Have you been wanting to build or deepen your relationship with your body through the practice of yoga?
My most fundamental belief is in the body’s knowing. And I believe that knowing is built on a foundation of learning how to feel, sense, listen to, and be in kind relationship with your body.
There are many doorways into living from a more connected and embodied place, but one of them is a somatic, body-affirming approach to yoga. Yoga can be a practice of depth, aliveness, and alignment with how you want to live in your body. It’s not a given, though. You need a practice that is attuned to where you are, what you need, and what you’re wanting to nurture and grow in your life.
I know I have experienced trying to cobble this together on my own for many years. For me that usually looks like trying to make a yoga schedule I’ll stick to; life happening and then falling out of the routine; losing hope, interest, energy or capacity (sometimes all at once); taking a long break; and then trying again. With each subsequent attempt, I am quicker to criticize myself and slower to believe any of this is for me at all.
I’ve spent nearly 30 years following a path of learning to come home to my body through an approach to yoga that has nothing to do with handstands, checking off on your calendar each day you get on the mat, or shrinking your body and everything to do with living with more ease in how I relate to and live from my body. And if you’re wanting that, too, I would love to accompany you.
Have you experienced any of this?
(I know I have!)
You know (or at least suspect) that yoga would be a supportive foundation in your life, but you never seem to find the time or energy to practice.
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When someone asks what you’re feeling when you’re moving your body (or anytime), you have no idea, guess at an answer, or have so many feelings at once you have no idea where to start.
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You’ve had a challenging relationship with your body for much of your life (for a variety of reasons) and you’d like to find a path with more ease.
Here are some of the things we could explore:
(all tailored to where you are right now and including things that aren’t on this list but are on your heart, mind + body)
A space to practice being curious about what you feel without needing to get anything “right.”
What kind of movement feels good for your body depending on how you’re feeling, what’s going on in your life, the season(s) you’re in, how your body has changed or is changing, etc.
How movement supports you in listening to your body and how to build opportunities to check-in with your body and yourself throughout your day.
Creating a relationship with movement that meets you where you are now -- with no diet culture in sight.
Are you feeling a nudge?
What you can expect:
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Body-Affirming Movement
While I am a longtime yoga teacher, I also incorporate a variety of somatic movement practices into my approach (which just means movement designed to support you in listening to and feeling your body. The term soma is often defined as “the body in its wholeness,” which is what we’re all about). You do not need to be flexible or able to do particular yoga poses or movements to participate. I have spent my entire yoga teaching career coming up with many options for movements, and that is always both my interest and my orientation. What I mean by body-affirming is that (a) I think diets (which go by a variety of names these days but always boil down to the same thing) are a way to keep us separated from our bodies and more focused on meeting some ever-changing “ideal” than living our lives, to which I say a hearty get outta here and (b) you don’t need a new body to do this practice. I trust your body as it is.
So if you have chronic illness/pain, need to practice from seated in a chair, or aren’t sure what works for your body anymore, you are welcome! The entire time we work together, we’ll be in ongoing conversation around what movement best meets you now and how that shifts and changes over time.
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Inquiry
One thing I love about yoga and will never let go of is its practice approach. What I find valuable about a practice-based approach is how it turns us away from achievement and doing things a “right” way and toward curiosity and showing up. When we practice together, we’ll bring an inquiry-based approach that lets your practice unfold and build from your body’s real-life responses to what you’re feeling, noticing, and sensing.
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Practice Scaffolding
Want to work on creating a practice rhythm that works for you? Or embodied check-ins to keep you connected with your body throughout your day? Together we’ll create mini-experiments that are a low-stakes way you can try some different things to see what feels good and doable to end up with an approach that fits your life and is adaptable as your life and body inevitably change, as is true for all of us.
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Shifting Your Relationship with Movement
When you, like me and many of us, have had a complicated relationship with movement and your body for much of your life, it can feel really hard to imagine that shifting. My intention is that this can be a place for you to try a different relationship to movement -- one that is customized to your needs, wants, and challenges so that it becomes something you’re in conversation with from the inside, not another to-do imposed from the outside.
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Accompaniment
Even on a good day it can be hard to create a relationship with movement that takes into account what you’ve experienced in your body and how you relate to it. And doing that on your own? Phew! I call this work Accompanied on purpose. I’ll be right there with you: in the conversation, in the practice, pointing you to relevant resources, and also sharing what’s real for me.
This is for you if:
You feel curious about it and wonder if it might be what you’ve been looking for (I trust your body’s knowing around this!).
You’ve been struggling to create a relationship with movement and your body and want some kind, body-affirming support from someone who is regularly in this conversation with herself, too.
You want to live in a more embodied way and want to find a way to do that that doesn’t require waking up at 4am, pushing yourself as hard as possible, or anything in the same universe as diet- or gym-bro culture.
This isn’t for you if:
You only want a workout (a personal trainer might be a better fit for that).
You’re not open to a body-led, gentle style of movement.
