Yoga

 My inspiration to teach yoga comes from my desire to invite participants to inhabit their bodies with mindfulness and kindness and the realization that no one can take care of your body, mind and soul but you. It is our privilege and duty to align all aspects of ourselves into balanced wholeness given our unique gifts and challenges. I have found Yoga to be the portal to this process of inner peace and equanimity both at times of graceful passage and perhaps more importantly, at moments of fear and uncertainty when world views or assumptions shatter beneath us and throw us off balance.

“Lisa’s vinyasa classes of all levels reflect her deeply nurturing and compassionate heart. It is her sincere intent to offer a class that balances both strength and flexibility while cultivating an atmosphere of physical, mental and emotional well-being. Lisa encourages her students to inhabit their bodies with gratitude, deep listening, attunement and mindfulness cultivating deep inner presence. Her love of music, the human spirit and poetry are woven into her classes.” ~RASA

I have been teaching for over 13 years in studios, volunteering teaching yoga in the schools, the Hospice community, Sanctuary One and have taught at-risk teens both in schools and also through the Art of Yoga Project. Most recently, I have been offering yoga workshops in the community to support those dealing with the many facets of loss as they begin their journey of healing. I am a Winterspring volunteer, which is a non- profit that helps people embrace life again after loss. I am an E-RYT having been trained at the The White Lotus Foundation. Most recently, I have become certified as a Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga Facilitator out of the Justice Resource Institute Trauma Center and a Compassionate Bereavement Care Yoga Facilitator out of the MISS foundation. 

Lisa currently teaches at Ashland Yoga Center.

“Be strong then and enter into your own body. There you have a solid place for your feet.”  ~ Kabir

“As long as you do not live totally in the body, you do not live totally in the self.”  ~B.K.S. Iyengar

“Being a student of one of Lisa’s yoga classes is a very nurturing experience for me. She has a way of holding sacred space for all the participants, while magically bringing a lightness into the room. Lisa has a deep understanding that she is the facilitator of each students own practice, her presence as the teacher in no way interferes with the importance of each individuals experience on that day, in this moment. Consequently, Lisa’s classes are dynamic and vibrant.”  –Helen  

TCTSY – Trauma Sensitive Yoga

TCTSY: Trauma Sensitive Yoga is a yoga practice that restores safety and agency back to the victims of complex trauma, through the tenets of Invitational language, shared power, no touch/no assist, present moment awareness, non-coercion, and choice making. TCTSY is a yoga practice,  grounded in the yoga principle of Ahimsa (non-harming) that is practiced together in a shared authentic experience with both facilitator and participant(s)  

My interest in TCTSY comes from living outside of myself after tremendous loss and traumatic grief. I found myself disembodied and struggling to find my way back into the present moment. Yoga became a portal to the process of coming home to myself, transformed and awakened by my grief. I offer TCTSY as an adjunct somatic practice to support those facing complex trauma as a means to slowly and safely, at one’s own pace, become more embodied in their lives.

“The first principle of recovery is empowerment of the survivor. She must be the author of her own recovery….No intervention that takes power away from the survivor can possibly foster her recovery, no matter how much it appears to be in their immediate best interest.”  ~Judith Herman

“Trauma robs the victims of a sense of power and control: the guiding principle of recovery is to restore power and control. The first task of recovery is to establish a survivor’s safety. This takes precedence over all others.” ~Judith Herman

LifeCoaching

Integral life coaching is an invitation to take a deep seat within yourself, a sacred pause, and align with your soul’s desire. Whatever threshold you are navigating: loss, a desire for balance, a pattern that is no longer working for you…looking within is hard work. It takes tremendous courage, patience, and sometimes a leap of faith, to bring awareness and compassion to our inner lives in order to cultivate the change we are seeking. Having a partner in that journey can make all the difference.

Together, we will meet you exactly where you are, and integrate your life beneath the surface. A deeper dive unearths your unique gifts and challenges, and reveals obstacles in the way of restoring balance and equanimity to your life. As a compassionate companion, I guide you to look honestly and tenderly at areas that need attending, adapting and attuning. You will build a foundation of resiliency, develop new ways to support yourself, and engage in practices that enable transformation and healing. It is my greatest privilege to guide and support your personal journey, honor the alchemy of your heart, and help midwife your unique soul.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

“You are never more essentially yourself, than when you are still. Stillness is your essential nature.”
~Eckart Tolle

“I worked with Lisa as a life-coach and found that her approach and understanding allowed for great progress where needed, and offered support and joy through any challenging situation. With her help, I was able to move through some stagnation and years-old issues which were holding me back from my aspirations. Through her extensive immersion in the study of grief, trauma, shame and life stresses, and the effect of these upon our psyche and our soul, Lisa has developed an approach to healing that is nurturing, calming, supportive, loving and deeply respectful.”  –Carole S.  

About

Very simply, I am passionate about championing people. I create a safe place for people to show up and bring light to all parts of themselves, in the process of fully inhabiting their own internal “house of belonging,” the only place where true peace can be found. Knowing that sometimes the greatest challenge to healing and growth is just beginning the process of self-inquiry, that is where I will meet you. As the poet John O’Donohue so eloquently states:

There is a quiet light that shines in every heart. It draws no attention to itself, though it is always secretly there. It is what illuminates our minds to see beauty, our desire to seek possibility and our hearts to love life. This shy inner light is what enables us to recognize and receive our very presence here as a blessing.

I have a hunger for learning that has taken me from interpersonal communications, psychology, and integral coaching, through many wisdom traditions, and deep into an intellectual and experiential understanding of somatic, emotional and spiritual aspects of living in this moment. But it was in my darkest hours, after the loss of my mother from a horrific battle with cancer, my father subsequently thereafter that I came to fully understand what it means to be a spiritual being living in a physical form.

No two lives are exactly the same, and there is no cookie cutter way of inhabiting this world. We must find our own rhythm and belonging in the world, and our own peace to carry within. Likewise, no grief or traumatic event is exactly the same. It will have its way with each of us differently. And it will have its own wisdom, informing us of what we each must do to regain solid ground and resiliency. Every moment, even the most difficult, can be a holy moment if we meet it with humility, vulnerability, grace and compassion. As the poet Rumi says:  “There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”

My intention is to support your unique way of being in the world, accompany you in attending to any area of blockage or suffering, so that you may find greater ease, inhabit the fullness of your life’s purpose and find your path forward to sacred ground.

“You can only go as fast as the slowest part of you will go.”  ~Anne Lamont

Completed Sacred art of living and dying 2 year program, The Sacred Art of Living Center for Spiritual Formation, 2009 (To transform the culture of caregiving through a more human and soulful way of dealing with suffering.)

Executive Director and Volunteer, Art of Yoga Project, Ashland 2004-2010 (An organization that focuses on early intervention and rehabilitation of teenage girls in the juvenile system w/yoga & art.)

Volunteer, Winterspring, Ashland, 2012-present (Helping children, teens and adults who are experiencing the pain of loss, embrace life again.)

Volunteer, Ashland Elementary, middle and high school. Yoga teacher. 2006-present.

Study, Sadvidya Foundation, Student under Dr. Shankararanaya Jois & Kristin Laak, 2000-present. The Sadvidya Foundation’s mission is to bring the hidden wisdom of the Ancient Indian Arts and Sciences to the modern world through the study of Yoga Philosophy and Ayervedic Sciences. The foundation seeks to promote peace and inner happiness for all of humanity.

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