1:1 Trauma-Sensitive Yoga & Somatic Therapy (Online)
HELD
A Place to Slow Down, Feel, and Be Met
HELD is a one-to-one somatic space for people of all genders living with trauma, overwhelm, dissociation, or nervous system exhaustion.
This work is slow, body-led, and relational. There is no agenda to fix or perform — only an invitation to listen, feel, and respond to what your body is ready for.
“We can get better only if we learn to experience our sensations and feel the emotions they evoke, instead of avoiding them.”
HELD is for people of all genders who are living with the effects of trauma, overwhelm, or long-term nervous system stress.
You might feel disconnected from your body, stuck in your head, or caught in patterns of pushing, pleasing, freezing, or shutting down. You may look like you’re coping well — while inside, everything feels tight, flat, or exhausted.
This space is for you if talk therapy has helped you understand your story, but hasn’t helped you feel different. If you sense that something in your body is asking for attention — but you don’t know how to listen safely on your own.
HELD is especially supportive if you’re navigating dissociation, chronic stress, burnout, or the long echo of complex trauma — and you’re looking for body-led support that moves slowly, with care.
HELD may not be the right fit if you’re looking for fast fixes, performance-based yoga, or a purely cognitive approach to healing.
I’ve trained extensively with the Trauma Centre in Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) — a validated, clinical adjunct therapy that supports survivors of complex trauma (C-PTSD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in reconnecting mind and body.
This work is grounded in trauma theory, attachment theory, neuroscience, and hatha yoga. But at its heart, it’s simple: an invitation to listen to your body, choose what feels safe, and slowly rebuild trust in yourself.
Why Trauma-Informed Yoga Matters
Trauma-informed yoga is grounded in the understanding that healing requires a safe and empowering environment — one where you can explore sensation in your body at your own pace.
Through mindfulness, breath, and gentle, intentional movement, trauma-sensitive yoga supports the development of skills for self-regulation and resilience. Instead of forcing shapes or striving for perfection, this approach simply invites you to notice sensation, cultivate awareness, and practise making small choices for yourself — all essential steps in restoring a sense of agency.
The aim isn’t performance. The aim is relationship — with yourself, with your breath, with your body. Through mindful movement and breath awareness, you learn to ground in the present moment and rebuild trust in your own skin.
Over time, this process can support both emotional and physical healing, and open the door to more authentic connection — with yourself and with the world around you.
In one-to-one sessions, this approach allows the work to be adapted moment by moment — guided by your body, not a sequence or outcome.
Why the Body Matters in Healing Trauma
For years, trauma recovery focused primarily on the mind — understanding what happened, making sense of the story. But neuroscience now shows that our nervous system is shaped first through bodily experience, not thought alone.
This changes how healing unfolds. It isn’t only “top-down.” It also needs to be “bottom-up.” We can’t think our way free of trauma — we need to include sensation, breath, and felt experience.
Our bodies carry the imprints of what we’ve lived through — in breath patterns, muscle tension, posture, and sometimes in silence or numbness. When the body is left out of healing, we often stay connected to the story without releasing what the body is still holding.
“Trauma is not what happens to you. Trauma is what happens inside you as a result of what happened to you.”
What is Trauma?
Trauma isn’t defined only by what happened to you. It’s defined by what your nervous system had to do in order to survive.
Trauma can come from sudden events — but it can also develop slowly, through ongoing stress, emotional neglect, relational harm, or living for long periods without enough safety or support. When an experience is overwhelming, the body adapts. It learns to brace, numb, disconnect, please, push, or stay alert — not as a failure, but as an intelligent response to threat.
Over time, these adaptations can become patterns that remain long after the original danger has passed. This is why trauma often shows up not just as memory, but as anxiety, shutdown, chronic tension, exhaustion, or feeling disconnected from yourself and others.
Healing trauma isn’t about reliving the past. It’s about helping the nervous system learn that the present moment is safer than before — and that happens through the body.
Want to explore this more deeply? [Read my blog on trauma and the body →]
Listening to the body — reflections from trauma pioneer
These short talks offer a deeper understanding of why trauma lives in the body — and why healing needs to include it.
Peter Levine — on how the body holds trauma.
