Access Yoga UK
What Is Access Yoga UK?
Access Yoga UK is a specialist yoga training and CPD provider dedicated to making yoga genuinely accessible for young people within the neurodivergent and SEN community.
Born from a creative collaboration between neurodivergent and neurotypical minds, Access Yoga UK blends professional expertise, lived experience and heartfelt passion to support teachers in confidently sharing yoga with these incredible young people.
Our training is rooted in real life, real classrooms, real bodies, real emotions and is designed to meet young people exactly where they are.
Who Is The Training For?
This training is for anyone who wants to share yoga in an inclusive, supportive and trauma-aware way, including:
Yoga teachers wanting to work with neurodivergent and SEN children and teens
School staff, teaching assistants and SEN professionals
Youth workers, therapists and wellbeing practitioners
Parents and carers with a yoga background
Anyone passionate about inclusive movement and emotional regulation
No perfection required. Just curiosity, compassion and a willingness to learn.
Why Yoga for Neurodivergent & SEN Young People?
Yoga offers powerful, practical tools that can genuinely support daily life. When adapted with care and understanding, it can:
Reduce anxiety and overwhelm
Improve concentration, coordination and engagement in learning
Support balance, strength and flexibility
Improve sleep
Build confidence and self-esteem
Support emotional regulation and sensory processing
And just as importantly — it gives young people a space where they feel safe, seen and successful.
Key Training Models
Read the Room & Respond
Adapting your teaching in the moment with confidence
Setting the Scene
Understanding the lived experience of neurodivergent and SEN young people
Super Sensory
Exploring how sensory processing impacts behaviour, learning and daily life
Seeing Success
Developing your own strategies for meaningful, successful outcomes
Behaviour & Boundaries
Supporting positive experiences before, during and after class
Skilful Sequencing
What to include, what to avoid, and how to adapt yoga safely
Why Train With Access Yoga UK?
Because this isn’t tick-box training. And it’s definitely not yoga taught from a script.
At Access Yoga UK, we train real humans to support real young people with empathy, understanding and confidence.
Our courses are built on a powerful blend of professional expertise, lived neurodivergent experience and years of working directly with young people in SEN settings. Everything we teach is practical, adaptable and rooted in real life, not theory alone.
Our Training: What Makes It Different?
Access Yoga UK offers a truly unique training experience, combining:
Over 34 years of collective yoga teaching experience
Lived neurodivergent experience
Parenting experience within the neurodivergent community
Clinical, educational and research-based knowledge
This isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. It’s practical, thoughtful and grounded in real-world settings.
What You’ll Leave The Course With:
By the end of the course, you will have:
A balanced mix of lectures, group discussion, individual reflection and teaching practice
Ongoing support from a dedicated mentor throughout the course
A deeper understanding of the unique challenges faced by neurodivergent and SEN young people
What You Get
A 30-hour in-person specialist training
Expert teaching from an experienced, inclusive team
Ongoing mentorship and guidance
A supportive community of like-minded practitioners
Practical tools you can use immediately
Meet The Team Behind Access Yoga UK
Claire Saunders
Claire is a Senior Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance Professionals and a Rasa Yoga 200-hour Teacher Trainer. With over 20 years of teaching experience and more than 1,000 hours of yoga training, Claire brings deep knowledge, warmth and adaptability to everything she teaches.
Alongside her professional experience, Claire is also a mum to a neurodivergent teen. This combination allows her to blend technical expertise with lived understanding, helping young people grow in confidence and self-esteem.
Claire’s mission is simple but powerful: to open the benefits of yoga to those who need it most. She specialises in adapting practices for physical and neurological differences, meeting each student exactly where they are and supporting them to reach their fullest potential
Lisa Harwood
Lisa is a Registered Nurse with over 35 years’ experience across clinical and leadership roles, a PhD student, and an experienced yoga teacher (RYT-500). She has been teaching yoga for nine years, specialising in working with young people and adults with learning disabilities.
Lisa is co-author of the “Yoga for Me” approach and has published in SEN Magazine and the Learning Disabilities Nursing Journal. Her research explores the impact of yoga on balance in adults with learning disabilities and how this translates into everyday life.
Lisa is deeply passionate about making yoga inclusive, accessible and empowering and about supporting others to confidently teach yoga to this wonderful community
Olivia Saunders
Olivia has been teaching yoga since 2019, becoming the youngest ever TeenYoga teacher at just 13 years old. As an autistic teen, yoga has been a vital tool for self-regulation, sensory balance and emotional wellbeing.
Olivia now shares these tools with other neurodivergent and SEN teens, bringing authenticity, creativity and relatability into every class.
They often theme sessions around Greek mythology something they love creating a flexible structure that supports engagement, imagination and choice.
Olivia is passionate about making yoga feel safe, accessible and genuinely enjoyable for neurodivergent young people
Why We Are DifferentWe live this work
Our trainers don’t just teach inclusivity — they live it. From neurodivergent lived experience to parenting neurodivergent teens, our training is shaped by real understanding, not assumptions.
Practical, not overwhelming
You’ll learn what actually works in real classes, schools and community spaces. Clear tools. Simple language. No fluff, no pressure to be perfect.
Supportive from start to finish
You’re not left to figure it out alone. Every course includes ongoing guidance, mentoring and a genuinely supportive learning environment where questions are welcomed and curiosity is encouraged.
We teach you to adapt, not copy
Rather than rigid sequences, we help you understand why things work — so you can confidently adapt yoga for different needs, abilities and energy levels.
A safe space to grow
Our training spaces are calm, inclusive and judgement-free. Whether you’re neurodivergent, neurotypical, newly qualified or highly experienced, you’ll be met exactly where you are.
Community that lasts
When you train with Access Yoga UK, you become part of a like-minded community that continues long after the course ends. Support, connection and shared learning are a big part of what we do.
In short?
We don’t train you to “manage” young people.
We train you to understand, support and empower them — through movement, breath and compassion.
If you want training that feels human, inclusive and genuinely meaningful, you’re in the right place.