My name is Weronika Chaberko
I’m a certified trauma-informed Yoga teacher and Thai Yoga Massage therapist.
I am a teacher since 2007 and therapist since 2013.
I lived and worked in 3 countries and 5 cities : UK, Poland and Spain. Currently I offer my services mostly online to clients all over Europe.
During last 15 years I assisted over 500 clients and clocked over 5 000 hours of teaching and treatments, always keeping in mind my maxim: Less is More and placing emphasis on a long-term support.
My yoga therapy videos were featured in the largest Polish internet portal (Onet.pl) during the pandemic.
2007: Teacher Yoga Training with Sivanada Yoga Organisation, Ustka, Poland; Yoga Alliance
2011: Advanced Teacher Yoga Training with Sivananda Yoga, Madurai, India, Yoga Alliance
2013: Thai Yoga Massage Practitioner Diploma with Ralf Marzen at Mudita School of Thai Yoga Massage, London, Thai Healing Alliance
2015: Yin Yoga Intensive with Norman Blair, London, Yoga Alliance
2018: Advanced Practitioner Training in Thai Yoga Massage with Kira Balaskas at School of Thai Yoga Massage, London
Thai Healing Alliance and British Register of Complimentary Therapies2019: Advanced Thai Massage training with Jack Chaiya, Chiang Mai, Thailand; Thai Healing Alliance
2021: The Language of the Body. A therapeutic & trauma-informed approach to teaching Yoga with Katrin Heuser, online, Yoga Alliance
2023: Somatic Toolkit for Resilient Nervous System with Katrin Heuser and Michelle Muray, online, Yoga Alliance
But the numbers and diplomas say only part of the story...
Here is my STORY of healing…
The earliest thing that was ‘bothering’ not even me but my environment was ADHD. In my early school years, I would get in trouble with teachers because of it. By the age of 10, I had already developed coping mechanisms and became a ‘‘good student’’.
Around the age of 12, I had my first asthma attack. It was in the middle of the night, at my grandma’s house. I remember I was lying in a bed, wheezing, thinking I would die. At the same time, I was too scared to wake up my grandma as I was sure she would call me ‘hysterical’. With my current knowledge about the nervous system, I’m really not surprised asthma showed up exactly at that point in my life.
When I went to high school, I started suffering from anxiety and panic attacks. Even a simple phone call or a visit to a doctor would send my heart racing. My first mild panic attack went undiagnosed. The feeling of suffocation which I mistook for asthma attack was totally ignored by the doctor at the emergency clinic, who told me I’m totally fine.
At the age of 19, I was on the verge of eating disorders weighing 49 kilograms at 172 cm height… Luckily, I quickly stopped this way of ‘controlling my life’.
My periods were very irregular at that time. The endocrinologist assured me everything was fine with my body, I was simply stressed. She asked me why was that. I felt embarrassed as nothing objectively stressful was happening at all. My life was normal. Almost boring.
Spoiler alert: you don’t need to go through a divorce, grief, or job loss to feel chronic stress!
When I finally found the courage to come to a yoga class, I was 21. Yoga got me hooked straight away. And brought a huge relief. As happens to many yoga newbies, I got fascinated with the contortionist poses. I felt all-powerful to stand on my head and flip my feet over my head. In retrospect, it wasn’t that much different from my ‘control’ over my weight. The body didn't enjoy all those deep backbends, but I paid no attention. I was on an endorphin high.
In 2006 I became a yoga teacher and a... yoga fanatic. I followed the rules of Sivananda Yoga religiously. Everything had to be done in a specific way and order, no questions asked. I would chant mantras and talk about spirituality. But every time I stepped on the mat, I ignored what my body was telling me, following the instructions of someone who had no idea how I felt in my skin.
Yoga changed many things in my life. My asthma symptoms disappeared, for one. But I could ‘switch off’ my hyperactive mind only when on the mat. Some nagging sensations seemed to be a fair trade-off. And anxiety connected to being self-employed seemed inevitable.
Pushing, forcing and overuse of my body finally caught up with me in my early 30s. After a couple of years of teaching and practising classical Hatha Yoga, I started feeling pain in various parts of my body. I developed piriformis syndrome (literally a pain in the butt) and the ‘yoga bum’ - pain at the hamstring attachments coming from overstretching. The bouts of piriformis syndrome were returning with increasing frequency.
The more Yoga I did, the worse it would get. My massage therapist friends would 'fix me' temporarily. But the pain would simply travel to a different spot shortly after.
I started getting seriously worried when I developed tingling and numbness in my limbs during Yoga practice. I went to a neurologist and guess what? She said she had no idea why this was happening. Again. There was nothing wrong with my body.
It took me a lot of time to acknowledge that something was FUNDAMENTALLY wrong.
That it’s not OK to wake up with a pounding heart. And certainly not OK to feel pain after Yoga.
I will never forget the moment my life I so carefully built for 10 years got shattered. I was already so desperate to search for solutions that I was shyly experimenting with other yoga styles.
Once, I stayed after the class to ask the teacher what to do if I felt pain in my neck after doing a headstand. Her answer was so obvious that it hit me like a hammer: you shouldn't do it. What? I shouldn't do the King of Asanas? How could I stop that and remain a ‘good yogi’? I felt a squeeze in my heart, but I knew she was right. I locked myself in the toilet and cried my eyes out.
I went through a massive identity crisis. Yoga, which was supposed to be the panacea, was causing me pain. I felt betrayed. I felt ashamed. And guilty that I was teaching my students something that isn’t always so healthy. I told myself: enough. It was time to take care of myself.
Luckily, I lived in London, the largest yoga hub in the world. I had unlimited possibilities for exploration. Some of the yoga styles I tried were even worse than the ones I practised. Many times I’d come back from a class with a strained back or pulled muscle.
Gradually, I started leaning towards a gentler approach. I explored Yin Yoga, Yoga Nidra and Scaravelli Yoga. Eventually, I understood that the teaching approach matters far more than the method. Today, I take inspiration from all sorts of modalities: somatics, tai chi, and self-massage, so long they are mindful and gentle.
Another big turning point was discovering Thai Yoga Massage – a manual holistic therapy with immense therapeutic value. I had the privilege to study with great masters of this art who showed me how to listen with my hands. For the first time, I understood the value of gentleness. 'No pain - no gain' is one of the most dangerous myths. Throughout 10 years of my work as a therapist, I could clearly see the shift can happen only with kindness. And only if you’re ready to let go.
Self-kindness, and listening to the cues from my body was enough to put a stop to chronic pain. Most of the pain appears as a result of the emotional state. It's natural that in periods of an emotional roller-coaster, I might feel some nagging sensations in the bum, lower back or shoulders. The difference is, now I know how to deal with it myself, without searching for someone to 'fix me'. I don’t get in the vicious circle of one pain leading to another.
The trauma-informed therapeutic yoga training put all the pieces together. I understood how much my past, circumstances and emotions could affect the way I felt. And I could finally see a clear path of undoing all that.
I started understanding and befriending my nervous system. And I finally found tools that could help me cope with anxiety the moment it arises. I didn’t need to wait for my yoga. I could help myself in minutes, regardless of circumstances.
Recently, I have continued my training in the field of nervous system regulation. As a result, I have decided to place more emphasis on teaching people with anxiety with the intention to give them more agency and equip them in ways to deal with life’s inevitable ups and downs.
I commit to assist women with anxiety and other symptoms of nervous system dysregulation, including chronic pain in their path towards resiliency and healing.
