23: Rachel Wilkinson

This week I’m talking to Rachel Wilkinson.
Rachel Wilkinson is based down in Dorset and discovered yoga in 2008. In her LBY (Life Before Yoga), she used mental health services for support with her addition to alcohol and drugs. Rachel was introduced to using yoga and talking therapy to aid her recovery (and to help with the grief of losing her Mum). I want to warn you at this point that this is quite an emotional one. Development of a yoga practice led to her experiencing a profound change in her mental health and helped with her battle against her addictions. After learning so much from her own experiences, she moved into working in mental health services with and supporting those in a similar position the one she was once in.
It was during this time in 2015 that she qualified as a yoga teacher with the aim of spreading the benefits to those individuals accessing services and others, who wouldn’t easily find themselves on a yoga mat.
Rachel created RawYogi to work with a blend of healing therapies to support people wanting to navigate the modern world more effectively. She uses sound and movement, body and breathwork to encourage and facilitate change so I’ll be asking her to explain a little more about how she does that, as well as about how her rawsome retreats are looking for 2021/2022 (that’s right, I said rawsome!)
In 2018 Rachel founded CYC Community Yoga Collective which is a grassroots not for profit community project making wellbeing accessible for all, whilst valuing the skills of teachers, facilitators and therapists. It is that that is key for me…She aims to build community from the ground up which sounds fabulous so I’ll be asking her to share some more information about how this initiative works, how it’s been working during covid, and what her plans for the future are and how we can help.
As I said earlier, this is an emotional one and its also a bit sweary so buckle up! I really hope you enjoy listening to our conversation… Rachel shared a few tracks with me after the podcast for her Savasana Sounds and she also has a playlist on Spotify that she is happy to share.

• Blue Lullaby by BE
• Red Light by Gaussuan Curve
• Beginnings (feat East Forest) by MC Yogi
• Dunes by Chequerboard

Have a little listen to them and see what you think!
Listeners, please let Rachel know what you thought of the podcast - you can reach her by emailing rachel@communityyogacollective.org or visit her website www.communityyogacollectve.org (yes, that’s org, people!) If you’ve got any questions for her or would like to get involved with CYC I’m sure she’d love to hear from you. Support Enjoyed listening? Then please rate, review and subscribe to the podcast. If you’d like to support That Yoga Woman’s Podcast you can donate via www.paypal.me/thatyogawoman
About Your host is Jules Buchanan, a British yoga teacher in her forties. Married (without children, but with a gorgeous Labrador called Diesel), she’s Brummie born, started teaching yoga in Bedfordshire, but is now based on the Northumberland coast and has been teaching yoga for about 4 years.
Find out more about Jules by visiting www.thatyogawoman.com Check our her range of organic cotton, yoga inspired tops at www.thatyogawoman.com/shop Follow her on Instagram @thatyogawoman Like and follow her Facebook page @thatyogawoman
If you have any feedback or know a yogi, teacher or studio owner that you think would be a great guest, then email her: info@thatyogawoman.com
The next episode is out in a fortnight.