Welcome From
Peace Within Yoga

Specialising in trauma and related conditions

Offering yoga therapy & Family therapy, mentoring and training courses

Peace Within and Sara-mae invite you to embark upon your own journey of healing and exploration through yoga therapy and other trauma focused creative therapies. A journey of the realisation of your potential, during which you will grow and discover and nurture the strength and resilience that lies within you.

Sara-mae has an expert understanding of trauma-informed therapy and a firsthand experience of childhood trauma. With over 3000 hours of facilitating experience, she guides you with a safe, supportive and empathic approach through your own healing.

Yoga Therapy offers a wholistic approach to wellbeing based on yogic practices. More than just the physical exercise typical in the West, yoga includes breathing exercises, meditation, relaxation and a methodology for understanding. Yoga Therapy draws on all of these elements and applies them within a therapeutic framework.

Based on individual need, typical sessions may include:

talking,
body-based yoga,
breathing practices,
relaxation,
yoga nidra and other therapeutic approaches

Practising yoga since 2002 and teaching since 2010, Sara-mae is an experienced yoga teacher registered with The International Yoga Alliance, Yoga Alliance and the Complementary Medical Association, a Yoga Therapist accredited and governed by the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT) and the British Council for Yoga Therapists (BCYT) and registered with the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC), a certified trauma-informed yoga therapist and holds many other trauma-related certifications.

General Medical Council guidance to doctors confirms they can refer patients to practitioners on Accredited Registers, such as CNHC's.

“Both the Government and the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) recommend that when a patient or service user chooses to visit a health or care practitioner who is unregulated, only those on an accredited register are consulted”.

(Secretary of State for Public Health, November 2015).

about me

My Yoga Journey - One of self discovery, mindset change and the story of

Peace Within Yoga and Rising Lotus Therapies.

Yoga changed my life. After graduating with a law degree, in 2002 I embarked upon a legal career. The job, with a prestigious law firm, demanded 12 hour days and weekend working in high-pressure conditions. With no focus on work-life balance from the company and little attention to self-care on my part I struggled with anxiety, frequent panic attacks and developed concerning physical stress-related conditions.

Having been told by various people of the benefits of yoga, particularly regarding managing stress, I plucked up the courage and I went to my first yoga class. I left with a smile on my face and a sense of peace that I had not felt for years and have practised yoga every day since. As a result of daily practice, my stress levels dropped dramatically, I stopped suffering panic attacks and I became more aware, insightful and content.

I had chosen a legal career with a view to helping others. As my yoga evolved from a practice to a way of life, I realised that I could offer people much more through yoga than I could through law. After a lot of research and introspection, in 2010 I took my first step and trained as a yoga teacher. For the following seven years in addition to my day job, I taught yoga during the evenings and at weekends. Many students that attended my classes had emotional, mental and physical concerns. Over the years, through feedback and observation, I witnessed the healing power of yoga - students reporting improvements in sleep patterns, reductions in levels of anxiety and physical pain and in the case of fibromyalgia sufferers, huge improvements in pain management. Through these experiences I came to know that I wanted to be a yoga therapist.

In 2017 I left my legal career and started the training. Over the next two years I completed various courses including a Post-graduate Yoga Therapy Diploma accredited by the British Council of Yoga Therapy (BCYT) and Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), training with its founder Dan Hughes.

I then founded Peace Within Yoga Therapy, now Peace Within Therapies.

Now a fully Certified Yoga Therapist, experienced trauma therapist and family therapist I work individually with people who have experienced a traumatic event, to include but not limited to, childhood trauma, relational trauma, attachment issues and behavioural trauma, grief and loss.

I am also a lead tutor on a number of training courses delivering training and workshops to yoga teachers, health professionals and educational institutions.

I have an array of experience of working with children from age 6 through to teens and adults, both independently and alongside psychotherapists and other professionals.

I currently work with young people and their families as a yoga therapist and creative therapist , offering therapeutic services for trauma and attachment. My work is offered privately and through referral within school as well as charitable organisations. My work includes (but is not limited to) working with domesic abuse, rape, sexual abuse, post-adoption, divorce/seperation, grief and loss.

I hold an up to date enhanced DBS and Level 4 Safeguarding Lead.