The Heart of the Matter
Level 2 Training-Retreat · Ubud, Bali ·
13–17 September 2026
Non-residential · 20 places only
For 50-hr graduates and kindred colleagues at the intersection of yoga, mental health, and social justice.
Dear Ones,
In the years since I first offered the 50-hour Training in Teaching Yoga for Trauma, Anxiety, Depression & Body Image, one question has returned again and again: When will we have a chance to gather again for something more?
So many of you who love this work have been longing for a deeper dive. A chance to explore new material and deepen what we've learned, whilst also expressing a longing for space to peer into the heart of what sustains us.
Over the years, I’ve realised what’s needed - and what I want to gather to explore with you - isn’t simply more training.
It’s spaces that can hold both rigour and rest. As well as spaces in this world of individualism and disconnect, to grow our community of like-minded practitioners in-person.
Places where we can think deeply and put down the load we carry as facilitators/therapists/yoga teachers/adults... and deep-feeling humans.
Where the body, the heart, and the work can feel that they more viscerally belong to each other again. Especially if we've experienced the edges - or depths - of burnout or disillusionment from working or living within industries and systems of harm or exhaustion.
In this way, something in me has kept calling for a fusion of retreat and training: a way to keep learning while resting in beauty, belonging, and the slow rhythm of community practice.
I chose Ubud, Bali for this experience, because it's a place so dear to my own heart, and one that I feel nurtures the kinds of deep-dive enquiry we'll be gathering to explore. At the intersection of nature, yoga practice, yoga industry, tourism and spirituality, Bali is a place that invites us to touch the heart of the matter in our somatics, our ethics and our relationships with land and one another.
And so, The Heart of the Matter came to be - a five-day Level 2 training-retreat in Ubud for those who love this work: where yoga meets psychology, where social justice meets soul, where the nervous system meets the body of the world.
A place to deepen, replenish, and remember why you began.
Who it’s for
This program is open to all graduates of the 50-hour Training Teaching Yoga for Trauma, Anxiety, Depression & Body Image, as well as to others whose work genuinely meets this intersection of yoga, mental health, and social justice.
Join us if you wish to connect with a community of likeminded practitioners who also love these dialectical, compassionate spaces of practice and conversation.
Guided Somatic Practice - Twice Daily
Begin and end each day in the shala with practices that restore rhythm to the body and soften the edges of the mind. These sessions weave yoga, rest, and gentle movement through a trauma-sensitive lens - invitational, embodied, and accessible.
Deep-Dive Training Workshops
Each morning offers a training workshop exploring the living principles of dialectics, systems, and emergence. Expect frameworks you can take straight into your teaching, therapy, or facilitation - balanced with open conversation, creative mapping, and embodied integration.
Rest, Integrate, Play
Afternoons are supported with a blend of free time and (optional) facilitated enquiry/reflection. You might rest, wander, write, swim, or join a guided creative process to let the morning’s learning settle somewhere deeper. Nothing to keep up with, nothing to get right. Just space for the work to digest and find its way into lived experience. The location of our retreat is itself conducive to deep rest, and there's an on-site wellness spa to enjoy your one-hour traditional Balinese massage (included).
Traditional Balinese Massage
Included in your retreat experience is an hour-long treatment at the retreat centre spa. Unwind and savour your quiet time with this gift of an on-site traditional massage.
Daily Organic Buffet Lunch
Nourish your body with a delicious daily buffet of fresh, local dishes, made with ingredients grown in the organic gardens surrounding the yoga shala.
Flower Mandala Making
One of the most treasured details of Bali for so many is the abundance of flowers that grow on the island. You'll have a chance to practice a flower-mandala meditation to draw on the beauty of place as part of our creative and somatic play.
Sample Daily Rhythm
Our days begin in the shala, surrounded by the garden setting of our lush green oasis in Ubud. The mornings offer structure and study; the afternoons invite quiet reflective time or (optional) guided reflective processes.
Every part of the schedule is designed to be optional and choice-based. You'll be invited to any or all of the sessions below, but respected in your capacity to interact with the program in a way that best supports your own needs.
7:00–8:00 am
Somatic practice in the shala (pictured) at our beautiful retreat space.
8:00–9:30 am
Breakfast - wander to one of Ubud’s gorgeous cafés, order on-site at the restaurant, or return to your chosen accommodation to rest and refuel.
