Emily Flaherty Advanced Triple Vagal Method® (TVM®) practitioner

About Me

Emily shares a brief glimpse at her dark night of the soul, filled with trauma, tragedy and hard lessons learned through lived experience.

About me

I began my healing journey at 18 years old, following a profound existential crisis and mental breakdown, during my early years at university. At that time, I was living with extreme anxiety, disconnection, and a deep sense of instability while struggling with substance use. With very little money and few resources, I found myself attending a weekly Kundalini Yoga class. It offered me a sober pathway back into my body, and is something I often say saved my life.

What began as a way to cope soon became a path of transformation. Through yoga, breathwork, meditation, and community, I experienced an alternative way of being — one rooted in presence, connection, and self-regulation rather than survival.

Over the following years, I immersed myself deeply in practice and study. I completed a 500-hour Yoga Teacher Training at the Tree School of Yoga, travelled solo to India at 21 to study yoga, Buddhism, and Ayurveda, and sat numerous Buddhist courses and Vipassana meditation retreats. While these practices supported me greatly, anxiety and seeking were still very present, teaching me that healing is not linear.

I later spent five years working in schools with children with Special Educational Needs and behavioural difficulties. The work was rewarding but emotionally demanding, and the limitations within the system often prevented the depth of care I longed to offer. Experiencing burnout during this time deepened my understanding of nervous system overwhelm — both in the children I supported and within myself — and further shaped the direction of my work.

In my mid-twenties, after making significant life changes I continued searching for stability and belonging. This led me to teach English abroad in China, where a tragic accident resulted in the death of my housemate and left me hospitalised. This event shattered my sense of safety and sent me into the deepest existential crisis of my life.

Despite years of spiritual practice, I found myself unable to regulate my nervous system or access relief. It was only through time, support, and eventually discovering trauma-informed approaches that true integration became possible.

Alongside my spiritual practice, I began exploring holistic therapies as another doorway into understanding the body and its capacity to heal. I trained in various modalities, each one offering a different lens on nervous system regulation, energy, and emotional integration.

What I came to understand over time is that healing is rarely one breakthrough moment. It is a gradual unwinding — layers revealing themselves when the body feels safe enough. Each modality added a piece to the puzzle, deepening both my personal integration and my capacity to hold space for others.

In 2019, I returned to India to teach at a yoga school, spending six months immersed in practice, teaching, and community. Having already travelled to India before, this time felt different — less about seeking and more about deepening. Returning to the birthplace of yoga as a teacher invited a new layer of responsibility, humility, and devotion to the path.

When the COVID pandemic began, I was forced to return suddenly to the UK. The uncertainty in the world seemed to echo something unresolved within me. Another dark night of the soul began quietly surfacing, bringing unprocessed experiences from my teenage years back into awareness.

Not long after, I felt called to Mexico. There, removed from the familiar once again, unresolved grief, guilt, anxiety, and earlier life trauma rose fully to the surface. What followed was a profound period of reckoning and rebirth. While plant medicine offered temporary relief, it was the discovery of the Triple Vagal Method that brought lasting, embodied change. For the first time, my anxiety truly dissolved — not through bypassing, but through nervous system regulation and integration.

I now live, work, and teach from this embodied place. My journey has shown me that healing happens when the body is met with safety, patience, and the right support — and that timing matters.

Today, my dedication is to trauma-transformational work through retreats, workshops, and in the very near future trainings. I continue to study, learn, and refine my craft, and one day hope to share my full raw story in a book.

For now, I look forward to walking alongside you on your own healing journey.

Emily Flaherty

Accreditation

Qualifications

500hr Yoga, Meditation & Relaxation TTC - Tree School of Yoga 2010

Ayurvedic Massage Training - Baba Massage Centre 2011

Sound Healing & Theraputic Tools -Kathe Reade 2015

Level 2 Diploma in Complimentary Therapies ITEC - White Rose Centre of Expertise 2018

Level 3 Diploma in Complimentary Therapies VCTC - White Rose Centre of Expertise 2019

Pregnancy Massage - White Rose Centre of Expertise 2019

Myofascial Release Diploma - Gateway workshops 2021

Level 2 Triple Vagal Method® (TVM®) - The Somatic Institute 2022

Chi Nei Tsang Level 2 - Sunshine Massage School 2024

Advanced Triple Vagal Method® (TVM®) - The Somatic Institute 2025

Dark night of the Soul

When the dark night of the soul arrives,
and the ground is swept from beneath your feet—

Remember…

There is always a glimmer in the night,
even when the stars are hidden.
The darkness must be fully entered,
fully felt.

Let the seed within you lie dormant
in the sacred soil of the unknown,
held by unseen forces,
listening for the moment to rise.

Trust the descent.
Trust the stillness.

Feel it all—
and allow yourself to be remade
on the other side.

"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time"

- T.S. Eliot

Ever feel like you are sinking?

That the pain inside may never stop?

What if getting better doesn’t mean pushing pain away,
but learning how to meet it?

With TVM, that’s what we do—we help you get better at feeling all that arises within the body, building your capacity to stay present with difficult, complex emotions.

Often, these are the feelings that have been exiled in a society that doesn’t create space for shame, anger, rage, guilt, grief, and despair.

In our 1:1 TVM sessions, all of these emotions are welcome, held within a safe, therapeutic, and healing space.

In your darkest hour, when all you can feel is despair, there is a path—a way forward and through.

Is it time to start your TVM journey today?

Book Now

" Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became the butterfly" - Chuang Tzu

Shifting into the Light

What Does It Mean to Live an Optimized Life?

Living an optimized life doesn’t mean perfection, constant productivity, or having everything “figured out.” For someone emerging from trauma, anxiety, depression, burnout, or nervous system dysregulation, optimization can begin with very simple, deeply meaningful shifts.

It might look like sleeping through the night for the first time in years.

Choosing to attend a new movement or exercise class.

Eating regular meals and feeling present in your body again.

Optimization is personal. It looks different for everyone—and it evolves. As your nervous system becomes more regulated, your capacity expands. What once felt impossible becomes accessible, and your internal “goal posts” naturally begin to move. With more regulation comes more choice, freedom, and self-trust.

A Commitment to Your Healing

This work is an investment in yourself.

I am calling in clients who feel a genuine readiness to work with their bodies—clients who are willing to meet the process with curiosity, consistency, and care. Somatic bodywork is not a quick fix; it is a relationship with your nervous system, built over time.

I ask for a solid commitment because real change requires presence and participation. Imagine redirecting even a portion of the time and energy spent in self-doubt, survival patterns, or limiting beliefs into learning how to feel safe, supported, and alive in your body.

This work is for those who are ready to take responsibility for their healing, while being held with compassion, attunement, and respect.

When the body feels safe and tuned into it's innate wisdom, life begins to open.