Bessel van der Kalk - on how trauma gets trapped
Five underpinnings of Trauma Sensitive Yoga
These five principles are what make Trauma-Sensitive Yoga different from a regular yoga class. They’re the foundations that create safety, agency, and the possibility of healing.
-
You will always be invited to participate in every step of the practice. It is your choice whether you’d like to accept any invitation or not. As a facilitator, I only use language that is simple, specific, objective, and non-metaphorical. Phrases such as "if you wish to... support your choices and ability to take agency of your body.
-
You have complete control over what you do and do not do. I am here to offer safe, professional guidance that helps you focus on the experiences of moving, breathing, and resting. This helps develop agency and empowerment, and to learn to make choices that feel comfortable in your body. There are no "right" or "wrong" ways to experience a shape, you may be making a different choice to me.
-
During the session there are no hands on assists, no shapes are better than other shapes and I as a facilitator, strive to shift the power dynamics to honour your choices.
You‘ll never be asked to share your story, and you aren’t required to go into the history of your experience of trauma. However, you may need to be engaged in a talking relationship/therapy outside of the sessions (therapist, counsellor, GP, pastor/priest or social worker).
-
We both practice at the same time. You have a body and I have a body and we are sharing a practice of making individual choices and experiencing what it is like to be in our individual body. This becomes authentic as it is experienced in the present moment.
-
As we practice together, I notice felt body sensations and offer these as a choice for you to notice. They may include; temperature, pressure, muscles engaging/stretching, tingling or breath moving.
Stories from Those I’ve Worked With
Healing is never linear — and no two journeys look the same. These stories are shared with permission, as reflections of what can unfold when the body is invited into the healing process.
Kirsty’s story - Learning to Swim Again
“Having CPTSD has felt like drowning every day — but our sessions have been a space where I get to resurface, to come up for air, and learn to swim again.”
For me, living with CPTSD has been like watching everyone else know how to swim while I drown. But in our sessions, I have found a space each week to resurface — not to be rescued, but to be reminded that my body knows what to do, that I already carry what I need to swim again.
Your compassion, gentleness, wisdom, and intuition have allowed me to feel safe, held, and never pushed beyond what I can cope with. In this space, I don’t need to have the answers. I can follow the process and trust that I won’t be taken past my limits.
Through this, I’ve learned to trust myself — my choices, my instincts. I’m not “there yet,” but I’m learning to be. There is no shame or guilt here, only a tender holding of wherever I am and a reminder that it’s okay to need support.
Since working with you, I’ve matured emotionally in ways others around me have noticed. I’m allowing myself to feel emotions without fear they’ll destroy me. I’m learning that what happens on the mat translates into life: knowing my limits, pausing before choices, asking for help. I’ve been able to release trauma without being overwhelmed, and even my flashbacks have eased — something I never thought possible. And I never had to talk about the trauma itself.
What sets you apart is hard to name. It’s your intuition, yes, but also your presence. You are fully present, in the room and beyond, in ways I can’t explain. You make me feel fully seen and embraced, often without saying a word.
If someone is considering working with you, I would tell them: do it. And if you have a strong inner cynic like I do, keep turning up past the first week — because the cynic will go quiet. You are entering the safest hands I have ever known.
— Kirsty H
Carolyn’s story - From Numbness to Inner Confidence
“Movement released so much more for me than sitting in a counselling room.”
After a traumatic experience, I carried on the way I was brought up — be brave, be strong, put others first. For years, I hid my emotions, swallowing them down, too scared to feel them by myself. I felt numb — rarely letting go in the good times or the bad — unable to understand or express what I needed.
When I began working with Soraya, using trauma-sensitive yoga to explore the trauma, I started to become aware of my body and the tension within it — and also more aware of my mind, my reactions, and the choices I was making. I was shocked at how emotional the sessions were. I could go in feeling perfectly fine, but certain poses unleashed waves of emotion.
Soraya has a unique presence that makes this possible. She creates a safe space where I felt able to trust both her and the process. She notices the subtle impacts of each movement, and she offers choices that help you explore your own boundaries — physically and emotionally — without ever feeling pushed.
The main impact for me has been an awareness of my automatic way of being — how my subconscious was guiding me in ways that weren’t always helpful. Now, I can start to feel the pain rather than push it away. I feel less like a coiled spring, calmer, more aware of what I truly feel.