9:30 am–12:00 pm
Morning training sessions exploring:
- Applied Dialectics – working with plural truths as a living, embodied practice in therapeutic and yoga spaces
- Settling the Body within Systems – a ten-layered model weaving kosha theory with ecological systems thinking
- Emergent Strategy as Embodied Process – exploring spanda (the pulse of expansion and contraction) as a way of staying with uncertainty
- The Weave – tantric perspectives on transcendence, calling (gentle) bullshit on industry harm, and practising beauty as a form of tethering
- The Work that Reconnects – integrating trauma-sensitive yoga, deep ecology, and rest as radical practice inspired by The Nap Ministry and Joanna Macy
12:00–3:00 pm
A daily buffet lunch (included) followed by open, unscheduled time - nap, wander, or dive deeper into reflection.
3:00–5:00 pm
Afternoon sessions for creative and somatic inquiry related to the morning’s themes - always optional and invitational.
5:00–6:00 pm
Gentle somatic practice to integrate and settle the day.
Additional delights: There will also be details, flourishes and offerings woven into this rhythm to enhance your personal experience - as well as the collective - of being held and cared for. These details will be revealed closer to the retreat...
Structure & Accommodation
The training-retreat is intentionally non-residential, allowing you to shape the experience according to your own needs and budget.
You’re welcome to stay on-site at the village garden oasis of Swasti Eco Cottages, where our shala is located. Or choose one of the many beautiful nearby stays - from simple homestays to lush villas.
✨ Please note: Use of the pool at Swasti Eco Cottages is reserved for guests staying on-site. If that’s important to you, you may wish to book there directly.
If you choose to stay elsewhere, you're welcome of course to take time each day to rest or return to your accommodation between sessions.
Practical Details
- Dates: 13–17 September 2026
- Location: Swasti Eco Cottages, Ubud, Bali
- Group size: Capped at 20 participants to protect intimacy and group connection.
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Includes: All training and retreat sessions, course materials; one-hour traditional balinese massage; welcome gift; sacred spring walk; flower mandala making; daily organic buffet lunch. Bonus access to 4-week intro to Trauma Sensitive Yoga course online.
More lush schedule surprises to come...
- Not included: Accommodation, flights, airport transfers, meals not mentioned, travel insurance.
Everything about this experience is intended to be trauma-informed, choice-based, and grounded in the principles we live and teach - agency, attunement, and rest as radical practice.
Bonus Inclusion
As soon as you sign up for Bali 2026 - whether by full payment or payment plan - you’ll receive immediate access to my 4-Week Intro to Trauma-Sensitive Yoga online course as a bonus gift.
This self-paced course is designed to support your personal practice rather than professional teaching, offering a gentle foundation for reconnecting with your own body through accessible movement and mindfulness.
It’s intended as a gesture to begin resourcing yourself ahead of our time together in Bali.
Your Facilitator
Sarah Ball is a registered senior yoga teacher with Yoga Australia, who has been teaching yoga since 2003, practicing since 1995, and regularly facilitates and mentors on level one and two yoga teacher trainings as well as yoga therapy trainings.
She is also a qualified social worker, counsellor, and art therapist, specialising in mental health, social justice, positive body image, eating disorders, and trauma recovery.
Sarah has developed a certified 50-hour advanced yoga training in Teaching Yoga for Trauma, Anxiety, Depression and Body Image. She also teaches regular 8-week courses on Yoga for Anxiety and Depression, and the Body Love Yoga 1-day workshop program.
Sarah has taught the Trauma Informed Practice and Mental Health subjects in the Bachelor of Social Work program at the University of Wollongong.
She also runs a counselling clinic both online and in-person in the Illawarra, NSW Australia, where she specialises in eating disorder and body image recovery and support.
Booking & Terms
There has already been enormous interest in this offering, and with only 20 places, it will likely fill quickly.
To secure your place, please select your preferred payment option. Upon registration, you’ll receive a confirmation email, bonus course access, and welcome details.
No one plans to cancel a retreat, but life can be unpredictable. When you enrol - whether in full or on a payment plan - you’re committing to the full retreat fee, as all payments are non-refundable and non-transferable to future offerings.
If something unexpected arises, you’re welcome to transfer your place to another graduate or someone immersed in similar work, pending approval. I encourage you to organise travel insurance that suits your needs - it’s the best protection for peace of mind when booking international travel.
By securing your place, you acknowledge and agree to these Terms & Conditions, which are designed to honour both your commitment and the sustainability of the offering.
Please review the full Terms & Conditions here under the section International Retreats & Trainings.
If you’ve been craving a space to think, rest, and refresh your connection what called you to this work in the first place...
The Heart of the Matter is that space.
Five days to breathe again.
To be held in the rhythm of learning and rest.
To be met by kindred hearts who understand the depth of this path.
Come as you are - tired, curious, energised, depleted, or full of hope and vitality. There is room for all of it here.
I can’t wait to gather with you in Bali.