The body knows.
Soma Yoga is a practical, Bodymind approach to nervous system training.
The body is always giving us ‘messages’, the Bodymind approach gives us the tools to listen. With Soma Yoga we dive deep into subtle changes that give tangible gains.
Founded by Jasmin Amrita, Soma Yoga (including Soma Therapy) fuses the ancient wisdom and practices of yoga and complimentary modalities, with the natural instinct and intelligence of the body, all integrated with contemporary understandings of anatomy, physiology and neuroscience.
The approach today was developed over decades of training and teaching, from its origin in Classical Tantric Hatha, evolving with Jasmin’s area of specialisation in the nervous system and trauma healing, and woven with her love for sound, nature, play, exploration, and the power within.
soma
(Sanskrit: सोम );
Distill, Extract, Sprinkle.
A sacred drink made from nectar of a plant and said to give immortality.
A god who is the bringer of health and wealth.
(Greek σόμα)
Body.
yoga
(Sanskrit: योग);
Union.
Yoke.
A group of physical, mental and spiritual / energetic practices which originated in ancient India, and aim to reduce suffering and increase inner peace.
Unity of individual consciousness with universal consciousness.
The Practices
Disrupt outgrown ways of being (postural, tension holding, movement and response/relational habits) by attuning to who you are now, and to the world around. By remembering the nature of the body you can come into greater health, vitality, and synergy with life.
Yoga
Breathwork
Somatic Movement
TRE®
Neurogenic Tremoring
Ecstatic Dance
Sound Baths
Meditation & Journalling
Mentoring
Sessions are within 8 Week Journeys, Workshops, Trainings, Group & 1:1 Programs, Retreats, and Immersive Events.
All Soma Yoga sessions are trauma skilled.
Prana (प्राण): The Pulse of Nature and ‘Flow State’
Prana is a sanskrit term that translates to ‘life force’, ‘primal energy’ or simply ‘breath’. Chinese tradition refers to this energy as ‘Qi’, and in Māoritanga it is known as ‘Mauri’.
We humans are electric beings who respond and resonate with vibration and frequency of energy. This is why in every Soma Yoga session, sound and / or music is an important, carefully curated element of the experience.
Our natural state is to be in alignment with the prana / pulse of nature, but for many reasons, we can easily come out of sync.
We often face challenging experiences that leave big impacts on us and our energy flow. Sometimes, we can move through an experience with ease and it will not leave much residual impact. Other times - tension occurs, and leaves a lasting impression. Often times, these impressions show up in the body, as residual tension or trauma, or what we sometimes call ‘blocks’. You could say that the body keeps a ‘map’ of all the lasting impressions, in what I call our tensional environment.
Soma Yoga offers the tools to guide us gradually back into the nature and wisdom of the body, into alignment, regulation and ease with the pulse of nature - aka ‘Flow State’. In this state is our true potential and we can align better with our reason for being.
“Those who flow as life flows, know they need no other force.”
— Lao Tzu
A Journey of Remembrance
Soma Yoga joins you on your journey, wherever you are at.
What might seem like a simple embodied yoga, dance, trauma release or breathwork session, is woven with the language of the nervous system, to tap into our neuroplasticity.
We collaborate with the body as a whole, using a functional approach to breath, alignment, active engagement and movement, relaxation and mindset. And over time, support the transformation of limitations like anxiety, tension and trauma into whole person strength, mobility and soul connection.
We can remember, our true, calm and confident nature, with more capacity to live through life’s challenges. The feeling is one of contentment, and freshness, and with this fresh perspective we can fall in love with life again.
My Journey | Jasmin Amrita
I grew up living off-grid, in a commune in nature, with daily experiences of music, dance and adventure. I was first introduced to yoga by my father who was inspired by one of his violin teachers the famous violinist and yogi, Yehudi Menuhin.
Over the years I dipped in and out of the practice, along with meditation, music and dancing, and they eventually wove themselves permanently into my daily life. My practice helped me to release stress and stay fit while working in the fast paced, high pressure industries of film costume and fashion, which had taken me to Kyoto, Prague and London.