I’m still learning how to express my emotions at times, but I carry a much greater sense of ‘me’ — with a growing inner confidence.
— Carolyn
PH’s story - Finding Choice Again
“I was in a situation where I did not feel I had any choices — but by Soraya facilitating this practice, I realised I did.”
This year I had a childhood trauma confirmed as a consequence of an ongoing medical issue, and my marriage ended. As you can imagine, I struggled to come to terms with the pain I was feeling. My thoughts became intrusive, and I couldn’t see a way out.
Thankfully, I accessed support — and one of the most important resources I put in place was exploring trauma-sensitive yoga with Soraya. I cannot stress how much this has helped me. Soraya has a way about her that is not judgmental, not rushed, and so intuitive that you feel safe and empowered by the options she offers in each practice.
My confidence has soared. I am now comfortable being uncomfortable. I manage my thoughts, my physical symptoms, and my emotions. My relationships with my children have improved, I’ve taken on new challenges, and I’m living more fully than I thought possible. Of course, there are blips — but with grounding and choice, recovery is now much more manageable.
I am deeply grateful for meeting Soraya and for the way she shares her practice and her beautiful readings. I cannot recommend her and trauma-sensitive yoga highly enough — not only for healing trauma, but for any time you feel powerless or without choice in your life.
— PH, Coaching Psychologist
Every story begins with a threshold.
These stories reflect individual experiences. There is no right way for this work to unfold.. Every journey begins with a threshold:
🌿 a gentle discovery call to see if this is the right step →
What to expect in an Online 1:1 Session
In trauma-sensitive yoga, the focus is never on getting it “right” or perfect. The movements are simple, but the practice is about turning inward — noticing your internal experience (what we call interoception).
This makes it accessible and welcoming for everyone, regardless of flexibility, experience, age, or gender.
There are no physical assists in this practice, which is why the online format works so well. You are always invited — never coerced — into each movement and posture. Together, we create a practice that is both shared and deeply personal.
Though we may be in different parts of the world, we connect through presence — each of us experiencing our own bodies, while knowing we are not alone.
Benefits of Trauma-Sensitive Yoga Online
Reconnect with your body in a safe, familiar environment
Build a kinder relationship between mind and body
Increase awareness of your felt experience
Cultivate choice and agency in movement
Learn to rest in the present moment, not the past
Rebuild authentic connection with yourself and others
This practice is not about performance, but about presence. It’s about moving with intention rather than perfection, listening rather than directing, and creating space to gently explore your body. Even online, this becomes a place of grounding, reconnection, and safety.
Frequently Asked Questions
-
HELD is individual trauma-sensitive yoga and somatic therapy offered online. It is a structured, body-led space focused on nervous system regulation, interoception, and rebuilding internal safety at a pace that feels manageable.
-
No. HELD is not psychotherapy. It is grounded in Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) principles and somatic practice. It can sit alongside therapy, but it does not replace clinical mental health treatment.
-
This is not a posture-focused class. There is no performance, no correction, and no emphasis on flexibility. The work centres internal sensation, choice-making, and relational safety rather than physical achievement.
-
Many people understand their story cognitively yet still experience reactivity, shutdown, or overwhelm. HELD works directly with nervous system patterns through embodied practice rather than analysis.
-
Yes. HELD is particularly appropriate for complex and developmental trauma, including long-standing patterns of freeze, dissociation, hypervigilance, or emotional numbing.
-
That is common. We begin gently. The work does not require strong sensation. It begins with noticing what is present, even if that is numbness.
-
No. This work is accessible regardless of physical ability or prior yoga practice. It is not dependent on flexibility or fitness and doesn’t require a yoga mat or clothing, just something that you are comfortable in.
What to do next
If you’re curious about working together, the first step is simple.
You’re welcome to email me to arrange a free 20-minute discovery call — a gentle space to meet, ask questions, and see if this feels like a good fit.
email to book a virtual cup of tea
Sessions
Sessions are 60 minutes, including around 45 minutes of somatic practice and 15 minutes for orientation or sharing, as feels supportive.
You can book individual sessions, or a block of six for deeper continuity and support. These can be taken whenever you want.
Location
All sessions take place online via Zoom, so you can join from anywhere in the world — from the safety and comfort of your own space.