Somatic Therapeutic Yoga Training

A 200-hour trauma-informed, specialist training and personal journey for yoga teachers, yoga therapists and movement professionals.
Next intake begins January 5th
APPLY HEREWhat is Somatic practice?
- Somatics are fluid and responsive practices include rocking, rolling, twisting, pulsing and micromovements - following natural and primal movement patterns.
- The movements can be practised as moving meditation or fed into a stronger physical practice to cultivate fluidity and ease.
- Brings in influences from Thomas Hanna, Feldenkrais, embryology, Anatomy Trains in Motion, Daoist practices and more - emphasising internal physical perception and experience.
- The therapeutic aspect explores the feelings, expressions, responses within movement and holding space for the effects of stress, trauma, burnout, anxiety, fatigue and post-illness.
Course Overview:
- Delivered over the course of a year, the training comprises two in-depth modules covering theory and practice - assessed and certified.
- This can be done fully online, or with in-person content available in two weekends in London and/or a weekend retreat in Forest Row, Sussex.
- Full support, from contact with Charlotte when needed, tutorial sessions and peer online groups.
Theory into Practice module: 110 hrs CPD
next intake January 2026
formerly the Yoga & Somatics for Healing & Recovery Course
This part is made of ten themes and four workshops to take you through a journey of embodied awareness - integrating awareness of aspects such as modern psychosocial stress, trauma, body psychology, fascia, posture and mindful language.
Practice and Teaching module: 90 hrs CPD
next intake September 2026
formerly the Somatics for Yoga Teachers Course
An immersion in Somatic practices for you to explore your own embodiment in-depth; to meet boundaries, needs and free tension and stories held deep in tissues. Five themes take a journey around the body to learn how to guide others, supported by two workshops on teaching skills and sequencing - for Somatics classes or integrating into more 'traditional' yoga sequences.
Optional Retreat: 8 hrs CPD
A weekend retreat at Emerson College, Forest Row in Sussex UK is run in Spring and Autumn annually. This is open to all, but yoga teachers can apply 8 hrs CPD in Somatics practice, and those on the Somatic Therapeutic Yoga Training can apply this to their CPD requirement for practice.
There is an extra cost on top of the course price to attend this retreat, but discounted for students on the training.
Everything you need to know
What is included with the full 200-hour training?
Who is this training for?
How will my career and I benefit from this training?
How is this training Trauma-Informed?
Do I qualify for this training?
What is the commitment I need to make for this training?
What is the difference between teaching yoga therapeutically and being a yoga therapist?
Will I receive a printed copy of the notes and manual?
Are the live sessions recorded if I can’t attend?
Whereabouts will the London workshops be held?
What is the accreditation that I would receive at the end of the course?
Would I be able to get insured to teach Somatics after the course?
Will I receive any one-to-one support with Charlotte?
Will I receive general support across the training?
HAVE ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS?
It is a really good idea to speak to Charlotte in person about anything related to the course, and you are welcome to book a 15-minute consultation anytime.
BOOK A 15 MINUTE CHAT HERE2026 TRAINING DATES
Open each section below to see the all dates for the training, fully online or with some in-person attendance.
Scroll down the page for more information about the content with the course themes.
All times are UK - GMT over winter (Nov-Mar), BST over summer so please be aware of this time change if you are outside the UK - convert to your time zone here.
Download a calendar hereTheory into Practice Module - online course & workshop dates
Practice and Teaching Module - online course & workshop dates
Optional Retreat (in-person)
If you can’t make one of those dates in your chosen group...
What people are saying about Charlotte's Training
Pip French
Charlotte's training revolutionised my personal and professional yoga practice. The somatic movements you learn throughout the course release tension from the body in a way that traditional yoga asanas don't begin to touch.
She cleverly weaves yoga philosophy throughout the course to combine the best of both approaches to wellbeing. Charlotte teaches in a friendly and accessible way and provides detailed videos and a helpful manual to aid learning.
I can't recommend this course highly enough, if you're interested enough to read these reviews then take the course!
