Holistic Aquila

02/01/2026

Hi, I’m Astrid 🌿

I’m a holistic and somatic therapist supporting people navigating burnout, chronic illness, and trauma recovery.

My work is rooted in somatic therapy, trauma-informed practice, and nervous system regulation, with training in complex PTSD, massage modalities, Reiki, and shamanic practice. I take an integrative approach that honours mind, body, and spirit, helping you feel more connected to yourself your body 🤍

My practice is also shaped by several years working in the mental health sector, including within the NHS and on psychiatric wards. I bring this clinical insight alongside holistic and earth-based ways of healing.

I’m queer, chronically ill, and in remission from complex PTSD. My lived experience deeply informs my work, how I hold space, and the compassion I bring 🌱

I value community, collective care, and advocating for change. You’ll often find me outdoors, grounding in nature, listening to the land, or with my dog Topaz 🐾 my familiar and constant companion.

I love bridging earth and spirit, weaving the body back into relationship with the natural world, and creating spaces where slowness, support, and authenticity are welcome.

Outside of work you’ll find me in outdoor saunas, swimming in the sea, drinking endless cups of tea, and savouring slow mornings ☕🌊

If you’re new here, you’re very welcome. 🧡

29/12/2025

Glimmers of 2025 ✨

This year has taught me to slow down, to soften into acceptance, and to stop pushing through. There have been so many shed skins, so many quiet and beautiful glimmers, a real meeting with life’s duality: expansion alongside contraction.

I had a very successful start to the year business-wise, through both my holistic work and modelling. I was in a privileged position where I had to turn down more work than I could hold, and that in itself became a lesson in slowing down.

I shared many beautiful spaces, held events and containers, created, connected, spent time in nature, launched somatics, and allowed myself to be deeply moved by community and creativity. It was a big year for business and an equally big year of learning where my edges are.

More than anything, this year has shown me the importance of honouring my health and letting it lead. That’s something I’ll be carrying forward with much more intention.

As we move into the year of the Horse, I’m looking forward to more balance, steadier momentum, and growth that feels sustainable and embodied.

Wishing you all a gentle and beautiful transition into the new year.
All my love,
Astrid 🤍

28/12/2025

For many of us, especially those navigating the world with bodies or minds that don’t fit the neurotypical pace of productivity, rest isn’t optional. It’s a vital part of our healing toolkit. More than that, it’s a part of our survival.

As a neurodivergent and chronically ill somatic therapist, I’ve learned that rest isn’t earned. It’s not a secondary reward after working ourselves into the ground. It’s an innate part of being human, as Tricia Hersey talks about at length in her incredible book Rest is Resistance.

I need to rest.

My work in somatic therapy online, reiki training, and other holistic healing offerings, simply would not be possible without my own rest practice.

Of course, it’s an ongoing exploration - I don’t always make enough time to rest, sometimes life happens, medical admin and other responsibilities pile up and the rest I need can get impacted. That’s life.

But the important thing is that rest is on my radar.
It’s seen as a matter of priority, a must have not just a “nice-to-have.” And this is a big shift in perspective that I support my clients to make too.

It’s a shift that allowed me to take extended time off work over the holiday period to truly deeply rest.
May this upcoming month of January offer you small moments of stillness and hopefully, a budding feeling inside that you truly do deserve to rest. 🌙

22/12/2025

Community care in its truest form 🧡
Wheeled me to the sea at Solstice, cooked me dinner, walked Topaz and held space for me post surgery this weekend with so much ease and love. 8 years of friendship, hundreds of versions of ourselves, and still it feels like home every time.

So grateful for connections that are effortless, unmasked, and deeply safe. 🙏🏻

12/12/2025

From Snake to Horse 🐍🐎
A year of shedding > a year of movement.

If 2025 slowed you down, brought health flare-ups, emotional unraveling, or asked you to let go of ways you once survived -
you weren’t failing.
Your nervous system was asking for safety.

Snake years work quietly and internally:
deep healing, old patterns surfacing, identity shifts that can’t be rushed.

2026 carries Horse energy - not urgency, but supported movement.
Momentum that comes from regulation, not force.
Forward motion that honours your capacity.

I’m stepping into this next chapter with more accessibility, gentleness, and nervous-system-aware support, for my body and for the people I work with.

✨ January sessions + Reiki trainings open
✨ DM “HEALING” for 1:1 support or upcoming offerings

With care,
Astrid 🌿

11/12/2025

Hello loves 🧡
I have a little update to share.

From January, I’ll be moving my in-person work back to in Leith. This decision comes with a full heart, because my time in Portobello has meant so much to me. It was a chapter of healing, slowing down, and rebuilding - and I’m still very close to the studio and the beautiful community there. I’m so grateful for the warmth, support, and space Portobello held for me.

As I prepare for a move and step into a new season, it’s becoming clearer that Soft Soul Studio is the space that aligns most deeply with both my own accessibility needs and the needs of the clients I support.
✨ It’s ground floor
✨ Fully wheelchair accessible
✨ Has a wheelchair accessible bathroom
✨ And offers easier access from my new home location

With more of my work centred around chronic illness, trauma, and nervous system support and with many of my clients having accessibility needs, it feels right to move into a space that reflects the values of inclusivity and ease that are at the heart of my practice.

I’ll be working one day a week back in the studio, with the rest of my offerings continuing to grow online.

✨ My books are officially open for January, and Reiki training inquiries have already begun coming in.
If you’re wanting to begin or deepen your healing journey in the new year, I have a few limited spots available for both trainings and 1:1 support.

DM me “HEALING” for more information.
With love,
Astrid 🌿

06/12/2025

I want to begin by acknowledging that being able to plan some of my work around my menstrual cycle is a privilege. Many people who bleed do not have flexible workplaces, supportive structures, or financial stability that allow rest or cyclical planning. I don’t take this lightly.

We live in a world built around a 24-hour masculine-aligned rhythm - not the shifting 28-day cycles many of us hold in our bodies.
So if you’ve ever felt like you “should” keep the same energy every day… that pressure isn’t coming from your body. It’s coming from the system.

When I do have the capacity and choice, I work with my cycle as an embodiment practice:

🌼 I book my higher-output work around ovulation
🍂 I slow down before my bleed
❄️ I rest more during menstruation
🌸 I follow my natural rise again afterwards

Not perfectly. Not every month. But intentionally.

This isn’t about productivity.
It’s about self-relationship, body trust, and reducing the ways I override my nervous system.

And if full cyclical living isn’t accessible to you (for systemic, financial, work, or caretaker reasons), even small things count:
a softer morning, a gentler expectation, a no instead of a yes, five minutes to breathe.

Your cycle isn’t the problem.
The world we live in makes it harder than it needs to be - and that deserves to be named.

If you want support to reconnect with your body, regulate your nervous system, or explore cyclical living in a way that respects your reality, my link in bio has ways we can work together 💛

01/12/2025