INTEGRATED YOGA THERAPY & SOMATIC EXPERIENCING®

I offer a body-based, somatic approach to trauma therapy and to support nervous system regulation, reconnection to the body and overall wellbeing. My work is grounded in yoga therapy and informed by my ongoing training in Somatic Experiencing®.

This approach recognises that how we feel mentally and emotionally is deeply connected to our physiology and nervous system state. By working slowly and gently with the body, we can begin to support greater regulation and capacity, and cultivate a visceral felt sense of safety and stability from within.

I am currently in training as a Somatic Experiencing® Practioner and offer this work within the scope of my current level of training - intermediate.

A somatic body oriented approach acknowledges that we often need to work with the physiology of the body before shifts can occur mentally and emotionally. It recognises that our autonomic nervous system state influences how we feel within ourselves, how we perceive the world around us and, how dysregulation, chronic stress and burnout may present through wide range of physical, mental, and emotional symptoms.

Using a combination of yoga therapy, somatic experiencing® and somatic movement I offer support for people experiencing symptoms related to:

• Trauma, PTSD & Complex Trauma

• A wide range of physical health conditions

• Chronic Stress

• Burnout

• Anxiety

• Depression

• Mental and Emotional Health

• Reconnecting with your body

• Regulating your nervous system

• Women’s health

• Pregancy & Post-natal

• Moving from a states of fixity to greater flow and adaptability

In a session, we may choose to use one modality or an integrated combination of approaches, depending on what feels most suportive for you. Below is more information about the therapeutic modalities I use.

Yoga Therapy

What is Yoga Therapy?

A series of yoga therapy sessions is designed to meet your individual needs, whether these are physical, mental, emotional, or related to specific health conditions you may be navigating.

Yoga is both a practice and a philosophy with tools that address the whole body-mind system with a holistic approach. It can be an empowering resource, helping you to take an active role in your health and wellbeing in a gentle, manageable, inclusive and positive way.

A Somatic & Trauma Informed Approach

My work is grounded in a somatic, trauma-informed approach that supports reconnection with the body in a safe, collaborative, and manageable way. Somatic work focuses on direct felt experience — such as sensation, breath, movement, posture, and nervous system responses — helping develop awareness of how the body holds stress, tension, and emotion. This can be especially supportive for those who feel disconnected from their body, overwhelmed, or unsure how to recognise their internal needs.

Sessions are always guided by choice, pacing, and consent. We work slowly and gently, recognising that reconnecting with the body can sometimes feel vulnerable or challenging, particularly for those who have experienced trauma, chronic stress, or anxiety. The emphasis is not on performance or achieving particular postures, but on cultivating a compassionate relationship with the body as a place of safety, information, and support. Over time, this can help build greater presence, regulation, resilience, self-trust and attuning to the body as a place of safety, stability and resource.

What Might a Session Include?

Depending on your needs and preferences, sessions may include some or all of the following:

Asana (physical yoga practice): Yoga postures can help develop strength, mobility, balance, and flexibility. They can also support the musculoskeletal, circulatory, respiratory, digestive, endocrine, and nervous systems. Positive connection with the physical body can also support emotional stability, grounding, and self-regulation.

Somatic Movement: Where appropriate, we may explore developmental movement patterns informed by Body-Mind Centering®. These patterns can support integration, rest, vitality, and fuller movement potential.

Pranayama (breath practices): Working with the breath is an integral part of yoga. Breath-based practices can support vitality, rhythm, nervous system regulation, and more balanced breathing patterns.

Relaxation, Meditation, and Yoga Nidra: These restorative practices support deep rest, rejuvenation, and balance. Everyone’s relationship with stillness and rest is unique, so this is approached individually and at an appropriate pace.

Creating Resource: Resource is a principle drawn from Somatic Experiencing® that focuses on cultivating experiences of safety, steadiness, and support in the body. Together we can explore practices that help strengthen these inner resources.

Self-Practice: If helpful, I can offer practices for home use so that you have supportive tools available between sessions. Home practice is optional, though it can be beneficial.

