About

Current Studies


I am currently studying in the Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy Level 3 program (including a 9month supervised practicum).
I am also continuing my studies with the Foundation of Shamanic Studies, in their Three-Year Advanced Shamanic Initiation program.

My Objective

I am a holistic health practitioner offering yoga therapy, sound healing, and shamanic services in Regina, Canada. A holistic health practitioner honors all aspects of a client’s experience, taking into consideration and supporting their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs and goals. My intention is to meet clients where they are on their individual journey to health, engaging a holistic and yogic platform to help them restore peace, harmony and vitality in their lives.

Education

Two-Week Shamanic Intensive | June 2016 | Foundation of Shamanic Studies

  • A two-week, residential intensive in San Francisco, California, at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, with Amanda Foulger furthering my skills as a shamanic practitioner.
  • Skills Acquired: How to provide Soul Retrieval, Psychopomp, Extraction Healing, Healing Song and Healing Symbol for clients.

Yoga Therapy Level 1 & 2 | May 2016 | Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy

  • A two-week intensive in Vancouver, British Columbia, with Shivani Wells furthering my skills as a yoga therapist.
  • Skills Acquired: Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy (PRYT) approach to dialogue used to enhance a client’s mind-body consciousness; advanced posture assists; PRYT integration process; tools to establish a sound practitioner/client relationship; format and practice of a full PRYT session.

Acutonics® Level 1 & 2 | February 2016 | Acutonics Australia

  • Two separate, weekend intensives with Dr. Eeka King in Byron Bay, Australia, learning the Acutonics’ sound healing system.
  • Skills Acquired: Foundations in Acutonics, use of mid-range and high-range tuning forks; integration of drum, bells, chimes, gongs and singing bowls for a sound healing session; meridian points, their esoteric application and associated health benefits, format and practice of full Acutonics session.

Rethinking Trauma | March 2016 | National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine

  • An eight-week webinar series with the leading pioneers of mind-body trauma therapy: Dr. Peter Levine, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Dr. Stephen Porges, Dr. Pat Ogden, Dr. Dan Siegel, Sebern Fisher, Dr. Ruth Lanius, Dr. Ronald Siegel and Dr. Ruth Buczynski imparting key skills for psycho-therapists and mind-bodyworkers to support client’s in overcoming trauma.
  • Skills Acquired: Mind-body relaxation response and techniques; here-now, sensation resourcing for healing trauma; neuroscientific research on fundamental need for body-based approaches in psychotherapy; the session essentials for lasting and effective outcomes.

Sound as Medicine | December 2015 | Purdie Wood

  • A six-month, one-on-one training with Purdie Wood, a renowned shaman and sound healing mentor, learning intuitive voice and medicinal song, in Mullumbimby, Australia.
  • Skills Acquired: empathic sound; intuitive voice; directive sound; invocation; sound release; creating sacred space; energetic boundaries; embodiment essentials for client empowerment; practitioner presence and self-care.

Deathwalker Training | November 2015 | Natural Death Care Center

  • Week long intensive with Zenith Virago in Byron Bay, Australia, learning the art of being with those who are dying, supporting them and their families, walking alongside their collective death processing.
  • Skills Acquired: exploring & embracing death; caring for & being with dying; ceremony, ritual & rite of passage; preparation & advocacy; funeral arrangements; bereavement, loss & growth.

Foundations in Yoga Therapy | August 2015 | Enlightened Events

  • A six-month training in Brisbane, Australia, with teachers Sal Flynn and Liz Bennett furthering my understanding and application of yoga therapy.
  • Skills Acquired: establishing client/practitioner relationship; client record keeping; therapeutic use of asana, pranayama, mantra, meditation, relaxation, yogic nutrition, mudras and kriyas; therapeutic approaches to the most common patho-physiologies; mental health and a yogic approach; professional scope and working complementary to the allied health care system.

Shamanic Journeying for Guidance and Healing | May 2015 | Sandra Ingermann

  • A three-part, six-month distance education course with Sandra Ingermann and over 700 fellow shamanic practitioners worldwide.
  • Skills Acquired: how to bridge ancient healing modalities into family, business, and community life; remote power animal retrieval; remote divination; working with the spirits of nature; and remote shamanic healing methods.

Food and Spirit | January 2015 | Deanna Minich

  • A four-month distance education course with Dr. Deanna Minich a leading pioneer in clinical application of quantum medicine and mind-body-spirit integration of nutrition and lifestyle.
  • Skills Acquired: full-spectrum consideration of the chakras as connected to and expressed in lifestyle, attitudes, habits and beliefs; assessing chakra imbalances using the Food + Spirit system of analysis; yogic lifestyle recommendations to address imbalances; client-practitioner relationship; on-going client support; lifestyle coaching; progress tracking and record keeping.

