Welcome to Lighten Up Fitness
At Lighten Up Fitness, we believe true wellbeing involves the whole person.
Our evidence-informed approach brings together counselling, trauma-informed yoga, mindfulness, breathwork, and nervous system education to help you process stress, build resilience, and reconnect with yourself.
Our Core Principle: We focus on safety, choice, collaboration, and empowerment. You move at your own pace, and there is never any pressure to talk about or do anything you aren’t ready for.
-- We Support You --
Person-Centred Counselling
A safe, compassionate space to talk through life’s challenges. Together, we identify practical strategies to navigate:
- Stress, anxiety, and feeling overwhelmed
- Grief, loss, and major life transitions
- Low confidence and setting healthy boundaries
- Complex relationship dynamics
Trauma-Informed Yoga & Mindful Movement
Unlike traditional yoga classes, there is no pressure to get a pose “right” or be flexible.
Participants are encouraged to move at their own pace, guide and direct their own body and choose the options that suit their own self care and wellbeing (rather than feeling that they have to keep up with the class).
Focus: Grounding, choice, gentle movement, and self-compassion.
Accessibility: Adaptable for all mobility levels, physical abilities, and injuries.
Nervous System Education & Regulation
Long periods of stress leave your nervous system stuck in “high alert.” We teach you simple breath and body-based tools to:
- Notice stress signals early before overwhelm sets in
- Calm physical tension using targeted breathwork
- Shift from reactive states to thoughtful responses
What to Expect in a Session
Every session provides a safe, compassionate and client-centred space where individuals can explore their experiences through both conversation and body-based practices.
It is tailored to your immediate needs and may include:
Check-in & Conversation: Exploring what is currently happening in your life.
Body & Breath Awareness: Simple grounding techniques to settle the nervous system.
Gentle Movement or Yoga: Optional, self-paced practices to release physical tension.
Practical Takeaways: Tools you can immediately use at home or work.
Our services are designed to complement, not replace, medical or psychological care.
NDIS Capacity Building & Mind-Body Support
Helping participants build independence, emotional regulation, and daily living skills.
Capacity Building for Everyday Life
We partner with NDIS participants, support coordinators, and plan managers to deliver tailored programs that support personal goals.
We offer flexible delivery modes:
- In-Person (One-to-One)
- Online / Telehealth
- Small Group Workshops
Core Skill Areas:
- Managing Emotions & Stress
- Learn physical and cognitive strategies to recognize triggers, regulate your nervous system, and manage anxiety before it turns into overwhelm.
- Daily Independence & Routines
- Build practical skills that support daily self-care, consistent routines, and confidence in community participation.
- Body Awareness & Self-Care
- Develop a healthy relationship with your body through gentle, choice-based movement that respects your physical boundary preferences.
- The Trauma-Informed Difference
- Your Body. Your Choice. Your Practice.
- Trauma-informed yoga focuses on agency. You decide how much you participate, when to rest, and how you move.
- Participant Suitability
Our NDIS pathways support individuals experiencing:
- Psychosocial disabilities
- Stress, anxiety, or emotional regulation challenges
- Trauma-related conditions
- Social isolation or major life transitions
- Chronic health conditions impacting mobility
About Rachael Rogan- Founder of Lighten Up Fitness
Rachael creates compassionate spaces where people can reconnect with themselves and develop tools for lifelong wellbeing.
For more than 20 years, Rachael Rogan has been helping people move, breathe, reflect and reconnect through yoga, mindfulness, movement and wellbeing.
As the founder of Lighten Up Fitness, Rachael brings together her experience as a Registered Counsellor, wellbeing facilitator, yoga teacher and movement professional to offer an approach to wellbeing that recognises the whole person – mind, body, emotions, relationships and lived experience.
After more than two decades of teaching, she continues to believe that yoga and mindfulness is about far more than flexibility, strength or getting into a particular shape.
Sometimes, all you need is to slow down in the right space, with the right support and the opportunity to reconnect with the resilience that is already within you.
A whole-person centred approach
Rachael’s work sits at the intersection of counselling, trauma-informed yoga, mindfulness, breathwork and nervous system regulation.
Her approach is grounded in evidence-informed practice while remaining practical and accessible. Sessions are designed to help people develop greater awareness of their thoughts, emotions and physical responses, while building practical skills for regulation, resilience and everyday wellbeing.
Rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach, Rachael meets people where they are.
For some, that might mean talking things through. For others, it may be movement, breathing, mindfulness or simply having permission to pause.
Often, it is a combination of these things.