You’re wanting weight loss, nutritional advice, or therapy (you can find weight loss and nutritional advice…just about anywhere else. And while I love therapy and benefit from it personally, I am not a therapist). I take a weight-neutral and body-affirming approach.
Curious about what it would be like to be accompanied in your movement practice and relationship to your body?
How to join:
Fill out the inquiry form
Doing this gives us a foundation for our conversation about how I can support you.
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Schedule a check-in call
This free, half hour call is a time for us to talk more about what you’re looking for and for you to ask questions. I don’t believe a hard sell benefits either of us, so you will not find that here. This only works if we both feel it’s a good fit!
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Get started
If we both decide to move forward, I’ll send you a link to my calendar so you can schedule your first session!
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frequently asked questions
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I believe this is true for everyone! But I also know how it can be more true for some people than others. If that’s you (it’s also me), we’ll work together to craft a practice that meets whatever you need. I’ll never encourage you to push past pain.
For the many of us who have had a complicated (at best) relationship to movement, who have only ever moved our bodies because we were told our bodies “should” change, or any other diet-culture BS, finding a space where you can be curious about movement, explore it without pressure and with support, can be incredibly supportive. And I’m not only willing to support you in finding movement that works for you, to me it’s the whole point (and we’ll collaborate to define what “works” even means to you). I’m not even a little bit interested in applying some predetermined movement framework to every person as though bodies could ever be the same! -
Oh, how I relate to this question! I didn’t want to know for a long time, either. And even before that, I didn’t know that I could know - that’s how far from my body I was. I trust your body’s interest and willingness to go into feeling and very much respect and honor uncertainty and not being sure what you feel. In my personal and professional experience, the body responds in a much more sustainable way when we’re with this process slowly and let it follow its own path. I’m also clear on when a referral would be best and therapy or another modality might either be a better fit or something that would support our work together.
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You need Zoom access in a private space with reliable internet. When we do our check-in call, we’ll talk about what you might need for movement, which could include a chair and/or yoga props (or their household equivalents). You can wear what you find comfortable to move in. Our time together will include both talking and practicing.
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While it’s possible some people might only want/need one session to check in about something specific, in most cases, this work is something that unfolds over time. We’ll work together to figure out how often you’d like to come and for how long. I usually recommend 6 sessions (each one is 60 minutes) to start to give yourself time to see how it goes. We can discuss how often you’d like to meet, but I usually recommend at least biweekly to start. Some people will feel complete after those initial 6 sessions and others will want to continue. I will always prioritize you being in choice around this and feeling for what is most supportive for where you are right now.
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No, I am not a therapist and Accompanied is not therapy. It could be a lovely complement to therapy, though!
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I am a trauma-informed yoga teacher, which means I have specific training around supporting how trauma may show up in yoga, and I also value making space for the many experiences people have in a body while practicing yoga. I have brought a trauma-informed lens into my teaching and teacher training from the very beginning of my career. Practically, that looks like offering choice, consent, and options and not pushing past resistance, emotion or sensation. While Accompanied could certainly provide support on a trauma healing path, it is not intended to be a substitute for therapy nor for any other form of professional consultation or support.
In terms of my training, I worked for two years in a domestic violence center and another two years in a university women’s center focused on sexual assault prevention/intervention and received extensive training during that time. I’ve also taken a variety of courses over the years and am happy to provide you with a list if you’d like.
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I offer both by-the-session pricing and series pricing.
Individual session:
$115/hour (sliding-scale available)
6-sessions:
$585 — save 15% (installments available) -
As a yoga teacher, I cannot bill insurance.
Have any other questions? Contact us and I’ll be happy to help!
Hi, I’m Anna!
If I had to sum up my personal story and life’s work in one phrase it would be this: learning to trust my body’s knowing.
While many modalities have supported me over the years, yoga is what opened the door for me, and it’s what I have the longest term relationship with (I’ve been practicing for nearly 30 years and teaching for nearly 20).
Like many people, I started practicing yoga because I wanted to change something about my body. What kept me practicing, though, is how yoga helped me both change my relationship to and learn to live within my body.
When I started practicing, I thought it was a metaphor when teachers asked me to notice what I felt in any given part of my body. I wasn’t aware that anyone could actually do that! Over time, though, I not only began to be able to feel my foot on the mat but also what is true for me in response to a challenging question or situation.
I believe movement is a way of knowing both your body and your life. When I’m stuck, I turn to movement -- not for an answer but to see what is here and wants to be seen, heard, listened to. This is not the movement of ‘80s aerobics or today’s go-hard, body-hack approaches. This is movement as inquiry, conversation, inner knowing/intuition, and relationship. This is movement as support for your life and truth, not the other way around.
I couldn’t have done any of this alone, and I don’t want you to have to, either. I would love to accompany you in your own unfolding, interweaving, ever-changing, deepening relationship with your incredible body and with movement.
Have questions?
I’m always happy to talk. All you have to do is reach out!