Embodied Awareness

A woman sitting cross-legged meditating on red rocks with mountains and scrub pines in the background

What is embodied awareness?? Being tuned in to the many layers and aspects of your mind-body system, both in the present moment and in terms of your emotional patterns and history. Developing this ability was profoundly life-changing for me, so I am honored and delighted to offer embodied awareness training to those interested in learning with me. Strengthening your ability to focus on and respond to the physical sensations in your body will support you in:

Improving emotional intelligence
Improving focus and attention
Increasing interoception
Strengthening your mind-body connection
Developing self-regulation
Befriending your nervous system
Somatic self-awareness
Cultivating resilience
Deepening your psychedelic experiences

Being able to listen to our bodies and respond to whatever is being said is a profound way to reconnect with our True Self. I believe that the soul itself speaks through the body, which is why it is so crucial for us to be able to hear its messages, and heed them!!

That's on the more spiritual side, and on the more practical side, awareness of what is happening in your body- sensations, emotions, and the state of your nervous system in particular- is the foundation of emotional intelligence.

To top it all off, this sensory awareness, also known as interoception- is also foundational for somatic processing of traumatic- healing the effects of trauma in your body and nervous system. Along these lines, embodied awareness is a powerful multiplier to bring with you to any psychedelic healing journey you might be undertaking.

So, by developing embodied awareness, you get a skill set that supports you in all three of these domains, even if you are only interested in one!

I'm here to help you develop embodied awareness

My background is as a yoga and mindfulness meditation teacher and practitioner, with additional experience practicing and training in somatic modalities. My eight years of regular practice and professional teacher trainings have equipped me with a wide variety of tools and practices we can bring into our work.

Not everything will resonate with everyone! I learned that from my personal experience so in my training I strive to learn and practice lots of different tools to have in my toolbox to share with my clients and students.

Definitely check out my YouTube channels for a plethora of guided practice videos if you'd like to get a sense of how and what I teach. I linked them for your here on this website in my practice library page.

Here's what's in my toolbox that we can choose from in our work together:

Mindfulness meditation practices
Yoga (super easy, accessible, and slow)
Guided visualizations
Breathing exercises to calm the nervous system
Yogic breathwork (pranayama)
Intuitive movement (repetitive gestures, rhythmic movements)
Somatic releasing (moving things through us)
Grounding exercises (coming back to or staying in the body)
Receiving insight from the body through images, sensations, words, etc
Self-soothing practices (which could be any of the above!)
Creative expression (art, movement, journaling, poetry)
Psychoeducation (learning concepts about psychology, adult development, trauma, the nervous system, etc)

Let's be real- a consultation is a vibe check. So that's what we will do...figure out if this training is a good fit for your needs, and if I am the right person to do that training with a 20 min chat. If not, I am happy to make recommendations and referrals to other professionals.

Training format and logistics

Training takes place online via zoom, for convenience and ease of recording our sessions for your reference.

This is a collaboration! Together we map out a multi-week program of 4-10 weeks (or more if you need it) based on your current needs and desired goals.

The training consists of both teaching you specific tools and practices, as well as being your guide for setting up and sticking with your at-home practice outside of our sessions.

I'll also be teaching you about the nervous system, psychology and neuroscience to help you better understand how the practices work in your mind-body system.

Once you feel confident in your embodied awareness toolkit and ability to sustain your practice, you're set! You have the option to do follow-up or additional sessions with me as needed after this foundational training, of course!

What time commitment to expect

Each weekly session will be one hour. In between sessions, we will work together to tailor an on-ramp plan to gradually increase how frequently and how long you practice.

To get the benefits of the program, expect to practice 3-5 times a week, starting with a few minutes and working your way up.

Benefits of this training

Oh, where do I begin!! Tens of thousands of studies have been done on Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, which I base my training programs on. Improved quality of life, reduced stress and anxiety, improved sleep, improved biophysical markers (blood pressure, cortisol levels, heart rate variability), reduced intensity of pain and painful emotions, burnout recovery, focus and attention improvement, the list goes on and on.

In addition to the mostly cognitive-focused MBSR protocol, I add in a plethora of bottom-up (aka body-based) tools from my yoga and somatic trainings, and those tools also have tons of clinical research to back them up.

Honestly, the best part in my experience is feeling more present, less scattered, and less stressed or anxious. Things don't bother as much anymore, and when they do I feel like I am responding consciously more than reacting mindlessly.

And I know what my body is trying to tell me!! Little things (don't eat those leftovers, says my clenching stomach as I grab the container out of the fridge) and big things (ummmm hey girl isn't it time we made that full pivot to become a trauma professional already, says my entire being as I feel hit by a giant spotlight of warm awareness).

Embodied awareness will help you with your interpersonal relationships, your focus and attention, any kind of healing journey you are on or planning to on with other helping professionals, and your overall well-being.

I also think that once you see the interconnectedness of the mind and body as one system, you see a lot more interconnectedness which helps you feel more connected and compassionate to the world around you.

My fees

I offer my services on a sliding scale per hour (most sessions can be completed within an hour but we will pro-rate anything over). There is a 10% discount for purchasing four or more sessions as a package. You can pay by Stripe, Zelle, or Venmo.

Supported: $70
Sustaining: $85
Sponsoring: $100

For members of the warrior class, which includes my fellow veterans as well as active-duty military and first responders as well as their immediate family members/partners and caregivers: $60. I do appreciate when you can offer more to sponsor a fellow member of the warrior class in different financial circumstances.

Lineages and Teachings

In this training, I incorporate my education from my professional two-year Buddhism-based Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield, through UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Program. I also incorporate knowledge from the yogic traditions particularly Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and the wonderfully supportive frameworks he provided within those teachings.

I also incorporate knowledge from my somatic teachers who I learned from through the Embody Lab, who studied various forms of somatic and body-based psychology and modalities. Those primary teachers are Scott Lyons, Manuela Mischke-Reeds, Arielle Schwartz, Kai Cheng Thom, Staci K. Haines, Nkem Ndefo, and Rosario Sammartino.