Somatics & Embodied Yoga
50hr Somatic Yoga Teacher Training
Discover The Aruna Method™
Add somatic movement, neuro-muscular tools, and embodied teaching to your classes
Why Somatic Embodied Yoga?
Many yoga classes focus on shapes and alignment yet many students are disconnected from how their body actually feels.
Many people are not aware that they have imbalances and restrictions which may result in limitations and pain now or in the future.
This approach can help students:
release underlying patterns and tension
supports chronic pain
improve mobility
regulate the nervous system
move with greater ease and awareness
“Somatic yoga shifts the focus from “doing the pose” to sensing, exploring and responding to the body.”
What will I learn?
The Pelvis & Psoas Muscle
Studies suggest 75% - 85% of people have pelvic imbalance
Our pelvis and psoas muscle play an incredibly important role in our gait (walking), lower back pain, SI joint (especially for yoga teachers) - its the fulcrum of the body.
Discover how micro-movements can create freedom in the pelvis.
Diagonal Arch & Flatten is an example of a somatic movement for the pelvis - check out the video here
The Spine
While we all know the spine is structurally the centre of the body, it is also central to all pathways of weight, therefore offering the potential of integrated movement in all of the six limbs.
With this integration the whole body becomes lighter and moves as one giving us much greater freedom of movement.
Learn somatic exercises to find the freedom and the integration through the midline of the body.
Somatic Embodied Yoga can support common pain points like lower back & neck pain. It supports spreading the load across the whole body.
Shoulders
Shoulder restriction results in elbow, wrists, neck pain and headaches - we’re an interconnected being.
The consequences of neglecting neck and shoulder tension go beyond physical pain. Chronic tightness can impact breathing patterns.
Somatic Embodied Yoga allows us to isolate areas like the shoulder girdle in order to be able to release full range of motion.
Shoulder slides is an example of a somatic movement for shoulders - check out the video of it here
Rolling
Students find transitions & integrating difficult e.g. head in cat-cow and things like dumping into lower back & pinching in lower back in cobra difficult.
Rolling supports your students find freedom of movement.
Builds on freedom found in previous modules.
Support your students find freedom, Integration, containment & Strength
This module will really tie it all together!
Try it for yourself with our X and O rolls
Across all of the topics you will:
Discover Somatic Movement principles
Develop a deeper understanding of the anatomy from an embodied perspective and most importantly how that anatomy affects yoga
Learn through experience - the somatic movements, the anatomy and the teaching methods
Discover Embodied Somatic Teaching methods and language
Leave ready to integrate what you have learned into your yoga classes and personal practise
Understand somatic awareness (somatic amnaesia) and how to support your students re-pattern their movements
Understand the three somatic reflexes
Somatic Techniques
Leave ready to integrate Somatics & Embodied Yoga into your classes
““This training changed the way I think, move and teach.””
What is Embodied Somatic Yoga?
Somatics focusses on the the connection of the mind and body. The field of clinical somatics was pioneered by Thomas Hanna, who explored how conscious movement and awareness can help retrain the nervous system and release chronic muscular tension.
In somatic movement, the focus shifts from how the body looks on the outside to how movement feels on the inside. Movements are slow, mindful and intentional, allowing us to sense more clearly what is happening within the body. This approach can be remarkably effective for reducing chronic tension and pain because it helps us retrain habitual movement patterns,
Embodied Yoga is an approach to yoga that focusses on the internal rather than the external. It asks us to inquire in to what we sense and feel rather than trying to match a picture of a yoga pose. Embodied yoga invites us to inquire into our own sensations, perceptions and internal experience. The emphasis is on listening to the body rather than forcing it into shapes.
Because of this, the benefits of embodied yoga extend far beyond the yoga mat. Students develop greater awareness of their bodies, their movement habits and the signals of their nervous system, which can support more ease, choice and resilience in everyday life.
Through discovering The Aruna Method™, you will learn how to cultivate somatic awareness in both yourself and your students. This awareness helps reverse what Hanna called somatic amnesia — the loss of conscious control and sensing of certain muscles due to habitual tension and stress.
Embodied Somatic Yoga works directly with the nervous system. Because the movements are slower, smaller and simpler, the brain has the opportunity to pay closer attention to what is happening in the body. Patterns that were previously unconscious can become conscious, creating the possibility for new movement choices and more efficient patterns of coordination.
At its heart, embodiment is less about thinking and doing, and more about sensing and becoming aware.
Somatic practices can be profoundly effective for relieving pain, tension and chronic contraction because they address the root of the pattern rather than simply treating the symptom.
Over time, this process restores freedom of movement. Many of our movement habits follow familiar neurological “paths,” like well-worn trails in the brain. Somatic practices help us notice these patterns and create new pathways, allowing us to move with greater choice, ease and awareness.
“If you can sense it and feel it, you can change it”
The benefits of Embodied Somatic Yoga
Supports Chronic Pain
Deeper mind-body connection
Injury prevention - develop an awareness so we can stop before we tweak a muscle
Support nervous system regulation
Improve mobility and create more ease and freedom in everyday movement
Give autonomy and power back to your students
What Students have said
About Laura Wynne
Guiding people to listen to their bodies, unravel their stories, and reclaim their agency.
Laura Wynne is a pioneering teacher of embodied movement and somatic inquiry with nearly three decades of experience guiding people to listen to the stories held within their bodies. She believes the body is a living archive of experience—and that when we learn to listen deeply, those stories can begin to transform.
Through her work, Laura empowers students and teachers alike to develop the skills, courage, and sensitivity to hear their own inner narratives. Her teaching invites exploration, inquiry, and embodied awareness, helping people reclaim their strength, agency, and capacity for self-understanding.
As the creator of the Aruna Method™ and its flagship training programme, Laura has mentored and trained over 100 students, supporting a new generation of practitioners to guide others in listening to the wisdom of their bodies and the stories they carry.
Laura teaches from a science based anatomy approach and integrating it into real bodies. She is passionate that yoga is for everybody, when we teach it in such a way.
She is on a lifelong journey of learning undertaking over 2000 hours of Yoga Teacher Training and further training specifically on anatomy from Gill Hedley. She supports students from our foundational 200hr training through to our advanced 300hr and beyond to specialties. Laura is a qualified Somatic Exercise Coach and has been a Somatic Movement Educator for years.
Why Aruna Yoga Academy?
Aruna Yoga Academy is a centre of excellence for Yoga Teacher Training. We take pride in ensuring all of our courses are exceptional quality. We have supported hundreds of yoga teachers expand their teaching horizons and develop their skills further. We are passionate that every yoga teacher has something incredibly special to share. We are Embodied Somatic Specialists.
Aruna Values
A Awareness (of your thoughts, emotions, body (somatic) - in this moment)
R Real (real people with real lives)
U Unity (mind, body, spirit – no dualistic perspective)
N Now (being present)
A Abundance (in all things)
Leading to FREEDOM
Aruna Principles
Offering Excellence in Teaching and Education
Functional, Embodied, Somatic Practices – Student Lead, Teacher Facilitated
Yoga for Real bodies with Real needs
Facilitating yoga and its benefits integrated into your life
Allowing your “Whole Self” shine
The details
What’s included:
4 x Training days (Can be taken as individual days)
Notes Manual
When:
Saturday 26th September 2026
Saturday 10th October 2026
Saturday 7th November 2026
Saturday 5th December 2026
Where: Aruna Yoga Studio, Co. Kildare
Investment: €640 when all modules are booked together
Early Bird: €580
“Life is Movement,
Let’s Dance Through Life,
Together,
In Wonder
And Awe”