Your Facilitators:

Anna has taught yoga for over ten years and brings together experience in yoga therapy, massage therapy, mindfulness, psychotherapy, education and the creative arts.

She is an IAYT-certified Yoga Therapist, qualified yoga and mindfulness teacher, massage therapist and Level 2 CBT psychotherapist accredited through the BACP. She also holds postgraduate qualifications in Art Therapy, Creative Writing and Education, with a background in neurodiversity.

For the past three years, Anna has successfully run workshops combining yoga and CBT for anxiety, helping people develop practical ways to understand and work with their anxiety.

Anna also brings personal understanding to this work. Through her own journey, she has experienced how yoga, mindfulness, CBT and creativity can offer different ways of exploring, understanding and living alongside anxiety. This informs her compassionate, non-judgemental approach and her belief that meaningful change can begin with learning to notice and understand ourselves differently.

Her approach combines body, breath, movement, mindfulness, creativity and evidence-informed psychological approaches to help people explore new possibilities and make meaningful changes.

The retreat will be co-facilitated (details to be confirmed), providing both group and one-to-one support throughout your journey, helping to create an experience that is safe, supportive, meaningful and transformative.

A Week to Pause, Notice and Change, March 1st to March 7th, Brisa Bahia Retreat, Columbia

Each day will begin and end with yoga therapy, grounding, breathing, gentle movement and meditation. Rather than traditional yoga flows, these practices offer an opportunity to slow down, breathe, reconnect with yourself and become more aware of what is happening within your body, breath, thoughts and emotions.

Set within a peaceful and restorative natural environment, the week is also an opportunity to step away from the demands of everyday life and simply be. Time spent outdoors, connecting with nature, noticing the changing landscape and enjoying the beauty and quiet around you is an important part of the retreat. There will be space to walk, rest, reflect, enjoy good food, be creative and simply experience the pleasure of having time for yourself.

Yoga therapy and mindfulness will be gently woven throughout your wider experience, helping you develop a deeper understanding of your body and nervous system, while discovering practical ways to support your sense of calm and wellbeing and respond differently when anxiety arises.

Through a combination of group sessions, paired work and one-to-one support, we will explore:

• Understanding your anxiety — exploring what may trigger it, what keeps it going, and how your own patterns and responses can sometimes contribute to the cycle of anxiety.

• Becoming more aware of worry and thinking patterns — learning to notice thoughts that can heighten anxiety and discovering more helpful and compassionate ways of responding to them.

• Exploring your beliefs — looking at some of the deeper beliefs that can shape how you experience yourself and the world, and gently exploring whether these beliefs still serve you.

• Building tolerance and acceptance — developing greater capacity to be with difficult thoughts, feelings and behaviours without always needing to fight, avoid or change them, and cultivating a more accepting and compassionate relationship with yourself.

• Developing problem-solving skills — exploring practical ways to approach life's challenges, including recognising the difference between what you can influence and what you may need to accept.

• Using creativity to explore and process difficult experiences — drawing on writing and art to give space to fears, worries and experiences that may be difficult to put into words, helping them feel more manageable and take up less space in your life and wellbeing.

Alongside the therapeutic work, there is plenty of time simply to enjoy being here. You might spend time outside, walk in nature, sit quietly with a cup of tea, enjoy the scenery, laugh and talk with others, or retreat into your own space. There is no pressure to make every moment productive — rest, enjoyment and a sense of connection are all part of the experience.

The aim is not to eliminate anxiety, but to help you understand it, recognise it earlier and develop greater choice in how you respond to it.

The week is an opportunity to pause, breathe and reconnect — with yourself, with other people and with the natural world around you. You will leave with a deeper awareness of yourself, your body and your patterns, together with practical tools and practices that you can continue to draw on to support your wellbeing long after the retreat has ended.