Yellow Kite lands ‘powerful’ third book from Bates

Yellow Kite has secured Yoga Saved My Life, the third book from psychotherapist Sasha Bates. 

Liz Gough, executive publisher at Yellow Kite and Hodder Lifestyle, acquired world English rights from Jane Graham Maw at Graham Maw Christie Agency. The book is scheduled for publication in hardback on 9th June 2022. 

Since first turning to yoga to cope with the stress of a busy media career Bates has trained to be both a yoga teacher and a psychotherapist, teaching yoga in businesses, studios, and gyms and working as a psychotherapist within the NHS and higher education institutions. Bates now runs her own private psychotherapeutic practice and received training in trauma sensitive yoga, a specific form of yoga designed to help those suffering from post-traumatic stress and complex trauma.  

Yoga Saved My Life will “help readers realise how powerful yoga can be in transforming their daily lives and how, like therapy, it provides ways to work with the automatic habits that hold us back”. 

The publisher wrote: “[Bates] emphasises that yoga has value to everyone, and can offer relief to people dealing with the big issues and concerns many of us face today—anxiety, stress, depression, anger conflict, addiction, uncertainty, loneliness. The book will help readers develop self-awareness and find ways to relate to themselves and others better. Crucially, it emphasises that while we might come to yoga for health, we should stay for healing.”

Gough said: “I have been interested to watch the increase in the number of people turning to yoga for much more than the physical experience, but also as a tool for healing, overcoming emotional issues and mental wellbeing, so I am delighted to have found this book in an existing Yellow Kite author. Sasha is a wonderful writer, with years of experience teaching yoga and a specialism in using yoga to overcome traumatic experiences. She has an instinctive knack of knowing what her readers want and need to hear, and the book is extremely motivating and powerful.”

Bates added: “I used to find the slightly esoteric language used by yoga teachers quite alienating, but by mapping the concepts onto the world of psychotherapy it made greater sense to me. It’s so upsetting when people see yoga as just another form of exercise, or feel they have to be a certain body shape or size to be able to give it a go. Yoga is for everyone—whether you can touch your toes or fit into lycra leggings is completely irrelevant, it’s about learning how to make contact with yourself in a kinder, more understanding way.”