'The past 4 months of yoga therapy sessions with Grace have helped me hugely by putting my well-being into perspective. I have had a lot of troubles with depression, anxiety, panic attacks and stress relating to my Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis and Shingles. My panic attacks were becoming too frequent and I was in a very low dark place at the start of these sessions with Grace, everything scared me and I couldn’t see out of the darkness of what my life was becoming. . talking calmly with Grace about everything has allowed me to bring someone external into my life to discuss alternative ways to manage my problems. She has been so patient with me and so understanding at my many rants and frustrations. This attitude has given me a huge amount of confidence.

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Discussing my fears and worries about leaving the house with her has shown me that it’s not always about the big picture and controlling everything and all that might go wrong, but that it can also be viewed as small steps, focusing on the breath and body in a very physical sense and giving myself positive encouragements even when there is so much I’m not happy with, acknowledging small victories does make an impact.

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Grace has shown me a whole new way of dealing with stress when I feel it coming, by showing me the inhale/exhale floor exercises and suggesting I use these by taking breaks when working from home or feeling my heart rate increase, which has been very good and helpful. I’m also feeling like the lessons I’ve learned has allowed my mood to improve and the guilt I was feeling to subside. Noticing my thought patterns and not trying to change them was an interesting one for me to watch for these months, it is so natural for me to want to change the things I’m unhappy with or panic about the things that worry me, so just being aware of them with nothing to try and change or be angry about has done a world of good... Having someone care about my mental well being with such a great knowledge of the body and human thought processes has been such a blessing in my life.

She has been so understanding of my physical restrictions as well, with MS having some numbness in my body and the Shingles putting nerve pains in my shoulder, Grace always worked around these and checked I was alright to do the movements I was learning. The sessions have taught me so many skills that I’ll keep practising and continue to work on and improve. It was a joy having these sessions in my home where I felt most comfortable and even when I broke down when the emotions raised were too much, I feel these were all small steps in the right directions. I’m not as angry anymore, I feel like I am on a nice path of acceptance and I think I’m being much kinder to myself and on those around me.'

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Jodie - Promoter