Yoga Therapy
“Yoga teaches us to cure what can be cured, and to endure what has no cure” B.K.S. Iyengar.
“It is the teachers foremost duty to give you back your intelligence, to return to you your heart, to encourage you to access yourself. They do this by being who they really are and by being completely honest and compassionate with you”
Jennifer has been a dedicated student and teacher of yoga since her teen years. Her primary inspiration comes from her ongoing work with Tias and Surya Little and her teaching is a reflection of their focus on mindfulness in asana, anatomy, and wisdom training. She is a Prajna senior teacher and has assisted Tias at numerous training’s around the country. Additional influence in teaching comes from in-depth study of Vini Yoga therapeutics, Iyengar Yoga therapeutics as well as the Ashtanga vinyasa system and sensory awareness training.
Private Yoga Sessions can be scheduled to either integrate further your development of postures, dive into the therapeutic potential of asanas, or go deeper into your meditative practice as well as work with Yoga for Trauma.
-see yoga as therapy page for pricing-
Jennifer teaches at various hospitals, clinics, and work spaces in the Portland area as well as Yoga Studios.
Corporate Yoga & Special Programs
Corporate or small-group classes or workshops are also available. Got an office full of cool folks who want quality and down-to-earth yoga instruction in the work place? Contact me for a quote on a custom program.
These classes can potentially lead into private somatic experiencing sessions that work on the fundamental traumas our nervous system has built defenses against leading to over arousal and stress.
Trauma Sensitive yoga provides a safe opportunity to challenge yourself through gentle yoga and in doing so transform the relationship to the body. We will work to create a balance between an acceptance of internal sensation and emotions that can provide us with a sense of empowerment to create change in our lives. Yoga attends to the body and the breath, attends to stillness. It allows you to feel everything you feel, to tolerate every sensation, and to live and move with it. For anyone that has experienced trauma, a body-based practice like yoga can be a lifesaving healing technique. By releasing held tension, paying attention to the present, and regulating the nervous system, a somatic approach helps ease the feelings of helplessness, fear, arousal, and disconnection that can arise for trauma patients.Yoga in conjunction with working with a person who has special training in trauma therapy is essential.
In order to get the body functioning normally, it’s helpful to understand exactly what happens physically when we are under stress. When the body feels threatened, it shifts into the “fight or flight” response, the evolutionary reaction that gets us ready to fight the proverbial tiger at our backs. As the body goes on red alert for danger, the heart rate increases, blood pressure rises, and stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline flood the body. Because a common outcome of trauma is hyperarousal a gentle, trauma-sensitive yoga practice offers the opportunity to experience a change in mental states. The simple act of moving the body can create a major sense of accomplishment for people whose bodies have been frozen or numbed by their experiences a somatic approach can radically alter the body’s physiology: “It can rewire your brain stem, and change the fear system in your brain. It can regulate the balance between the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems and activate the cranial nerves so your body doesn’t respond to everything as if it’s getting hurt (van der Kolk).”
Jennifer has been practicing yoga and holistic healing for as long as she can remember. Over the years she has explored the wisdom of yoga as therapy, alignment and therapeutics of Iyengar, and the power and breath of Ashtanga Vinyasa. Since 2000 she has been under the guidance of her primary teacher Tias Little and Prajna Yoga structuring her daily mental and asana practice to focus on wisdom of insight into alignment, restorative healing, conditioning of the nervous system, breath, and the fine line of listening to the body’s response of daily emotional and physical awareness. The key to this teaching is that the purpose of the yoga path is not to get outside of or away from one’s relationships in the world. She specializes in yoga therapeutics with an understanding that nervous system regulation is the key to unlocking held patterns in the body and mind to show hidden traumatic stress patterns. Jennifer has studied anatomy and physiology, cranial sacral therapy, somatic awareness, holistic nutrition therapy, trauma release for yoga therapy, and Zen meditation mindfulness training to create possibilities consciously and lovingly. Jennifer is a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner, certified to work with trauma, stress, and its debilitating symptoms. She has a Masters degree in Somatic Psychology and also has training in Hakomi, Body Mind Centering, Mindfulness, Interpersonal Neurobiology and other body/mind disciplines. She encourages personal introspection, skillful action, and reflection, believing that what we cultivate on the mat is preparatory for how one is in our daily lives.
“There’s no such thing as the perfect pose. A pose is never over, never done. And therein lies the true meaning of practice — to be at ease with the fact that a pose never arrives and it never ends, not until our last breath.”