Call me Ella
I am a writer, artist, and teacher of Yoga Nidra from Cape Town, South Africa.
I have a great love of the work of Carl Jung, a deep appreciation of inner work, and my respect for the process of Internal Family Systems continues to grow.
I work between South Africa and the UK — finding seashores wherever I can and writing about landscapes; both outer and inner.
Here, you will find my work as a Yoga Nidra teacher, with podcasts from the heart. While I have a great appreciation for talk therapy, I have found that my inner work practice of Yoga Nidra has given me the most consistency and confidence of Self.
Here, I aim to provide people with access to free resources so that they can start or add to an existing practice of inner work, or work with me one-to-one on a specific concern or interest.
I first encountered Yoga Nidra in 2015 when I arrived at an ashram in Karnataka, India after following a throwaway suggestion from a friend while I was travelling through the subcontinent. The ashram is run by Swami Yogaratna Saraswati who teaches introductory and advanced courses as well as running an annual Yoga Nidra teacher training programme.
I instantly fell in love with Yoga Nidra. I was swept up by an intense joy for being reunited with a forgotten part of myself, still so familiar despite having been so disconnected from it for so long. It was deeply moving that my inner world was there, waiting for me to return. It felt rich and expansive and just for me. In 2016 I returned to the ashram to train as a Yoga Nidra teacher.
Almost immediately, I saw how easy it is to take Jung’s concept of individuation — our life work of knowing ourselves; bringing together conscious with unconscious, psyche with soma, individual with collective — and overlay it on Yoga Nidra. I found the alchemy was so natural and effective — incorporating it into my training with Swami Yogaratna’s encouragement. I visited again in 2017 to spend a few months formulating a Yoga Nidra book with Swami Yogaratna and running the ashram when she was away travelling.
When I returned to the UK, I spent the next 7 years nurturing my unique approach to Yoga Nidra as a method of individuation. It wasn’t until early 2024 that I experienced Internal Family Systems with a Jungian analyst and discovered the joys of working with ‘parts’.
It was similar to what I had been doing already, but the results were so rapid, and the framework of IFS gave me greater ease at describing these internal systems to myself and others. The already very imaginative landscape of possibility suddenly broadened even more.
The work I do does not constitute as Jungian Analysis nor IFS therapy, but rather it is heavily informed by a deep personal study of both. It remains in integrity — a Yoga Nidra practice.
It is this approach that you encounter through the Afterglow Yogic Sleep podcast or through working with me directly. Through these podcasts, I open the door and invite in all who wish to enter.
This Inner Work
The Afterglow Yogic Sleep inner work is a relaxing secular practice that invites you to go within and spend time with your Self using themes that are — collective; common to most people, and — individual; more relevant to smaller groups.
Yoga Nidra is simply an effective tool, guiding us to sit with ourselves as we connect with internal wells of inspiration, support ourselves through chronic illness, meet the inner child, or even spend the time in a state of prolonged reverie.
The process may seem daunting, but it continually surprises me — how gentle and comforting it is. We are after all, entering our own home.
Turning the gaze within, we can walk through the hallways of our lives and find the most serene and jubilant parts of ourselves.
May the Afterglow be as warm as the journey is deep.