Gita
I cannot recommend Charlotte's courses enough. I felt there was something missing from my personal and teaching practices and was seeking a more fluid and gentle approach, thankfully I found Charlotte. I feel her Somatic approach to yoga is deeply intuitive and therapeutic which offers the potential to broaden accessibility to a wider audience.
The Therapeutic Somatic Yoga training was well structured and comprehensive. I appreciated the flexibility of a hybrid structure composed of self led modules, online zoom meetings and in person workshops worked well for me.
As a Dyslexic I found the online material, printable manuals and both her books excellent, easy to read and user friendly. Additionally the ongoing access to these materials on the learning portal had been amazing and I regularly revisit sections of the courses as a refresh and simply enjoy them.
Thank you Charlotte for your wonderful work and ongoing support.
Sarah Wheeler
You're Enough Yoga
Charlotte's Somatic Therapeutic Yoga Training is a key foundation for modern yoga teachers.
More and more people come to yoga classes due to fatigue, trauma and/or burnout and Somatics is a kind practice in learning to embody one's whole being so that as teacher's we can hold space for ourselves and the needs of those who attend our classes.
Charlotte's teaching is compassionate, incredibly well informed and light hearted. Loved this whole training.
Apply for the 200-hour 2026 Intake
You may choose to either pay in instalments or for less in full. You may also choose to take the full 200-hour training or just one of the modules in 2026*.
PRICING OPTIONS FOR THE 200-HOUR TRAINING
Paid in full: £1690
12 month payment plan: £143 per month
Bursaries available, up to 50% off. Please complete both the Training Application and the Bursary Application.
Convert to your local currency here.
Early bird bonuses!
Sign up by 15 November for 10% off the full training
+ receive a lifetime membership to Whole Health: A monthly membership to cover movement, nutrition and lifestyle factors for your entire wellbeing - with access to live classes and webinars, recordings of these, supplement and consultation discounts, as well as an extensive archive of videos and audio meditations.
*Taking the two modules individually will only be available in 2026 for those who still need to complete one of the two trainings. From 2027, you will only be able to sign up for the full course.
Theory into Practice Module only (online course plus 4 workshops online or in-person):
Paid in full: £995
6 month payment plan: £175 per month
Practice and Teaching Module only (online course plus 2 workshops online):
Pay in full: £795
6 month payment plan £140 per month
Convert to your local currency here.
THEORY INTO PRACTICE - module content
(Previously Yoga and Somatics for Healing and Recovery course)
The more theoretical, philosophical and enquiring part; there is experience and teaching skills of Somatics within yoga in this part, but with more attention to the nervous system effects, therapeutic approach, language, holding of space, attitudes and mindful attention.
Comprises an online course and four workshops (online or in London).
In each of the ten online course themes, you will receive:
- Two 45 mins presentations
- A 60 minute yoga practice video
- Comprehensive notes with self-enquiry home explorations.
- The materials above are then discussed in the 60 minute live online sessions, to explore those so you can engage with how the theory feeds into your practice and teaching.
1. Arriving
Setting our community healing space. Where we find ourselves in modern life and what it means to be a ‘modern yogi’ in a world of goal orientation, high expectation and physical ideals. How these considerations can be supported by the yoga model of healing and recovery, as distinct from the reductionist model of disease.
2. Context of the Modern World
The stress response and what it means for the modern yogi – the effects of modern life and psychosocial stress on the nervous system, noticing polarities, somatic practices, survival over growth. Bringing in the yamas and the gunas as guides for practice and life.
3. Vagal Connection
Trauma and polyvagal theory – the freeze response, grounding, orientation and what this means within practice on and off the mat. The importance of the vagus nerve and old/new vagal tones.
4. Belly Connection
The enteric nervous system aka ‘second brain’ and listening to ‘what is true right now’, as well as sense of safety, intuitively responding and embodied awareness. Observing separation of head and body in reductionist culture; coming back to ‘head, heart and hara’ as whole.
5. The Fascial Web
Fascia as a sensory organ and how everything is connected to everything else. Communication via the psoas and fascia for kinaesthesia; interoception and proprioception, and how tightness, lesions and distortions in this matrix can ripple through the nervous system and affect how we move and feel.