Rachael has spent many years working alongside people experiencing mental health challenges, life transitions, grief, stress and periods of significant change.
She has facilitated programs through organisations including New Horizons, Quest for Life Foundation, the SESLHD Recovery & Wellbeing College and the Department of Housing, delivering yoga, mindfulness and trauma-informed wellbeing programs.
She has also worked with young people, community groups and corporate organisations including ANZ, EY and Westpac, bringing wellbeing practices into a wide range of environments.
Her work with Quest for Life and mental health and community organisations has strengthened her passion for creating programs that are not only calming and restorative, but also practical, giving people tools they can take with them into everyday life.
Qualifications & professional experience
Rachael’s professional background includes:
- Registered Counsellor with ACA
- More than 20 years’ experience teaching yoga and meditation
- Extensive experience in trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness
- Mental health and wellbeing facilitation
- Corporate wellbeing facilitation
- Experience working with community, youth, mental health and wellbeing organisations
Her ongoing professional development reflects her commitment to understanding the relationship between the mind, body and nervous system, and to continuing to learn as the wellbeing field evolves.
More than a profession
Rachael’s relationship with yoga began when she was just 11 years old.
What started as a personal practice became a lifelong exploration of movement, mindfulness and the human experience and eventually a career dedicated to helping others discover the benefits for themselves.
Community Yoga: Come As You Are
Welcome to a warm, inclusive community of compassionate people of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds.
We are not about trends or perfection—we keep things real, fun, and authentic. Here, we build each other up, cheer each other on, and encourage you to simply be the best version of yourself.
All you need to do is roll out your mat and join us.
What to Expect in Class
1. Choice and Agency
Your practice is entirely your own. You are encouraged to move at your own pace, listen to your body, and choose the options that best support your wellbeing. There is never any pressure to keep up with the rest of the class.
2. Curiosity and Inner Connection
Through an adaptive combination of posture, movement, and breath, you’ll build a deeper connection with your body. As you flow through familiar poses, you are invited to turn your focus inward, observe your inner experience without judgment, and reconnect with your inner strength.
3. Balanced, Mindful Movement
Our classes combine fluid movements, steady holds, and slow, intuitive poses:
Challenge & Ease: Move dynamically with your breath while taking the time to find comfort and stability in every pose.
Sensitivity & Space: Gently adjust into bends and flexes at a pace that avoids overwhelm.
Rest & Self-Inquiry: Enjoy moments of quiet pause to restore balance, harmony, and peace of mind.
Safe, Accessible, and Functional
We carefully structure our programs and teaching styles to ensure every practice is functional, safe, and accessible to everybody.
Corporate presenter and Facilitator
Rachael leads Yoga, Mindfulness, Meditation and Wellbeing workshops that are relevant, experiential and accessible to modern life.
Rachael is an accomplished public speaker and corporate presenter. Working with The Quest For Life Foundation, Adopt Change and Pinnacle Health Group- Westpac, ANZ, Ernst and Young.
As a facilitator, she quickly establishes rapport with her clients due to her warmth, openness and authenticity in supporting people to embrace healthy, efficient habits and presence of mind.
Rachael is an outcome-driven facilitator who understands the challenges of integrating new habits.
Committed to delivering a highly collaborative, relaxed and participative learning environment – supporting participants to embrace lifestyle changes and to apply the tools and techniques which will see them strengthen their wellbeing and bolster resilience.
It is her ambition to empower a culture of wellness where employees resilience and wellbeing is at the heart of every business.
Mental Health
Yoga classes that promote social connection, encourage participation and inclusion, and focus on breath, postures, mindfulness, and meditation.
The ability to inspire self-connection and improve the quality of life of the individuals we work with through the tools of yoga is at the heart of the service we provide.
Rachael has also worked closely with councils, mental health sectors and NSW Health in the delivery of her carefully curated Yoga programs.
She designs and delivers specialised yoga programs to people impacted by mental health challenges.
Designed to create safety, build connection and grow capacity.
The specialised programs utilise all the integrative mind- body components of yoga to provide the most suitable experience for the participant. Whole body movement, breathwork, relaxation techniques, mindfulness, meditation.
The programs cultivate mindfulness, encouraging participants to notice what they are feeling in their bodies as they move with increased body awareness.
The cultivation of positive present moment experiences is all deployed appropriately for the changing needs of participants and to support their experience of self-care.
To help participants to move towards feelings of safety and calm by creating a safe, sensitive space in which participants can learn regulation skills through connection with the breath and fostering a connection between the mind, body and breath. To reduce tension and enable emotional regulation.