Hi, I’m Elena.

I’ve spent over 25 years working as a holistic therapist in retreat, wellness, and therapeutic spaces, supporting people through pain, stress, illness, change, and recovery.

Before any of that, I trained as a primary school teacher. I ran my first therapy practice on weekends while teaching full-time during the week (how I did that, I honestly don’t know.... I was very young and very driven!)

What I learned early on was this: people don’t struggle because they lack insight or motivation. They struggle because their systems are overwhelmed.

My own path into holistic health began as self-support. I was managing unexplained symptoms long before I had language for them, and later received a diagnosis of a chronic condition that stayed largely quiet ... until a period of sustained stress brought everything back to the surface. Like many people, I discovered that “coping” works… until it doesn’t.

Alongside this, I noticed something quietly but consistently in my clinical work, especially during COVID.

Counselling & Coaching Clients who were also practising yoga, breathwork, or other regulating, body-based practices were far more able to integrate insights, sustain change, and recover.

Those relying on talk-based work alone often understood exactly what was going on, but couldn’t seem to move forward or stay with change.

That discrepancy made me curious.

I stepped back from formal therapeutic work for a time, ran a small coffee cart, and immersed myself in studying the nervous system; my own, and others’.

Not to collect more techniques, but to understand why change becomes natural for some people and exhausting for others.

What became clear is this:
when the nervous system doesn’t feel safe, no amount of insight, effort, or “doing the right things” will stick.

From this came the framework that now underpins all my work; a simple, body-led process that places nervous system regulation first, so that change doesn’t have to be forced. When the language of the body is heard, behaviour, habits, and healing tend to reorganise on their own.

Listening to your body isn’t woo.
It’s practical.
It’s biological.
And it’s often the missing piece.

Today, I support people experiencing persistent pain, chronic stress, health challenges, life transitions, and burnout; as well as practitioners who want to work more effectively without pushing, fixing, or overriding the system they’re working with.

My work is grounded, non-dogmatic, and deeply practical. It’s about helping people feel safe enough in their bodies for real life to become workable again.

Qualifications & Background

BSc Human Sciences
Certified Yoga & Somatic Movement & Meditation Teacher
25+ years in holistic health, counselling & coaching

Trained in Applied Polyvagal Theory in Yoga, trauma-informed practice, women-centred coaching, reflexology, Holistic Massage, fascial science, and nervous system–led recovery.

I don’t help people “get it right.”
I help them come back into relationship with themselves ... so change stops being a battle.