Empowering Health Through Yoga and Social Prescribing

March 2025, Lorraine Close, Outreach Director, Edinburgh Community Yoga

In Edinburgh, a quiet revolution is happening in communities around the city where people recognise that the potential of yoga is not just about physical flexibility and standing on one leg but also about creating social connections and supporting mental and physical health through empowerment, embodiment and relationship building.

Edinburgh Community Yoga has been leading the way in the field of yoga on social prescription in Scotland in recent years, offering high quality trauma informed yoga classes by referral in and around Edinburgh. This week we celebrated Social Prescribing Day 2025, we are reflecting on how yoga is playing an essential role in improving the health and well-being of individuals in our communities and how we develop our programmes to be sustainable and embedded in the communities we work in.

What is Social Prescribing?

Social prescribing is an innovative approach in healthcare where health and social care workers including GPs, community link workers and nurses, refer individuals to non-clinical services that can improve their health and well-being. These services often include arts, exercise, nature-based activities, or volunteering activities that focus on the whole person, not just their medical symptoms. Social prescribing can help tackle loneliness, mental health issues, chronic stress, and physical conditions like chronic pain.

Yoga, as a tool in social prescribing, is gaining increasing recognition for its ability to improve both mental and physical health. It offers a holistic approach, combining breathwork, physical postures and mindfulness all of which have been shown to reduce stress, improve mood, and enhance overall well-being.

Edinburgh Community Yoga: A Space for Everyone

At Edinburgh Community Yoga we embody and practice the principles of inclusivity, healing, and community well-being. Established with the aim of making yoga accessible to people of all backgrounds we actively encourage individuals from diverse communities, particularly those who are marginalised as a result of systemic injustice, social isolation, financial challenges, or physical and mental health difficulties. We meet people where they are with unconditional positive regard. This concept is key to our mission and vision.

Our approach is rooted in the belief that yoga should not be a luxury but a tool for everyone to improve their quality of life. Whether a chair yoga session for those living with chronic pain or a trauma informed practice for individuals with PTSD, Edinburgh Community Yoga aims to create nurturing spaces where people can explore present moment experience, embodied practice and being in a group, forming connections and relationships. Tea, fruit and biscuits are all part of the class and we make time for social connections to develop, facilitated by our trauma informed outreach teachers and peer support workers.

Our work in the field of social prescribing has significantly expanded in the last 2 years. In response to the recognition that signposting to classes was not working as a result of the significant barriers to accessing wellness spaces that many people experience we created a referral system that allows local health and social care practitioners to initiate a social prescribing pathway for those who might benefit from our programmes. The key component of this process is the work that is carried out by our team, and in particular our Operations Manager Elle O’Donnell to form relationships with those who are referred and support them to attend. This often involves several weeks of phone calls, emails and text messages and this support is ongoing once people attend. The trust that is developed as part of this relationship building is key to the success of our programmes but takes time and investment of resource.

We have programmes running in Sighthill, Craigmillar, The Gyle and Westerhailes in Edinburgh and recently have expanded this work to Midlothian and Methil in Fife. To date we have more than 200 referrals with over 150 people joining across 10 funded classes. You can read more on our projects here

Sessions are aimed at improving physical and mental health, fostering a sense of community, and helping individuals reclaim a sense of agency in their lives. Our yoga programmes provide a sense of hope, purpose and meaning for participants, factors that are recognised as key to wellbeing.

“Because we have bonded as a group, I can see a real difference in people before and after the class. The group as several core members and we are building a trusted friendship helping each other open up to each other, so it’s not just the physical benefit” – participant Methil Chair Yoga class

We envision a model of integration of our work with primary care services to support wellbeing in Scotlands most deprived communities. While we recognise the complex challenge around health equity and the fact that yoga will not change the root causes of health inequality and socio economic deprivation we believe in the work that we do and we see the benefit for those who join our programmes and feel empowered as a result.

“Edinburgh Community Yoga have given me space and hope to discover myself and for that I am eternally grateful. I also believe I have found friends and find myself becoming a friend which I have never done in any meaningful way that enriches my life.” – participant Wester Hailes

In partnership with the University of Edinburgh we are, at present, conducting a realist evaluation of social prescribing in areas of socio-economic deprivation. This project focusses on what works, for who and in what circumstance; aiming to use realist philosophy to explore some of the complexities around the social prescribing process. We hope this project, funded by the Carnegie Trust, will help us to build the evidence base in this field in order to support better funding and recognition of the benefit of social prescribing.

We are hugely grateful to work with health and social care providers including GPs, community link workers, addiction recovery workers and social workers who believe in our holistic approach and who champion this work in their fields. You can read a previous blog post by Dr Hannah Dakin a GP in Methil Fife who we work closely with and who is an advocate of Lifestyle Medicine in the community.

As a celebration of Social Prescribing Day we are launching a special fundraiser to raise money to support our chair yoga programmes on social prescription in Methil Fife and at Space to be at the Gyle. We are aiming to raise £2000 by the end of April to keep these classes running for the rest of the year so that more people can keep benefiting from yoga. If you would like to support our campaign please donate and help us continue our work.