About Emily

 

I am a lover of movement and have been all my life. I danced many dance forms throughout my childhood and then trained professionally as a contemporary dancer. Alongside life as a dancer I practiced yoga which became a refuge amongst the competitive industry of the dance world.

When I was eighteen I began to make many soul searching trips to India and in 2011 did my first yoga training in traditional Hatha Yoga in the mountains of Dharamshala. I then taught and lived in Indonesia and Malaysia which embedded in me a love of practicing yoga in natural and elemental spaces. These embodied experiences in nature contributed to the creation of The Soma Shala a yoga and embodiment center in nature, that I run in South Devon. There is nothing that I love more than moving and breathing in connection with the earth and the elements.

My own personal journey with women’s health and pregnancy meant that I also became interested in yoga as a therapeutic practice​ and in 2015 I graduated as a yoga therapist and pregnancy yoga teacher. Shortly after this I gave birth to my first child and my journey to becoming a mother and being a mother, now to three children, has initiated a huge journey of both challenge and healing. This has drawn me towards the world of somatics in an effort to navigate the realm of transgenerational trauma and create the resource inside my body needed to parent in today’s society.

The practice of somatics which originally arose from female dancers is inclusive and welcoming and validates the felt experience of the body; somatic movement practices have created space for the many facets of my more marginalized identities to exist and the hidden voices of my body to emerge and move into expression. Here I have permission to be a woman, a mother, a dancer, a yogini, queer, wounded, whole and human attempting to embrace the full spectrum of experiences and emotions that life entails.

I am currently engaged in further training within this field to become a Somatic Movement Therapist with the IBMT (Integrative Bodywork and Movement Therapies) who’s approach integrates principles from three core areas of practice and theory: The Discipline of Authentic Movement, Body-Mind Centering® and Somatic Psychology. I will also begin training as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (Body Oriented Trauma Therapy) in May 2025. All of these methodology’s have been a huge support in my own life and I look forwards to being able to share them with others.

Through the practice of both yoga and somatics I find more spaces where I am free to meet the moment as it is, as I am. I am very grateful to both yoga and somatics, two pillars that have supported me in finding a sense of home, relief, ground, belonging, creativity and liberation in my body, when it hasn’t always felt this way. As both a mixed race and queer identifying woman I have experienced an intersection of marginalized identities and seek to create spaces that are inclusive, diverse and welcoming to all. I look forward to sharing these embodied practices with you which have been so healing and supportive in my own life.

“‘Movement in all it’s variety of forms is an expression of life and is essential to the continuation of life. As I live, I express my life-force in movement; as I move I feel my aliveness.’ ”
— Linda Hartley
“Emily is a gifted teacher and the benefits that I reap from her yoga class impact through my whole life. Not only does my body have a good stretch, I leave feeling relaxed, rejuvenated and put back in touch with myself. Her style is clear and compassionate and it helps me to be more gentle with myself. Like many people I’m allergic to quasi-spiritual yoga b****cks, yet with Emily I wholeheartedly embrace the wisdoms and questions that she shares through the physical practice. I can take it from her because of her permission giving and down to earth approach to what it is to be a human soul in a body. I love Emily’s classes, it’s yoga for the whole person. ”
— Sara Hurley Yoga Student

Qualifications

  • 1st Class BA Hons Degree London Contemporary Dance School ~ 2004 - 2007

  • Post-Graduate Performance Diploma Transitions Dance Company LABAN ~ 2007 - 2008

  • Yoga Teacher Training with Yoga Life in Dharamshala India ~ 2011

  • Two Year Post-graduate Holistic Yoga Therapy Training and Pregnancy Yoga with the Devon School of Yoga ~ 2013 - 2015

  • Accredited Trauma Informed Yoga Teacher Training - with Susi Wrenshaw, Trauma Therapy Manchester - 2021

  • Somatic Movement Therapist & Educator Diploma with the IBMT - Sep 2024 - Ongoing

  • Somatic Experiencing Professional Training with SOSI - Beginning May 2025 - 2027

Professional Courses & CPD

  • Yin Yoga with Norman Blair ~ 2015

Relevant Other

  • Faculty member of Devon School of Yoga teaching on the foundation course, teacher training course and the yoga therapy course.

  • Woman’s Temazcal Journey - Fiona Shaw

  • Two Year Woman’s Journeying Group of the Soul - Fiona Shaw

  • Embodying the Sacred Cacao Ritual - Marcela Wakeham