with a free-spirited childhood spent in Africa, cyprus and the uk and originally trained as a dancer, Carolina is a Yoga Instructor, Reiki-vibrational Energy Therapist and lifestyle influencer. currently based in bali, she has recently designed her own Trauma Sensitive Yoga Therapies and yoga Mind and Movement Medicine Method, a fully immersive, hypnotic and holistic healing system incorporating yoga and somatic experiencing at it’s fundamental core.

"I never planned to be a yoga teacher, but fell into it when I lost my dad in 2005. I took myself to thailand and began daily classes at the yoga retreat on koh phangan in an attempt to find some way to get over what had happened. before long, teresa kennard who runs the retreat, saw the hidden potential in me and offered me the opportunity to train alongside her. over the following year, teresa taught me everything she knows and I’ve never looked back. Yoga got me through that period of my life and I've been running barefoot, designing, teaching and hosting bespoke yoga retreats and yoga holidays in exotic locations such as Morocco, Thailand, India, Bali, and South America intermittently with the UK and Europe ever since, continuing to learn and pass on those lifestyle lessons to my students around the world. i teach from my own experiences to encourage my students to find their own movement, their own practice, and thereby, discover their own inherent ability and potential to manage and move through whatever barriers they come across in life. yoga is an ancient technique that offers transcendental, life altering teachings and my passion is to share these with as many people around the world as i can. It's what I was born to do.

BOHEMIA is my idea of paradise or a sanctuary I strive to create for myself and my students. A modern, bohemian take on “Nirvana” if you like, it's a lifestyle and a state of mind. It's a world full of all of the beautiful things that bring me happiness, where my health and vitality flourish and I feel most alive: surrounded by the luscious tropical nature of a jungle, wildlife ( including my dog Bella), the ocean and space where I can move freely in every sense because I have the time to put my health and well-being first.

A bohemian way of life is essentially free from restrictions, restraints, rules, concrete and all the things that can trap and strangle us fuelling states of anxiousness, depression and fear. These elements, alongside certain life experiences we may go through I believe can block and hinder our creativity, entomb our faith, our spirit and who we are. Most importantly, they silence our voices and disrupt our peace of mind, creating that "dis-ease" in the body and mind. They stop us from living the life we're meant to be living

in december 2015 I closed down my London studio to fully immerse myself in that life and find the location for my own retreat. things took a drastic turn a few months later in March 2016 and I was in a motorbike accident in Goa, that according to doctors, should have killed me. 

I was told that I had no hope of a full recovery and a bleak and hopeless life on hospital wards subject to countless injections and pills was painted as my only way to survive. In true bohemian style I fought and rebelled against what i was told. i refused to take that option as i knew my body was more capable and had more to give than that, i just had to find a way to nurture it back.

You could say I’ve been underground since then. I cut myself off from the world, unable to teach and do the things I was so used to doing.  I've faced the anguish of physical injuries, mental and emotional hurdles that at times felt insurmountable, been tormented by the tornado of PTSD and brain trauma, depression, insomnia, bipolar, tinnitus, vertigo, autoimmune and hypothyroid disease.

I brought in everything I knew and opened myself to new lessons, listening to my body as my guide to what it needed to get through and on with my life. I felt like giving up on many occasions, but a voice spoke up, a will fought to survive and keep faith. I chose to listen to it and immersed myself in nature's medicine around me and the natural reserve of medicine within me to heal. that’s how Barefoot Bohemia was born. 

12 years of living and breathing yoga has helped in the awakening and development of a dormant part of my brain that I believe every single one of us has the potential to activate. It has brought forth an understanding, a communicative bond of friendship and trust in my body that I believe saved me that day. The somewhat radical new techniques I've also discovered have brought me to where I am now against all the medical professionals that almost crushed my hope.

A yoga lifestyle is a continuous journey. It teaches us to approach life and our experiences with almost childlike innocence, curiosity and wonder, so barefoot by barefoot in the sand I'm continuing to believe the secrets my body is telling me.

“the word “emotions” comes from the latin word “emovere” meaning to move out or to give shape to. Our emotions essentially give direction to whatever we do.” from the book “The Body keeps the score” by dr. bessel van der kolk

as a linguist having studied languages before turning to yoga teaching, i believe that True health and happiness is about learning to communicate and understand the language your body speaks, moving and evolving with the changes that naturally occur within you, the people, relationships and life around you.

NO MATTER WHAT YOU'RE GOING THOUGH, LET ME HELP YOU RE-DISCOVER THE PERSON YOU really are AND EMBARK UPON THE LIFE AND THE HAPPINESS WE ARE ALL MEANT TO EXPERIENCE ON THIS PLANET, WITH YOUR BEST BUDDY BY YOUR SIDE…

my background in dance and teresa showed me how, now I WANT TO SHOW YOU...

join me in MY BAREFOOT BOHEMIA

Carolina x