6. Posture and Self
Modern postural habits from stress, sitting on chairs and trauma patterns. Including exploration of the primary and secondary spinal curves, the ventral and dorsal aspects (front and back body) and expressions of these via breath tones, and the Deep Front Line (Anatomy Trains) and sense of self.
7. Body Psychotherapy
Modern chakra theory and developmental trauma models for body psychotherapy – relationships with survival, trust, attunement, attachment and autonomy and how they affect our expressions through responses, gestures and movement.
8. Mindful Language
Stress, trauma and hypervigilance language – the modern habits of goal-oriented and self-critical language; how this affects yoga practice and teaching. The language of modern mindfulness as a helpful guide; inviting movement rather than imposing our will and the support of sound during physical practice.
9. Health as Whole
The yoga model of wellness (as opposed to the medical model of disease) and approaching health as coming back to whole, the root of the word ‘healing’. Discussing the kleshas (hindrances) as obstacles to wellness and sources of dis-ease within yoga philosophy. Identification with illness as a state and finding our essence nature.
10. Bringing it all together
Gathering together the threads of the course to review aspects of whole health covered – in the context of moving beyond stress, trauma, burnout, anxiety, fatigue and post-illness through embodied awareness.
Four Online or In-Person Workshops
Each workshop includes discussion, practice and enquiry to add into the online themes, and guide them into teaching.
Grounding, Orientation and Agency
Observing and Responding to Needs
The Language of Embodied Awareness
Resourcing Yourself to Support Others
PRACTICE AND TEACHING - MODULE CONTENT
(Previously Somatics for Yoga Teachers course)
The more theoretical, philosophical and enquiring part; there is experience and teaching skills of Somatics within yoga in this part, but with more attention to the nervous system effects, therapeutic approach, language, holding of space, attitudes and mindful attention.
Comprises an online course and two online workshops.
Five online course themes include:
- 14 practice videos of 30-60 minutes (around 12 hours in total), all shown within the manual for you to experience and learn and each with an introductory presentation video.
- A full 60-page manual includes over 100 Somatic exercises, fascial anatomical information and notes on Somatics in the context of embodiment and yoga philosophy.
- The materials above are then discussed in the 90 minute live online sessions, so you are required to have explored those so you can engage with how your experience of the practices, and theory from the other module feed into both your teaching, and personal development – including trauma-informed considerations.
1. Central axis and skull-sacrum polarity
In these arriving movements, we begin in Constructive Rest Position to then explore out creating space at the core and navigating back to process at the midline.
2. Shoulders, neck and jaw
Here we acknowledge how much tension we can hold into these areas with such a human focus on the head, and how creating space and awareness here feeds into the whole being.
3. Hips, sacrum and belly
Meeting the centre of our physicality and the beginning of our primal movement patterns, recognising the emotional resonance held in this area and how to meet with compassion and ease.
4. Diaphragm, ribs, lungs and heart
As we start to move up from the ground more, we bring in considerations of how vital rib mobility is for movement and breath, meeting the rhythms of breath and heartfulness.
5. Arms, legs and eyes
Coming towards standing, we meet the fruition of what it is to be a bipedal creature, from the culmination of our evolutionary journey (species and personal) up from the ground.
Two Online Workshops
The workshops then thread the practice together with teaching skills and sequencing.