Reiki| December 2014 | Kendra Kembel

  • A three-part, one-on-one training with Reiki Master Kendra Kembel in Regina, Saskatchewan.
  • Skills Acquired: Reiki attunement; familiarity with Reiki energy; client/practitioner relationship; full Reiki session protocol and practices.

Positive Psychology Coaching | November 2014 | Wholebeing Institute

  • A three-month distance education course with Lynda Wallace from the Wholebeing Institute.
  • Skills Acquired: solutions-focused coaching; client empowerment; meditation practices for positive change; sustainable rates of change; client-centered approaches; and process-oriented listening skills.

Basic Shamanic Course | October 2014 | Foundation of Shamanic Studies

  • A three-day shamanic intensive with Dr. Marcia Rich in Calgary, Alberta.
  • Skills Acquired: basic journey skills; power animal retrieval for clients; divination for self and for clients; how to create sacred space; familiarity with spiritual power; power dance and power song.

Pain Care Yoga | November 2011 & 2013 | Neil Pearson

  • Two separate, five-day therapeutic yoga intensives with Neil Pearson of Life Is Now, in Regina, Sask.
  • Skills Acquired: understanding the healthy function and neurophysiology of pain; understanding the unhealthy neurophysiology of chronic and persistent pain; therapeutic use of mantra, asana, pranayama, mindfulness, meditation, and yogic lifestyle to help clients overcome chronic pain conditions; fundamentals of client education; record keeping; progress tracking and continuation of care.

Yoga Teacher Training | January 2011 | Bodhi Tree Yoga Center

  • A twelve-month yoga teacher training with yoga therapist Sarah Garden and yoga teacher Colin Hall in Regina, Saskatchewan.
  • Skills Acquired: teaching approaches to asana, meditation and pranayama; core anatomy and physiology for yoga teachers; subtle anatomy for yoga teachers; history and philosophy of yoga.


Workshops, Forums, and Life Experience

Camino del France

In 2015 I walked the Camino del France, from Pamplona to Finisterre.  The walk took me 33 days, and I covered 815+Km on foot.  This journey was an incredible gift and an unforgettable quest of heart, mind, body and soul.  The greatest lessons I learned on my way were: the importance of community; the power of having a dream/vision; the reality that our day to day lives provide a constant Camino of no less value, depth or potential than glorified pilgrimages; and ultimately of my need to look within myself, instead of outside of myself, for the golden path of wisdom and alchemical potential for my growth and evolution.  Our interconnectedness and the potency of our individuation together hold the key to sustainable growth, creativity and abundant beauty in our lives and the ever present moment.

Path of Love

An 8-Day Residential program, August 2015, Hunter Valley, Australia.  Path of Love is a personal development and therapeutic intensive retreat, based significantly on the work of Osho, Somatic Psychotherapy, Sufi practices and other embodied mindfulness healing techniques.  In its own way it can be experienced as an initiation and saturation with the sacred; as a means to ignite or rekindle your inner zest, and help inspire a self-authoring engagement with your life.

Lymphatic Movement Workshop

In 2011, with physiotherapist Tracy Gardikiotis, at Bodhi Tree, Regina, Canada.  This workshop focused on what yoga teachers need to be mindful of in order to share yoga safely and effectively with students healing from breast cancer therapies and treatments.

Continuum Workshop

A 5-day Intensive, June 2014, with Linda Rabin, in Regina, Canada.  Continuum is a Somatic Movement technique that incorporates self-created sound and interoception visualization techniques, helping participants better inhabit, connect to and explore their inner landscapes and multi-layered experiences.  Although its main directive is through our bodies as a means to uncover and unravel both painful holding patterns and deep ecstatic experience, Continuum helps practitioners explore the union of mind, body, heart and soul.

Continuum Workshop

A 2-day Intensive, June 2016, with Linda Rabin, in Regina, Canada.  More of the above mentioned yumminess!

Detox Summit

In July 2014, with the Institute for Functional Medicine and hosted by Dr. Deanna Minnich, online.   A diverse forum of health care providers speaking about holistic and dynamic approaches to detoxing in order to help clients and patients heal from dysbiosis.

Somara

March 2015, in Byron Bay, Australia.  A 2-day Shamanic Medicine Forum where leading practitioners from around the world presented different perspectives on the uses, pitfalls and benefits of plant medicine, mainly from a shamanic practices perspective.

Gratitude Lifeclass Workshop

Jan 2014, with award winning film maker and storyteller Toni Powell, Mullumbimby, Australia.  Gratitude Lifeclass teaches the inspiring, empowering and neuroplasticity effects of quite simply practicing gratitude.