Suddenly, in the market crash of 2009 I was made redundant. I noticed that instead of feeling upset, I was excited. I felt I could do whatever I wanted, so I asked myself for the first time in my life - what do I love the most?
My body answered me clearly - yoga and dance.
So, I packed up all my belongings and went to live in an ashram. Although I wasn’t planning to teach, one week in I had a remembrance, and I knew this was my dharma. I needed to share the magic and healing possibility of these practices with other people.
Since then, I have been facilitating Yoga, Ecstatic Dance, Breathwork, Somatic Therapy, Chanting and Meditation, sessions around the world including India (the birthplace of yoga), Nepal, Canada and my home country, New Zealand, in ashrams, studios, prisons, festivals, nature, and living rooms.
Certifications
200hr Yoga Teacher Training Certificate
500hr Advanced Yoga Teacher Training Certificate
Bihar Yoga Bharati Certificate in Yogic Studies
Therapeutic Resilience & Trauma Sensitive Yoga Certificate
Trauma Informed Yoga Certificate
SmartBody SmartMind™ Certificate
Advanced Anatomy Certificate
TRE® Certified Provider
Neurogenic Yoga™ Certified Provider
Red Tent Women’s Group & Circle Facilitation Certificate
Ho’oponopono Practitioner Certificate
Guest Facilitators
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Jenny Miller
Jenny Miller (Te Ātiawa), is a counsellor working under ACC sensitive claims, and also at Te Huka Mātauraka/Māori centre at Otago University.
Jenny and Jasmin have known each other for more than 30 years and they have teamed up to help offer Soma Yoga to people accessing support through the ACC sensitive claims pathway.
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Paul Cohen
Paul Cohen comes with a wealth of experience of 4 decades working in body based therapies and approaches: including Acupuncture, Zero Balancing, Psychocalisthenics, Qi Gong, Bone Yoga and Bone Yoga Bodywork.
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Kim Cope Tait
Kim is a seeker, surfer, and healing arts practitioner as well as an author of novels, stageplays, and poetry. She has been facilitating for over 20 years. She facilitates Writing as a Spiritual Practice Workshops as well as Shamanic Energy Healing. She is the mother of two grown children and a lover of nature, food, and music/dance.
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Tristan Dingemans
Jasmin’s husband Tristan is a magician of the sound waves. Renowned for his work in electronic rock music bands HDU & Kāhu, he also enjoys paring it back to create lush, harmonic, journey worthy soundscapes.
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Lili Eve
Lili loves curating bespoke and unique experiences that bring people into connection with themselves and community. Her offerings draw on Yoga, somatic healing in the form of Ecstatic Dance, and guiding people deep into their hearts with Sacred Cacao ceremonies.
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Duke McLeod
Duke has been a follower of the Sufi path for over a decade. He is most inspired by Idris Shah’s psychology of the heart, and Omid Safi’s insights on Sufism as a path of Radical Love. Duke’s practices include meditation, chanting, breathwork, song, and dance.
In Proud Partnership with Yoga Education in Prisons Trust
Jasmin is a board member of Yoga Education in Prisons Trust, a registered charity that provides yoga and meditation education to prisoners in New Zealand. You can show your support for this initiative by adding a donation when you pay for your session, journey or program.
The Three Pillars
Sangha
Sangha means community, in sanskrit. Sangha invites you, just as you are, to be a part of it. It holds space for us: offers support in times of need, celebrates with us and grows with us. Even though we are all travelling on our own paths, sangha can motivate, nourish and inspire us. It travels alongside us - and all we have to do is show up and be a part of it.
Sankalpa
Sankalpa means intention, in sanskrit. Using a sankalpa keeps our commitment, focus and direction on our goals, so that we can manifest what we want with greater ease. A sankalpa is a short sentence or mantra, about what we want, written in the positive, present tense (as though we already have what we want).
Sadhana
Sadhana means practice, in sanskrit. It is the action pillar, that with the support of sangha and sankalpa, helps us to manifest what we want. Sadhana is the embodied discipline of coming back again and again to meet our selves. Sadhana rewards us over time, and is easiest to build with a community around (in sessions), but home practice can be equally as rewarding.