My journey with Yoga
From my own experience I know that we can do Yoga in all kinds of different ways and with all kinds of different intentions. For almost the first decade of my relationship with it I practiced in a way that created more disconnection in myself. I tried to get the poses right, I wanted to be more flexible than others - I wanted to be the ‘perfect yogi’. And I left my yoga sessions with more pain than before.
Then in my late twenties other practices and teachers found their way into my life. I fell in love with Contact Improvisation, BMC®, Feldenkrais and all kinds of other somatic practices.
I found Uma Dinsmore-Tuli and her Yoni Shakti Well Woman Yoga Therapy training, then Angela Farmer, who I practiced online with for some years.
That’s how I learned that there is a very different way to practice Yoga. One that deeply connects me with myself, with my surroundings, with the earth and all other creatures. That is in tune with my cycle and the needs of my womb. One that supports and helped heal my C-PTSD-ridden nervous system.
And one that feels deeply right for me to teach and share.
There will be more 1:1 offerings
and online yoga classes on this website in mid-September.
Feel welcome to contact me with any questions and inquiries.
Ecosomatic, trauma-informed and womb friendly?
Why it is important to me that the way I
share yoga contains all of that:
Ecosomatic: We live in a time of devastating environmental collapse. Particularly in the last few hundred years this has taken on unimaginable dimensions. I believe that that has everything to do with the way we (don’t) inhabit our beautiful animal bodies and how in our culture we have mostly been led by mind and rational thinking. I don’t see the mind as bad, yet if our instincts, our heart and our felt sense of being in the world are left out of the picture it’s much more likely to hurt our selves and the planet that is our home.
That’s why it’s essential for me to develop somatic awareness - to fully be in the body and let it hum with its connection to the present moment, our surroundings and the earth.
Trauma-informed: I have suffered most of my life unknowingly from C-PTSD and PTSD. For me this manifested as not ever feeling safe in my body until I entered my mid-thirties. I had break downs in my yoga teacher training that I couldn’t explain. Normal yoga classes made me feel good in my body on one level, but on another they left me dysregulated and disconnected from myself.
That’s why I completely changed my approach when I began to heal my own trauma. That means I generally don’t work with rigid instructions and don’t encourage intense breathwork.
I usually offer choices, Somatic Experiencing exercises, and invitations for students to practice agency and trust their own truth.
Womb friendly: A lot of the way yoga is taught comes from a male-dominated culture. Many bodies that go through a menstrual cycle each month and the later cycle of menopause need something very different.
I think the state of Union we aspire to when we practice yoga is more likely to arise when we are in tune with the different needs of our body throughout these cyclical changes.
Male bodies are welcome as well! Every one of us can benefit from slowness and some attunement to our energetic state and emotional needs. None of us are made to power through at all times.
People’s Voices
