For the last 16 years I’ve been a child protection social worker, managing services all over the country. It’s a really challenging job, balancing all that lightness and darkness.

Yoga was something that got me through the recent years, which were quite traumatic, as there's been a lot of changes to Social Care, which are a whole other story.

I’d always really enjoyed the community action work I did as part of the Department of Education, which is very much about giving people the right support in the right place at the right time, something that social care doesn’t do. I felt that really aligned with my own values, and wondered if I could bring all that into a yoga studio?

That was the dream; to create somewhere that was truly a safe space, where people who already regularly did yoga would come (to help keep the lights on), but could also be an inclusive, accessible and authentic space in which to help many others.

I found a fantastic space at The Trampery on Fish Island, but launching a hot yoga studio during the hottest July on record was tough. The bridge over the canal from the Overground to Fish Island remaining closed for longer than planned continues to impact visitors, but I’d say we’re now beginning to make the kind of social impact I always envisioned.

We’ve had Queer Tantra classes, the local Muslim Motherhood group from the large Bengali community are running sessions, and with Love Tank, who are a charity supporting homeless migrants to attend sound baths and yoga classes. We’re serving a lot of groups who would have seen barriers to coming to yoga before and quite understandably felt the standard studio setup was inaccessible or simply ‘not for them’.

Social Yoga is coming at it from a very different place. I've been in touch with the head of social prescribing at Tower Hamlets about people being prescribed straight into us, providing more free community spaces and free activity spaces for local children, including running initiatives like a canal clean-up.

It’s very yogic to look after the spaces around you as well as your body and mind, and we can make a fun activity out of it, provide a free meal for participants and achieve something socially responsible all at once.

There's always a chronic shortage of spaces wherever I’ve worked, so we make a point of opening up the studio to all kinds of groups and uses, especially during the points in the day where we don't have classes. It all helps towards us becoming a real hub right at the heart of the Fish Island community.

With the children’s playground literally outside our front door, it’s an ideal place to connect with local parents. I've been working on conversation starters for the last 16 years, so I'm not bad at it.

One day, one of the children had left behind his coat and schoolbooks, and I could see it was from the Islamic school across the road. I approached some of the mums, and they gradually started speaking to me about yoga, eventually asking if I'm going to do a woman only class?

Now we have sold out Strength + Soul sessions, which provide dedicated Muslim women’s heath events, including everything from movement to nutrition, and they are smashing it on Instagram (in a way that my posts never seem to do)!

The other day, an older gentleman dropped in asking if we did and ‘seniors yoga’, which is not something I’d thought of. I realised that it’s because the studio really isn’t showy or flashy, so I think people can genuinely come along to join in with what we’re doing in stretching and mobility at any age or ability.

We offer places for people who are currently going through any kind of hardship, they just need to DM me @socialyoga_ldn for more info. And there's a monthly community class too, that’s always completely free.

Inside, the studio carries its own piece of Hackney Wick’s creative soul, too. The mural on the wall was painted by Jim Vision, a well-known East London graffiti artist with deep roots in the area. Our love and respect goes out to Jim for creating such a beautiful and unique piece of art here. He’s spent years shaping the visual landscape of Hackney Wick, so it’s a real joy to have him back in the studio, leaving his mark once again as the area continues to rise and transform into something new.

Social Yoga is at 91 Glow Court, Rookwood Way, E3 2XF / socialyoga.co.uk