Sacrifice Your Suffering: A Yoga Therapy Approach to Trauma Healing

For so many of us living with trauma, anxiety, stress, or loss, suffering becomes part of who we are. It becomes woven into our identity. It feels known, and in that strange way, it can feel safer to hold onto it than to imagine a life without it.

But here is a truth I have learned — through my own personal experience and through my work with lots of clients as a trauma-sensitive yoga therapist:

You do not have to sacrifice your life to your suffering. You can sacrifice the suffering itself — to make space for life. This is the heart and the art of healing. And yes, it is really hard to let go of.

Why We Hold On to Suffering

Suffering can become a form of protection. When you have lived through trauma, your nervous system adapts to keep you safe. Hypervigilance, disconnection, shutdown — these responses are not faults. They are survival strategies.

But in time, what once protected you can begin to imprison you.

You may find yourself trapped in cycles of anxiety, shame, chronic stress, emotional numbness. The body holds what the mind cannot always process.

And yet — the body also knows how to heal.

The Role of Yoga Therapy in Releasing Suffering

Trauma-sensitive yoga therapy offers a unique doorway into this healing process.

It is not about forcing or pushing. It is about creating safety, in the body and in the breath, so that stuck patterns can begin to soften. It offers a way to listen inwardly — without judgment — and to gradually build the capacity to stay present with what is there.

If you’ve explored the work of Bessel van der Kolk (The Body Keeps the Score), Gabor Maté (The Myth of Normal), or followed the nervous system education of Dr. Stephen Porges (Polyvagal Theory), you’ll know that body-based practices are now central to trauma recovery.

Yoga therapy brings these principles alive in real time — in a practice you can return to again and again.

In my own life, yoga was a lifeline during one of the hardest periods I have known:

• Moving countries

• Divorce

• The collapse of my business

• Grieving life as it had been

• Parental Alienation

• Domestic Abuse

• Rebuilding from the inside out

  
  

Like many of you, I first discovered these body-based healing approaches through the books, podcasts, and teachings of thought leaders in the trauma space. But yoga therapy and trauma sensitive yoga (TCTSY) gave me something more — it gave me a direct, personal pathway to feel safe in my own body again.

On the mat, I met myself without judgement. Through breath, movement, and stillness, I learned again and again and I allowed myself to rebuild from the ground up. Ultimately YOU have to do the hard work, no one else can do it for you. So the question is, are you ready to start healing?

What Happens in Trauma-Sensitive Yoga Therapy?

In my 1:1 yoga therapy sessions, we work together in a way that is gentle, invitational, and deeply respectful of your unique nervous system. You will not be pushed to relive trauma — we will focus on building present-moment safety and embodiment. Sometimes uncomfortable moments happen; that is OK and is part of the exploration within the safe container.

A typical session may include:✅ Grounding and breathwork to calm the nervous system✅ Gentle somatic movement to reconnect with the body safely✅ Practices to release stored tension and emotion✅ Space to explore what arises, without judgment✅ Tools to support resilience and nervous system regulation in daily life.

Above all, these sessions offer a space where you can begin to lay down what no longer serves you — and reclaim your relationship with your body, breath, and life.

If you’ve been exploring nervous system healing content on Instagram — from practitioners like Dr. Nicole LePera (The Holistic Psychologist)— you’ll know there’s a huge movement right now toward integrating somatic work and yoga with trauma recovery.

Yoga therapy takes these insights and helps you build them into your actual body — through safe, guided practice.

Are You Ready to Sacrifice Your Suffering?

If this speaks to you, I invite you to explore this path.

You do not have to do it alone. Actually- you can't! As renowned psychiatrist Judith Herman explained, healing can only truly be done in relation to others.

✨ You can choose life.

I am currently taking on a small number of new clients for private trauma-sensitive yoga therapy — both online and in person. If you would like to know more, you can contact me and chat about my 1:1 sessions here.

And if you are not ready yet, I encourage you to explore some of these wonderful resources:

✅ The Body Keeps the Score — Bessel van der Kolk

✅ The Myth of Normal — Gabor Maté

✅ Waking the Tiger — Peter Levine

✅ Polyvagal Institute

✅ The Holistic Psychologist — Dr. Nicole LePera (Instagram + book)

Healing is not a race. It is a path — and you get to walk it in your own time.

If and when you are ready, I would be honored to support you on that path.

With love,

Esme x