Somatic Therapeutic Yoga Training

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, 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. For the general public, Charlotte teaches classes in Brighton and London, workshops, UK yoga weekends and retreats abroad. 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). Charlotte is also an award-winning nutritionist*, practising since 2000 and specialising in stress and trauma, fatigue conditions and burnout, and digestive issues. She has been a tutor and programme leader for the Institute of Optimum Nutrition and lectured for the College of Naturopathic Medicine. Her nutritional work feeds into her yoga teaching, teacher training and writing from a deep understanding of body processes, and what we need to support whole health from all directions. *CAM (now IHCAN) Award for Outstanding Practice 2012

Charlotta Martinus FOUNDER & DIRECTOR Charlotta Martinus is an award-winning visionary and the world leader in the field of yoga for young people. She was awarded the Master of Yoga title, the only woman in Europe, in 2019 by the International Yoga Alliance, after her best-selling book TeenYoga for Yoga Therapists was published in 2018. With over 35 years’ experience in working with young people as a therapist and teacher, Charlotta fuses her lived experience of healthcare, social work and education with her India-based yoga therapy knowledge. With a clinical license to work with vulnerable young people, she weaves various pedagogical frameworks, such as Steiner, Montessori and the Scandinavian model together with the specific psychotherapeutic approach necessary to effect change among young people. Charlotta has created many bespoke frameworks that have been carefully researched, which forms the evidence base of her courses. In 2015, she was invited to craft an innovation programme for Sport England who funded a roll-out of the programme to young people who would not otherwise be exposed to yoga. In 2017, the University of Westminster, invited her to create a programme for a Muslim dominant school in North London, for their PSHE curriculum, which was then evaluated as a Doctorate in Health Psychology. In 2018, she was invited and funded by the European Union Erasmus programme to create a programme for 750 disadvantaged young people across 5 countries. The outcomes of this programme were evaluated in a carefully designed research programme which were published in various Psychology Literature. In 2020 London Youth, funded by the Tampon Tax Fund, reached out about a programme design for young BAME 10-13 year old girls, to empower them to become Mental Health Ambassadors. All of these programmes showed in quantitative and qualitative research that yoga was an effective tool in decreasing anxiety and increasing wellbeing in all areas of life. Moreover, Charlotta has spoken on several occasions at the House of commons and House of Lords on the topic and latterly was asked to produce a Rationale for Yoga in Schools, to present to government, which is available on the website. This involved a complex financial calculation, to evaluate the social and financial benefit of yoga in schools. Charlotta continues to advocate for yoga for young people in all areas and believes whole heartedly that this is a solid and effective intervention to bring our young people in to a state of flourishing and thriving. Charlotta continues to be mentored and supported by a distinguished group of yoga therapists and medical and educational specialists in the UK, USA and India.