After confronting the emotional limits of her work as a trauma therapist, Victoria Hamilton chose a different approach to helping others. The result was The Well Studio, a yoga and wellness studio in Paso Robles designed around movement, regulation, and community.
Opened in August 2024, the studio combines fitness and mental health principles. Founded by Hamilton, a former trauma therapist with a master’s degree in social work, The Well Studio offers yoga, Pilates, and strength-based classes intentionally designed to support emotional regulation and overall well-being.
“I really loved the work I was doing,” Hamilton said. “But there was a point where my body was telling me, very clearly, that something wasn’t right, and I kept pushing through it anyway.”
Hamilton spent years helping clients navigate some of life’s most difficult experiences. While meaningful, the work began to take an emotional toll. She realized that even with her best efforts, the intensity of the job was affecting her own well-being.
“It wasn’t until I started really committing to movement: strength training, yoga, actually getting into my body; that I noticed a real shift,” Hamilton said. “That’s when I started to realize how big of a missing piece the body can be in healing.”
That insight became the foundation of The Well Studio. Drawing from her clinical training, Hamilton integrates therapeutic concepts such as somatic awareness, mindfulness, and nervous system regulation into her classes.
“So many people can name their emotions, but they don’t recognize how those emotions live in their body,” Hamilton said. “You might feel stress as tightness in your legs, a lump in your throat, or heaviness in your chest. When you become aware of that, you can actually start to release it.”
The studio offers four primary class formats: vinyasa yoga, yoga sculpt, Pilates, and boot camp. While yoga was the original focus, Hamilton quickly learned many clients needed more physically demanding classes to fully process stress.
“We allow people to get dysregulated here whether that’s sweating, pushing their limits, or feeling emotional,” she said. “But then we teach them how to come back down, how to re-regulate. That’s the part people can take with them into their daily lives.”
Opening the studio happened quickly. From the moment Hamilton decided to pursue the idea to the opening day, only three and a half months had passed. During that time, she completed her yoga certification while caring for a newborn.
“It was honestly a little unhinged,” Hamilton said, laughing. “I was up in the middle of the night with my baby, doing my yoga training when I couldn’t sleep, and then doing it all over again the next day.”
Now more than a year into operation, The Well Studio has become a refuge for many in the Paso Robles community. Hamilton said members often share that the studio has helped them navigate grief, breakups, and other major life transitions.
“Life is hard. It’s never going to get easier,” Hamilton said. “But what can get easier is your ability to re-regulate yourself.”
To learn more or schedule a class, visit thewellstudioyoga.com.
Fast fact
• Chabad of SLO and Cal Poly will host a lecture at the Performing Arts Center San Luis Obispo by Holocaust survivor Sora Vigorito, the youngest known survivor of Dr. Josef Mengele’s experimental twins. Held on Jan. 14, 2026, at 7 p.m. in Harold Miossi Hall, with doors opening at 6 p.m., this program offers audiences the opportunity to hear Vigorito’s firsthand account of her survival as one of 89 pairs of identical twins subjected to Mengele’s experiments, and how her enduring faith has shaped her resilience and life after immense loss and devastation. The event is free for Cal Poly students with a required ticket. Tickets are available at pacslo.evenue.net. ∆
Reach Staff Writer Chloë Hodge at chodge@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in 2025 Year in Review.