How We Heal - Trauma Recovery & Wellbeing CIC

09/06/2026

Yesterday we welcomed another group of women into Solace. 💚

Solace is our trauma-informed programme designed to support women survivors of domestic abuse in reconnecting with their bodies, building resilience, and finding moments of safety, rest and connection through body-led practices.

Every woman who walks through the door brings her own story, her own strength, and a great deal of courage. We never take that for granted.

Over the coming weeks, we'll explore gentle therapeutic yoga, somatic movement, nervous system education, breathwork and reflection in a safe and compassionate space.

We're incredibly grateful to The National Lottery Community Fund and to National Lottery players, whose support has made it possible for us to offer Solace to women across the East Midlands.

Thank you for helping us create spaces where healing can happen.

Because healing doesn't happen in isolation. It happens in connection, community and compassionate support.

04/06/2026

When healing happens in community, something powerful begins to shift.

Today we gathered for the penultimate session of our therapeutic yoga and wellbeing programme, funded by Leicestershire Public Health.

Over recent weeks, these women have shown up for themselves with courage, curiosity and compassion. Together, we've explored what it means to listen to the wisdom of the body, understand the nervous system, build resilience, and gently expand our window of tolerance.

We've practised slowing down in a world that often asks us to keep pushing. We've explored how stress, overwhelm and life experiences can become held in the body, and how breath, movement, rest and connection can support healing.

But perhaps most importantly, we've created something that cannot be measured by attendance figures alone:

* Connection
* Community
* Understanding
* Safety
* Shared humanity

Healing doesn't happen in isolation. It happens when we feel seen, heard and supported. It happens when we learn to trust ourselves again.

As we approach our final session together next week, I'm feeling incredibly grateful for every woman who has walked through the door and for the opportunity to witness the strength, wisdom and resilience that already exists within them.

The body carries wisdom. Sometimes it simply needs the space to be heard.

18/05/2026

There’s been a lot of discussion recently around the paper by Kotler, Mannino, Fox and Friston titled “The body does not keep the score.”

As often happens online, the conversation has quickly become polarised.

Some people are interpreting this as meaning body-based approaches to trauma healing are invalid or that trauma exists “only in the brain.”

But the paper itself is far more nuanced than that.

The authors challenge the literal interpretation that trauma is physically stored somewhere in muscles or tissues waiting to be released. They describe trauma through the lens of predictive processing, nervous system patterning and embodied perception.

And honestly, I don’t think this necessarily contradicts what many experienced trauma-informed practitioners witness every day.

The brain is not separate from the body.
The nervous system is embodied.
Our physiology, hormones, breath, posture, immune responses, sensation and perception are constantly interacting with one another.

Trauma can profoundly shape how safe the world feels inside us.
How we breathe.
How we brace.
How we rest.
How we connect.
How we respond to stress, danger and relationship.

That doesn’t mean trauma is literally “stored in the body” in a simplistic sense.

But nor does it mean the body is irrelevant.

Perhaps “the body keeps the score” was always best understood as a metaphor - a compassionate way of describing how the body often continues responding long after the danger has passed.

I think newer neuroscience invites us towards more nuance, not less.

Not brain versus body.
But rather an integrated understanding of the embodied nervous system and the lived experience of trauma.

This post is intended not as medical advice but as part of an ongoing and evolving conversation around trauma, neuroscience and embodied healing.

I’d love to hear thoughtful reflections from others working in this space.

29/04/2026

We aim to create a space where you feel safe to be, just as you are. A space where nothing is expected of you. And a space which offers a kind and compassionate practice.

It's always lovely receiving feedback like this. Thank you for inviting us to deliver another 'Therapeutic Yoga to Support the Nervous System'.

10/04/2026

26/03/2026

Some days, the weight of the world feels close. You can sense it in the body before the mind has words for it; a heaviness, a holding, a quiet ache that doesn’t quite belong to just you.

In those moments, there can be a pull to do more, fix more, push through. But what if the invitation is something else?

To pause.
To lie down.
To soften the edges of all that you’re carrying. Because beneath the noise, beneath the urgency, there is something quieter.

A whisper from the heart.
A longing from the soul.
Not demanding. Not forceful.
Just patiently waiting to be heard.

It’s here, in the softening, that a different kind of listening becomes possible. Not the kind that searches for answers. But the kind that allows you to be in relationship with life as it is, moment by moment, breath by breath.

And from this place, something shifts.
We don’t withdraw from the world, instead
we meet it differently.

More resourced.
More connected.
More able to respond, rather than react.

So if today feels heavy, let rest be enough.
Let listening be enough.
Let this be where you begin.

23/03/2026

Therapeutic Yoga to support women with substance use recovery begins:

Thursday 26 March in Loughborough 10am-11.30am.

This funded programme for women begins at with funding support gratefully provided by Leicestershire Public Health.

This 8 week small-group programme brings together gentle somatic movement, compassionate practice, and nervous system support through a variety of trauma-informed therapeutic yoga and wellness practices.

The practices support a greater connection to the self, improved self-esteem, reduced symptoms of anxiety, low mood, PTSD and C-PTSD and overall feelings of wellness.

There are spaces available to join us for this programme:
8 week programme
Thursdays 10am -11.30am
Beginning Thursday 26 March 2026

This is available FREE of charge to women living in Leicestershire recovering from substance misuse.

As this is a small group programme spaces are limited. To register please email Donna:

[email protected]

18/03/2026

Next week on Thursday 26 March at 10am we begin delivering Solace for Support with Substance Use Recovery at Loughborough Wellbeing Centre. If you are a woman living in Leicestershire, this is a small group 8 week trauma-informed therapeutic yoga and somatic movement programme offered free of charge.

Please register your interest by emailing

[email protected]

Starting on Thursday 26th March we're running a therapeutic yoga course with Donna at How We Heal - Trauma Recovery & Wellbeing CIC This fabulous 8 week course will be running every Thursday from 10am-12pm and is a FREE programme for women living in Leicestershire recovering from substance misuse.
Find out more or request your place by emailing Donna on [email protected]
Spotted: Loughborough Love Loughborough

08/03/2026

Today we honour the courage of women everywhere.

The women who speak when silence once felt safer.

The women who begin again, even when the ground beneath them still feels uncertain.

The women who are learning that their bodies deserve care, rest, safety and compassion.

Across our communities, courageous women are stepping forward.

Not only to challenge injustice and violence, but to heal. Healing is brave work. To turn toward your own nervous system with kindness. To soften armour that once kept you safe. To rebuild trust in your body, your voice, your boundaries.

And the truth is - the world needs this right now.

In a time that can feel heavy, divided, and uncertain, the quiet power of women returning to themselves matters deeply.

When women heal, something profound begins to ripple outward.

Into families.
Into friendships.
Into communities.

The world needs the wisdom, care, courage and fierce compassion that women carry.
It needs the steady ripples of feminine energy - the kind that nurtures life, speaks truth, protects the vulnerable, and creates spaces where healing becomes possible.

At How We Heal, we witness this courage every day.

Women showing up for themselves.
Women supporting other women.
Women reclaiming space in their own bodies and lives.

This is not small work. This is how change begins.

To every woman doing this work - in ways visible or quiet - we see you, we honour you, and we are walking alongside you. Thank you for being all that you are 💜🤍

Happy International Women’s Day.