, saigon om was born in 2013 — a small, heartfelt space for practice, learning and connection.
What began as a yoga and wellness studio in Ho Chi Minh City has continued to evolve. Today, saigon om is a small international school devoted to Qi Gong education, teacher training, mindfulness and retreat experiences, with offerings across Australia, Vietnam and Canada. At the heart of the school are co-founders Sarah Martin and Hang Nhan, whose different backgrounds and practices have shaped saigon om in complementary ways. Hang's work centres around Qi Gong, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tai Chi and movement education, while Sarah brings mindfulness, women's wellbeing and embodied practices to the school.
In 2019, after many years of practice, Sarah and Hang were ordained into the Order of Interbeing (Tiep Hien), founded by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. The teachings and practices of the Plum Village tradition continue to quietly inform how they live, teach and create community.
Today, Sarah and Hang live on Australia's Sunshine Coast with their two young and rambunctious children — continuing to learn, practice and share what has always been at the heart of saigon om: a more peaceful way of living in our bodies, with one another and in the world.
Looking for a wellness speaker or presenter?
For more than two decades, Hang and Sarah have brought mindfulness, movement and wellbeing into classrooms, workplaces and communities around the world. Their presentations are practical, engaging and experiential — inviting people to do more than simply listen. Depending on the audience, sessions may weave together Qi Gong, mindfulness, movement, stress regulation and simple practices for everyday wellbeing. Over the years, they have worked with wonderfully diverse groups — from early childhood, elementary and high school students to universities and tertiary education; from the IT industry and workplaces to Corrections Canada, military communities and senior centres. Whether you're planning a conference, professional development day, workplace wellness event, school program or community gathering, presentations can be adapted to meet the needs of your group.
INVITE HANG & SARAH TO SPEAK →
What people are saying
“Hang is a fantastic presenter. She’s very engaging. She keeps things simple and us laughing. We look forward to having her back.”
“I did a series of private sessions with Hang and knew that my team across Canada needed to hear and learn from this woman. We made it happen.”
Hang Nhan
Qi Gong Educator • Teacher Trainer • Mindfulness Educator
Hang’s story began in Vietnam during the war. At six years old, she escaped by boat with her family, eventually spending time as a refugee in Malaysia before making a new home in Canada. Growing up in Canada brought a different kind of challenge — a new language, a new culture, racism and, perhaps most shocking for a little girl from Vietnam, the harsh Canadian winter. Brr.
Somewhere within those early experiences, Hang developed a deep sense that she wanted her life to be of service. At 11 years old, she remembers knowing that she wanted to help people overcome challenges.
Her path there, however, was anything but direct. She first studied engineering at Queen’s University and began her career with IBM Canada. Corporate life eventually gave way to education, and Hang spent the next decade teaching at secondary and tertiary levels. Alongside this work, she immersed herself in movement — personal training, martial arts, yoga, Tai Chi and Qi Gong — gradually becoming more interested in the internal arts and the relationship between body, mind and energy.
Her spiritual journey was unfolding alongside it all. After years of practicing mindfulness with the Plum Village community, Hang seriously considered leaving lay life behind to become a monastic.
And then she met Sarah. The two crossed paths in Saigon in 2012. Sarah somehow convinced Hang to postpone monastery life and, not long afterwards, convinced her — somewhat reluctantly — to help open a little wellness school in Ho Chi Minh City.
saigon om was born in 2013.
Hang’s deep love for her birth country has always kept Vietnam close to her heart. Since leaving Vietnam in 2016, she and her family have returned regularly to lead retreats and teacher training programs — continuing the connection to the country where saigon om first began. More than a decade later, that little school has grown into an international community of students, teachers and practitioners across Australia, Vietnam and Canada.
Today, Hang’s work centres on Qi Gong education and teacher training, bringing together Traditional Chinese Medicine, mindfulness and her many years of experience in movement, anatomy and the internal arts. Her background as both an engineer and educator continues to shape the way she teaches: curious about how things work and equally interested in helping students understand why.
In 2019, Hang and Sarah were ordained into the Order of Interbeing (Tiep Hien) in the tradition of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh at Plum Village. For Hang, it was a commitment to stay deeply connected to the practice of mindfulness while living fully in the world as a lay practitioner. Mindfulness continues to quietly underpin her practice, teaching and everyday life. She and her family remain connected to the Plum Village community, regularly returning to practice with monastics and friends around the world.
These days, when she isn’t teaching Qi Gong or chasing after two rambunctious young children, Hang can usually be found with her nose in a book, exploring another rabbit hole of Qi, fascia or Traditional Chinese Medicine — or finding pockets of quiet to finish writing her first Qi Gong book.
Sarah Martin
Mindfulness • Women’s Wellness • Womb Yoga Educator
Sarah grew up in a working-class family in Melbourne, Australia. From the outside, life seemed relatively ordinary, but inwardly she often struggled to find her place. As a young person, she didn’t always have the space or language to understand the wide range of emotions she was experiencing or to explore questions about who she was and where she belonged.
Two practices helped her begin to feel more at home in herself: meditation and, somewhat unexpectedly, belly dancing. Both became early doorways into embodiment, self-expression and a deeper connection with her inner world.
At 19, Sarah left university and home in search of a life that felt more authentically her own. That journey led her first to massage therapy and eventually, in her mid-twenties, to Saigon, Vietnam. Amid the beautiful chaos and constant movement of the city, she found refuge in yoga and meditation.
And then she met Hang.
Hang likes to think the universe conspired a little.
Their meeting opened a new chapter for them both. Sarah began teaching a small weekly yoga and meditation class from her massage room. A handful of students became more. They wanted to practice more often, so Sarah cleverly recruited Hang to “assist” — her rather effective strategy for getting Hang to share some of what she knew.
And so, saigon om was born in 2013.
What began in a little massage room grew organically into a larger wellness school, oceanside retreats, yoga teacher trainings and, eventually, programs offered around the world. At the heart of it was the same intention Sarah had been seeking since she was young: creating spaces where people could slow down, feel safe enough to look inward and reconnect with themselves.
Sarah’s life shifted profoundly when she became a mother in 2020. The pause in travel during the pandemic created an unexpected period of stillness and reflection. Motherhood brought her into a deeper relationship with her own childhood experiences and invited her to explore patterns carried through generations.
Learning to mother her child also became an invitation to learn how to nurture herself.
Along the way, Sarah was drawn more deeply towards Womb Yoga, Menstrual Cycle Awareness and somatic approaches to healing. These practices offered another way of listening to the body — honouring its cycles, emotions, intuition and changing needs rather than continually asking it to push through.
Sarah also continues to be the quiet visionary behind saigon om. Much of what people see — and quite a lot of what they don’t — has Sarah’s hands behind it. From shaping new ideas and keeping the website evolving to social media, communications and the countless details that keep a small international wellness school moving, she is very much the person behind the curtain.
Her official title may be co-founder, but depending on the day, she is also saigon om’s CEO, CFO, marketing department, website updater, social media team and general keeper-of-all-the-things. Hang mostly tries to stay out of her way.
Today, while raising two young children with Hang, Sarah finds deep fulfilment in sharing her work with other women. Through mindfulness, Womb Yoga, Menstrual Cycle Awareness and embodied practices, she creates nurturing spaces for women to reconnect with their bodies, their inner rhythms and their own innate wisdom.
Together, Sarah and Hang continue to guide retreats and mindfulness experiences through saigon om — with Sarah still quietly dreaming up what might come next.