1. Teaching Skills Specific to Somatics workshop
2. Sequencing Classes to Focus on or Integrate Somatics into Yoga workshop
CPD INFO
Breakdown of the 200-hour training - all contact and self-study content
Download Certification InformationTeaching into Theory module - 110 CPD hours:
Reading course notes - 1.5 hours per theme - 15 CPD hours
Lecture presentations via video (2 presentations per 10 themes) - 15 CPD hours
Live online sessions for 10 x 60 mins - 10 CPD hours
Workshop hours (4 x 6 hour workshops) online or in London - 24 CPD hours
Video Somatic Yoga practice (pre-recorded content) - 10 CPD hours
Home study for submission: directed home explorations (one per 10 themes) - 20 CPD hours
Final Assessment Written assessment: introduction on chosen theme, class plan and teaching reflections - 15 CPD hours
Personal tutorials 2 x 30 mins - 1 CPD hour
Practice and Teaching module - 90 CPD hours:
Course manual self-study - 5 CPD hours
Reading directed parts of Charlotte's books Yoga Therapy for Digestive Health and Yoga and Somatics for Immune and Respiratory Health (to be purchased on top of course cost) - 12 CPD hours
Live online sessions for 5 themes x 90 mins each - 7.5 CPD hours
Workshop hours (2 x 5 hour workshops with practice and reflective questions) online - 16 CPD hours
Video Somatics practice (pre-recorded content) - 12 CPD hours
Video introductions to each of the five themes that the practice videos follow - 1 hour CPD
Self-enquiry worksheets (7 questions per 5 themes) - 10 CPD hours
Final submission: writing 60-90 minute class plan, teaching designed class (submitting video) and teaching reflections - 15 CPD hours
Personal practice (outside of course videos, this can be taken in-person at the retreat weekend) - 8 CPD hours
Class attendance (Charlotte or another Somatics teacher) - 3 CPD hours
Personal tutorial - 30 mins CPD hours
THE RETREAT
At checkout for the training, you will have the opportunity to receive a substantial discount when you register for both the training and retreat at the same time. A smaller discount is offered when you are taking the course.
Take a sneak peek of what's inside - examples of a presentation and practice video from the training:
Meet Charlotte
Charlotte's work as a yoga teacher, yoga teacher trainer and nutritional therapist over the last few decades has had a focus on how we bring together our whole selves in movement, nourishment, expression and self-care. This includes a recognition of the psychosocial stresses so prevalent in our modern world and the traumas that we hold in our tissues, as well as our emotional states.
In her yoga and movement work, this has meant shifting towards a more somatic framework, with an emphasis on exploring boundaries and processing of the stories we hold in our bodies. Using yoga philosophy and psycho-neuro-endo-immunology as a framework to hold kind, curious exploration, trains, yoga, teaches and other health professionals, movement and subtle practices that support whole health.
For yoga teachers and other health professionals, she runs courses, training, teachers, in somatic, therapeutic and mindful ways of holding space for others so that they have the curiosity and agency to support themselves. Charlotte runs courses and teaches for Yogacampus, London, and is a guest lecturer for The Minded Institute.
She teaches how to use movement, not simply in the context of what we can do physically, but as a way to attune, listen and respond to our deeper, often unconscious needs. In her more specifically, health-focussed courses, (digestion, immune and respiratory health and books on these subjects), she weaves how the relationships between body, breath, fluids and our structure are part of one highly responsive organisation.
Charlotte is an author with many published books, including Yoga and Somatics for Immune and Respiratory Health (Singing Dragon 2022), Yoga Therapy for Digestive Health (Singing Dragon 2018), Good Mood Food (Nourish 2018) and The De-Stress Effect (2015).
Apply for the 200-hour 2026 Intake
You may choose to either pay in instalments or for less in full. You may also choose to take the full 200-hour training or just one of the modules in 2026*.
PRICING OPTIONS FOR THE 200-HOUR TRAINING
Paid in full: £1690
12 month payment plan: £143 per month
Bursaries available, up to 50% off. Please complete both the Training Application and the Bursary Application.
Convert to your local currency here.
Early bird bonuses!
Sign up by 15 November for 10% off the full training
+ receive a lifetime membership to Whole Health: A monthly membership to cover movement, nutrition and lifestyle factors for your entire wellbeing - with access to live classes and webinars, recordings of these, supplement and consultation discounts, as well as an extensive archive of videos and audio meditations.
*Taking the two modules individually will only be available in 2026 for those who still need to complete one of the two trainings. From 2027, you will only be able to sign up for the full course.
Theory into Practice Module only (online course plus 4 workshops online or in-person):
Paid in full: £995
6 month payment plan: £175 per month
Practice and Teaching Module only (online course plus 2 workshops online):
Pay in full: £795
6 month payment plan £140 per month
Convert to your local currency here.