Somatic Experiencing

I am currently undertaking a three-year training to become a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner (body-oriented trauma therapy). Where appropriate, I offer Somatic Experiencing® sessions within the scope of my current training and alongside my practice as a yoga therapist.

What is Somatic Experiencing?

SE is a body-oriented therapeutic model used across multiple professional settings. It aims to support the resolution of symptoms related to chronic stress, shock, and trauma that may be held within the body. SE focuses on how dysregulation may present physiologically and how this can influence emotions, behaviour, perception, and a person’s sense of safety or threat.

From a Somatic Experiencing® (SE) perspective, trauma is not defined primarily by the event itself, but by how the nervous system responds when overwhelming stress cannot be fully processed. According to Peter Levine the creator of SE, trauma occurs when the body’s natural survival responses—fight, flight, freeze, collapse, or orienting—are interrupted or incomplete. Trauma lives less in the story of what happened and more in the unresolved survival energy that remains in the nervous system.

Our bodies are naturally wise and have an inbuilt self regulatory capacity, just like animals in the wild. However for many reasons we do not get a chance to discharge the high survival energy that is related to states of fight, flight and freeze. Somatic Experiencing® can help the nervous system gradually release this high energy that has remained locked in the system and can support reinstating defensive responses that may have been thwarted or unable to happen at the time.

What the body did once to endure overwhelming circumstances and ensure survival can later become a doorwaY to healing, strength and renewal. With safety and support the pathway out of challenge can become a source of resilience, capacity, and life force.

Somatic Experiencing® is a gentle, body-first approach with a strong emphasis on resourcing and creating new bodily experiences that differ from those of tension, helplessness, or overwhelm. It recognises trauma as experiences that were too much, too fast, or too soon, and works carefully to avoid retraumatisation.

Important Principles from Levine’s Work:

• Trauma is biological - not a personal failure.

• Symptoms are adaptive survival responses.

• The body knows how to heal

• When given safety, pacing, and support, the nervous system can reorganize.

• You do not need to relive trauma to heal

• Resolution often occurs through sensation, movement, and regulation rather than retelling.

What to Expect in a Session

Somatic Experiencing® sessions are gentle, collaborative, and paced according to your individual needs. The focus is on supporting nervous system regulation and helping the body gradually resolve patterns of stress, overwhelm, or trauma responses.

Sessions do not require you to retell your full story or revisit traumatic experiences in detail. Instead, we work primarily with present-moment experience and the body’s responses, which may include sensations, breath, movement, posture, emotion, imagery, or impulses.

Together, we track what feels supportive, manageable, and resourcing, while gently noticing areas of tension or activation. The aim is to help the nervous system process experience in small, tolerable steps, without becoming overwhelmed. Each person’s process is different, and sessions are guided with care, choice, and respect for your pace.

The overall intention is to support increased regulation, resilience, capacity, and a deeper sense of safety within yourself.

Yoga therapy can be a helpful complementary support in cultivating groundedness and stability in the body. The overall aim is always to proceed slowly and gradually, increasing capacity to tolerate difficult sensations or emotions without becoming overwhelmed.

Booking

If you would like to book a session to explore Somatic Experiencing®, Yoga Therapy, or an integrated approach, please email me to arrange your first session. We can also arrange an informal phone conversation beforehand.

I recommend booking an initial session so that we can meet and explore which practices might be most supportive for you. If you then decide sessions feel right for you, I ask for a commitment to an initial series of six sessions.

You can pay as you go, and you can cancel at any time.

Before the first session, I will ask you to complete an intake form, which we will review together during our initial appointment.

Prices

Sessions are £70 for 60 minutes.

Sessions during weekdays are held near Ashburton at The Soma Shala, based at The Husbandry School TQ126NZ. Sessions during evenings or weekends are held at The Hands on Retreat in-between Ashburton and Buckfastleigh.

Subsidised Prices

I self-fund subsidised spaces to help make this work more accessible for those experiencing financial hardship. I especially welcome enquiries from those experiencing financial hardship who identify as marginalised due to race or ethnicity, disability, gender, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, or those in receipt of state benefits.

At present, I use the Green Bottle sliding-scale system, which I can send to you on request. You can then review the system and choose the price that feels appropriate for your current circumstances.