Welcome to Lena Marchese - Trauma Informed Yoga

I've been practicing yoga for twenty years, and it's teaching me that healing isn't about finding permanent peace. It's about learning to discover a gentle power that exists beneath my own skin. I'm learning to ride the waves I once felt like I was drowning in, discovering that strength doesn't need to be proven or performed.
 

It hasn't always been that way. For a long time, yoga became another place where my old patterns played out. The same survival strategies that had helped me navigate trauma made me believe I had to be a "good yogi" in very specific ways. That need to perform, to get it right, to look the part, disconnected me from the very thing I was seeking.

​

What shifted everything was being introduced to trauma-informed yoga and the study of the nervous system. To listen to the sensations of my body without expectation, without a goal beyond simply connecting, is radical. And honestly, terrifying. But it has also given me glimpses of something profound: the feeling that it is okay to be exactly who I am. To see myself and to feel myself without all the external expectations piled on.
 

I carry my own trauma. I live with shame, fear, grief, and rage, and I am learning to meet those places in my body slowly and gently, one breath at a time. That is why I do this work. Harm is real, and the ways we internalize it can distort how we see ourselves, others, and the world. Yoga, practiced through a trauma-informed lens, helps me begin to weave connection back into those places of isolation. This personal journey has led me to extensive training in trauma-informed approaches.