Yoga teacher aims to use centre as wellbeing centre
A Staffordshire woman is aiming to use the activity that changed her life to help improve the wellness and wellbeing of others.
Susan Jackson has set up the Wellbeing and Wellness Coach, the first yoga studio to be set up in Burntwood, after finding that it helped her to focus her mind and cope with her own mental and physical battles.
She said: "I'm in recovery from complex post traumatic stress disorder, significant depression, anxiety, post-natal depression and chronic fatigue syndrome, stemming from multiple emotionally and physically traumatic events starting in my early childhood and spanning over several decades.
"It came to a head when I had my little girl Ellie in 2017, which released memories of a number of traumatic events, and while I was keeping a public face, I was going through a significant amount of torture inside.
"Six weeks after Ellie was born, I fell off a cliff mentally, having struggled with chronic fatigue syndrome and postnatal depression, and any kind of stimulation environment would just sent me in a turmoil in terms of my energy.
"I started to do yoga again around that time and I realised that if I didn't do something quite significant, I was screwed, so I launched myself into it and really learned about how yoga impacts the body and the whole nervous system and how it calms the body."
The 39-year-old said she believed taking up yoga had saved her life and, since returning back to it, has become qualified as a teacher in several disciplines of yoga and as a wellbeing coach.
She said: "I've got qualifications in life coaching and health coaching and lead management and what I really want to do is help people to understand that there is a way forward.
"That's the key thing for the studio and what we want to do is work with people to understand where they are in their own journey and know what they like and what they don't like and help them find their own way.
"I want the space to be a wellbeing space and offer hope to people, as people might be going through depression or anxiety or fatigue conditions and feeling overwhelmed and just losing hope."
The Wellbeing and Wellness Coach in Swan Island Shopping Precinct will offer classes in hatha, flow, yin and restorative yoga, as well as yoga for the menopause.
Susan said the aim was to make it not just a yoga studio, but also a community centre and a wellbeing space.
She said: "We have the yoga and we also have workshops and different wellbeing events and we've also started an online wellbeing shop that we want to grow.
"If someone is struggling and they don't know where to go, we can sit down with them and break it down to see what they want to achieve and help them break that path.
"My aim is to develop an approachable, non judgemental organisation that supports people to improve their overall wellbeing, improve mental wellness, increase self esteem and boost their energy."
To find out more about the studio and courses on offer, go to thewellbeingandwellnesscoach.com
