Jax Heffer-Cooke (Jackie Heffer-Cooke): The Founder Behind Freedom Yoga & Retreats

If you’ve found your way here by searching Jax, Jackie, Freedom Yoga, a retreat in the right place, or a teacher training that actually fits real life — welcome. This page is a simple introduction to the person behind Freedom Yoga & Retreats, and the ethos that runs through everything she builds.

Freedom was built for people who want more than a nice location and a schedule. It’s for people who want to feel held by a calm structure, a meaningful practice, and the place they’re travelling to. It’s also for practitioners who know they’re ready to lead, but don’t want to spend months building systems and logistics instead of doing the work they’re here to do. That’s the world Jax has been shaping for years: grounded, welcoming, and built with integrity.

Based in Norfolk, with a strong community across Norwich and East Anglia, Jax’s work reaches far beyond the region — but the roots matter. Freedom was grown locally, through years of teaching, listening, learning, and building a community-led approach to wellbeing that people can trust.

A pragmatic yogi, rooted in real life

Jax is a pragmatic yogi. She loves flip-flops, festivals, wellies and walking, and she teaches with a depth that never floats away from real life. Her work is rooted in the realities of modern living, which is exactly why it lands. The aim isn’t to chase perfection or perform spirituality. The aim is to feel clearer, steadier, and more alive through simple, consistent practices you can carry back into everyday life.

In Jax’s rooms — whether it’s a retreat, a training, a workshop, or a class — people often describe the same feeling: calm structure, warmth, and a sense that you’re allowed to be human. You don’t have to arrive polished. You don’t have to “know yoga”. You just have to arrive.

The koshas: a framework that makes inner change feel practical

A big part of Jax’s teaching centres on the yogic koshas, exploring the layers of body, energy, mind, wisdom and connection. It’s a framework that gives people language for what they’re experiencing, without making it vague or inaccessible.

In practice, it means her retreats and trainings often feel balanced: embodied without being intense, reflective without being heavy, supportive without being overly prescriptive. You’re guided — but you’re not pushed into someone else’s idea of transformation. Jax’s focus is steadiness: helping people build practices that work in real life, not only in beautiful places.

Freedom as an ecosystem: retreat guests, trainees, and practitioners ready to lead

Freedom reflects the same balance as Jax’s teaching. It isn’t a single offering. It’s an ecosystem designed to support people at different stages.

Some people arrive through retreats — drawn to the idea of a reset that doesn’t feel performative, and travel that connects them to a place in a respectful way. Some arrive through training — wanting a teacher education that meets the realities of work, family, nervous systems and modern pressure. And some arrive as practitioners — ready to lead their own retreats, but wanting a platform that takes care of the operational side so they can stay focused on the people in front of them.

Freedom’s retreats are place-led and host-centred, designed to create genuine connection to self, to nature, and to community. The platform exists to remove the stress of building the business side of retreats — the logistics, systems, structure and sales infrastructure — so practitioners can focus on practice, presence, and guiding a brilliant experience.

This is one of the most overlooked parts of retreat culture: the behind-the-scenes structure. Freedom is designed to hold that part with care, so the teaching can stay clean and the guest experience can stay calm.

Integrity at the centre: authenticity, cultural respect, and modern teaching

Integrity is central to the way Jax works. With a Master’s in Global Social Development from the University of East Anglia, she has a particular interest in how yoga is referenced as it travels from Asia to the West, and how we can teach in ways that stay authentic while remaining culturally appropriate, transparent and inclusive.

This matters, especially in today’s wellness landscape. Yoga has depth, history and lineage. It also travels. Jax’s approach doesn’t deny that complexity — it names it. She encourages teachers to be clear about what they are drawing from, where they are adapting, and how to keep respect intact while making yoga practical and accessible in a Western context.

Her work also carries a thoughtful focus on neurodiversity, helping wellbeing education feel accessible to more people — not only those who already feel like they “belong” in wellness spaces.

A background that bridges wellbeing and production

Jax’s background is unusually broad, bridging wellbeing and production — and that blend shows up in the way Freedom is run: creative, well-held, and operationally sound.

Alongside yoga and philosophy, her experience includes massage and bodywork, hypnobirthing training, and stress management and mindfulness instruction. Before Freedom, she also built a career in television production across ITV, BBC and Channel 4.

That mix matters. It means the work is both soulful and structured. The practice is meaningful, and the delivery is professional. When people book a retreat or training with Freedom, they’re not stepping into chaos. They’re stepping into something that’s been designed with care.

Freedom Wellbeing Projects (CIC): wellbeing as community work

Freedom doesn’t stop at retreats and adult training. Through Freedom Wellbeing Projects, a Community Interest Company (not-for-profit), Jax is committed to making wellbeing more accessible — including delivering free yoga and wellbeing support to vulnerable communities.

Through programmes like ZenKids, Jax supports children’s wellbeing by teaching yoga in schools and training teachers to share it with young people. This work often centres around resilience, nervous system support, accessibility, and a more inclusive approach to wellbeing education — particularly for those with neurodiversity.

It’s the same mission expressed in another direction: care that lasts, shared in a way that’s practical and kind.

Teacher training that meets real life (and builds confident teachers)

Jax leads Freedom’s training with a clear intention: to help people become diligent, thoughtful, inspiring teachers of yoga — grounded in both practice and responsibility.

Freedom’s 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training Diploma is a long-form training designed for integration, not rushing. It supports students to develop the practical skills of teaching — sequencing, cueing, safe adjustments, methodology, anatomy, philosophy, and the inner work that allows a teacher to hold space with maturity.

If your goal is to deepen your personal practice, become a teacher, or bring yoga into your community in a way that’s responsible and sustainable, the training is designed to meet you where you are — without trying to turn you into a clone of anyone else.

What to expect when you work with Jax

People often come to Freedom for different reasons — but the common thread is the same: they want something real. A retreat that resets them without performance. A training that honours yoga without rigidity. A platform that helps them lead with structure and support.

If that resonates, you’re in the right place.

Freedom exists to help you find a sense of beyond, while staying rooted in what’s real.

Explore Freedom

Explore upcoming retreats, enquire about teacher training, or start the conversation about leading a retreat through Freedom.

If you’re based in Norfolk, Norwich, or anywhere across East Anglia, you’ll find a strong local community here — and if you’re coming from further afield, you’ll be welcomed in the same way: calmly, clearly, and with care.