About Soraya
Trauma-Sensitive Yoga & Somatic Healing
Hi, I’m Soraya.
I’m a facilitator, healer, artist, and guide — and someone who has walked the long, winding path of integrating my childhood trauma. I don’t think we ever “heal” from what has happened to us, but we can certainly learn to not let it become who we are.
My soul place is being immersed in nature — whether in the forest, , high in the mountains where I hold intimate retreats or sailing on the sea.
I work with people seeking a deeper connection to themselves — people yearning to live in the world and feel the full kaleidoscope of human emotions.
I use the tools of trauma-sensitive yoga, somatic practices, self-inquiry, and simple, grounded living.
My Philosophy
It’s been a long journey.
But through the process of deep self-understanding, I’ve come to realise that with awareness comes choice. I now have the capacity to respond to life — not just react — whether I perceive something as positive or negative. And in that space of choice, my life begins to shift into one I actually want to live.
This is the heart of embodied healing for me: recognising the habitual patterns — not just in the mind, but in the way I hold my body. Tension, tightness, even pain often come from unconscious ways of bracing against life.
As I’ve learned to inhabit my body more fully, I’ve also learned that I can choose something different.
I can soften.
I can pause.
I can listen.
Understanding, at a core level, that I always have choice — in thought, in movement, in emotion — has been nothing short of transformational. These moments of awareness, small as they may seem, are what I consider the stepping stones to consciousness.
This is the heart of my work: helping others reconnect with their bodies, regulate their nervous systems, and remember that they, too, have choice. Not just in their thoughts, but in how they live, breathe, move, and relate to the world around them.
The ability To Pause. To Feel. To make a Conscious Choice
To me, these are the stepping stones to a more conscious, vibrant life.
My Journey with Yoga
I remember watching my mother practice yoga when I was a child — mimicking her shapes with fascination.
When she passed away in my early twenties, yoga became a quiet way to remember her. It gave me a sense of connection when I was lost in grief, with no one to guide me through it. I craved normality in an abnormal world.
Like many of us, I learned to suppress my emotions and carry on. Yoga — and embodied, barefoot dance — became my coping strategies.
My relationship with yoga has never been linear.
When I was pregnant, yoga offered a way to connect with my changing body and the life growing inside me. It became a practice of nurturing — my baby, and myself.
Years later, I found myself in an emotionally abusive relationship. Life felt heavy and chaotic. My mat became a small, sacred refuge — a rectangle of peace where I could breathe and move freely.
But looking back, I can now see how I was also using yoga to escape.
I leaned on fast, flowing vinyasa practices to generate an energetic high that would carry me through the day. I didn’t realise it then, but I was dissociating through my practice — using yoga to bypass the pain I wasn’t ready to face.
Spiritual bypassing, dressed up as wellness.
These experiences have deeply informed the way I now hold space. My work is rooted in trauma-informed, somatic practices that invite presence rather than escape.
I believe in slowing down, Feeling fully. Creating space for the truth of what is.
Because that’s where real transformation begins.
Living With Complex Trauma
Back then, I would never have described myself as living with complex post-traumatic stress (C-PTSD). I just got on with life.
I now realise that I spent much of my life developing complex coping strategies to help me engage with the world — and hide my fear.
On the outside, I was semi-successful: stage designer, Silver Gilt Chelsea Garden designer, mother of two boys, yoga teacher.
But inside, I was living in a cleverly built tower — one that kept me safe by keeping me separate.
I told myself stories about my childhood and the people in it. Stories that made a traumatic upbringing — one that included emotional and sexual abuse — more palatable.
It wasn’t until I began to slow my practice down and face the truth of my life — with the support of my current partner — that my body began releasing what had been held for years.
The sludge that had blocked sensitivity.
The armour that had kept me braced.
Gradually, something softened.
Today my body feels more nuanced, more receptive. My mind feels clearer, connected to insight rather than defence.
This is not a finished state, It is an ongoing inner journey.
After more than three decades of yoga practice, I am only now beginning to understand its deeper truth. Yoga has given me a growing connection to myself — and tools to navigate daily life with more care, authenticity, and spontaneity.
My training in Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (2021) gave me the gift of interoception — the ability to truly feel into my body — and a deep understanding of choice-making and non-coercive language, both with myself and with others.
Yoga inspires me to be more open.
More real.
More compassionate and truthful.
I don’t always manage it. But yoga allows me to get it wrong, pick myself up, and try again. It gives me the structure and foundation to show vulnerability without the old armouring and masks.
To become authentically me — and to recognise when I am not.
This is why I facilitate healing through somatic yoga. Not to fix. Not to perfect.
But to inspire others to go on their own journey of self-discovery — to experience the relief and quiet joy that comes when you can simply be yourself.
To connect.
To inspire and be inspired.
To reveal — so that others feel safe enough to reveal themselves too.
Training & Experience
I’m a senior teacher and have been practicing yoga for over 30 years, facilitating for 18.
I’ve taught thousands of regular classes, worked with hundreds of people in both group and 1:1 settings, and hosted workshops and retreats in the UK and Europe.
Core Trainings
300hr Trauma Sensitive Yoga - Trauma Centre Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY)
200hr BWY & Yoga Alliance accredited Teacher Training - Yogacampus, London
200hr Yoga Alliance Kirtan Leader Training - Nikki Slade, London
100hr Tantric Journey Trauma Release Bodywork, London
Additional Study (200hrs+)
Yoga Nidra - Rod Stryker (Para Yoga)
Various trainings with Rod Stryker (Para Yoga)
Yin Yoga - Norman Blair
Relax & Renew Restorative Yoga - Judith Hanson Lasater
Pranayama - Judith Hanson Lasater
Experiential Anatomy - Judith Hanson Lasater
Sound Healing (Anne Malone)
Children & Teen Yoga - Jo Manuel (Special Yoga)
Pregnancy Yoga - Uma Dinsmore Tuli
Super Sleep (yoga for insomnia) - Lisa Sanfilipo
DPD Certificate
Fully Insured
How I Hold Space
My work is rooted in trauma-informed, somatic practice. It isn’t about pushing through, perfecting poses or performing healing.
It’s about learning how to stay.
To notice what is happening in the body.
To feel safely, at a pace that doesn’t overwhelm.
To rebuild trust from the inside out.
I know what it is to live armoured — to look capable while bracing underneath, so I don’t rush people, fix or force them.
I create spaces where your body can begin to soften in its own time.
Where choice returns.
Where clarity returns.
Where you remember that sovereignty isn’t something you achieve — it’s something you uncover.
I walk beside you while you learn to walk inside yourself.
My work exists because I know what it is to live braced, and what it takes to soften.
Whether online or in nature, my intention is simple: to create spaces where your body feels safe enough to remember itself.