5-Rhythms and Ecstatic Dance

Jan 2015-Feb 2016, with Geash Bowler and Liat Lev Sokal, in the Byron Bay Area, Australia.  Participating in twice-weekly, 5-Rhythms and Open Floor movement classes, I had the blissful opportunity to explore and experience ecstatic dance practices.  Ecstatic dance supports the individual in exploring their own inherent and intuitive movement needs and inspirations; helping participants to embody, heal and access more freedom, joy and vitality in their lives.

Homemaker and Mother of Three

March 2012-Present, with my loving husband Lindsay and our three beautiful children, living in many parts of the world: England, Australia and Canada.  I have been passionate about my job as a parent since the moment I discovered I was first expecting. Family life is by far the most challenging and rewarding of life experiences and personal development crash courses I have had the pleasure of participating in. My children and husband foster learning of such depth for me, as I continue to discover the art of being human in dynamic relationship, as well as the art of staying true to oneself while caring deeply for others. It is impossible to list all the skills and abilities, let alone insights and enduring strengths, family life has inspired. But, let it be suffice to say that the experience of being a mother of three and wife of one, for 15years, has complemented every aspect of my personal and professional development, enabling me to be the best human I possibly can be.

I am informed and inspired by an ever expanding awareness and understanding of our human experience in mind, body, heart and soul.  As a Holistic Health Practitioner, I offer a dynamic systems approach to your health.  Healing is a co-creative process; as such, we work in partnership to meet your personal needs, and together create the circumstances for peace, balance and harmony in your life.  To support your healing and wellbeing intentions, we can engage any of the following modalities: Yoga Therapy, Shamanism, and Acutonics®.
Some of the techniques I have studied, such as Yoga, Sound Healing and Shamanism, are ancient modalities.  Others, such as Positive Psychology Coaching, Food and Spirit®, and both Phoenix Rising and Pain Care Yoga Therapies, stem from more recent evolutions and practices in allied healthcare.  As many of us (including myself) grew up with modern science as our mother tongue, we understandably find ourselves habituating towards techniques that boast science as their central support.  Yet many of us find ourselves disheartened and dispirited when walking the healing way that only focuses on bodies, or at most bodies and minds.  As a result, either curiosity or desperation lead us to "alternative medicine" for help and answers; and thankfully, we are now living in a time where choosing this path is no longer judged as ungrounded heresy (or if it is it is highly unfounded).  More and more, once polarized faculties are uniting to better understand our nature, nurture and evolutionary path.  Cutting edge science in the fields of  Psychoneuroimmunology, Neuroscience, Quantum Physics and other scholarly faculties provide us with sound ground to give up the senseless mindset of competition between allopathic and "alternative" healthcare.  Science now reinforces our intuitive seeking to integrate the new with the ancient, such as what in Positive Psychology with Shamanism, Trauma Psychotherapy with body oriented Yoga Therapy.  This is our time of growing up and moving on, carrying a new torch that bridges the gap between science and spirituality, helping us to co-create effective and sustainable therapies and healing outcomes.
Furthermore are all descendants of ancient tribes people who practiced sacred traditions.  However, most of us have grown up completely disassociated from our sacred roots.  Thankfully, as the world has become more and more connected, opportunities now abound for us to explore or serendipitously be exposed to some of these traditions.  As we encounter the sacred, something deep within stirs and awakes.  These experiences ignite our curiosity and are inherently nourishing.  I believe this is because they feed what we experience as a void, hollowness or longing within.  As it transpires, this "void" is roughly in the shape of a soul; and good news, they are not actually missing, but are desperately starving.  Being a grown up in our modern cultures deems it to childish, irrational or politically incorrect to "believe in" or talk about our souls.  In fact, depending on who you talk to or the nature of your experiences with soul awakenings, there unfortunately is even risk of being pathologized and/or medicated, which is terribly disorienting.  It is my experience, and that of many other modern day seekers and mystics, that we struggle to know wholeness until we integrate mind, body, heart and soul.  I find it very interesting that until recently emotions still existed outside of the realm of measurably "real".  And now that they are, we find great permission to be not only physical and psychological beings, but also now emotional beings.  The challenge of our times is to find the same "permission" to be spiritual beings, an outcome I greatly look forward to celebrating!
Our souls are beckoning us to re-member them, to yoke them back into the story and fabric of our lives.  I believe this is why we feel strangely found, familiar with and fed by our experiences with sacred traditions: they light the way to wholeness, they lead our souls home.

Pellegrina on my Way
 
My personal journey to discover and re-claim my wholeness of heart, mind, body and soul started as most of our journeys to wholeness do: a lonely road that leads one through harrowing adventures!  My experience started with the blessings of growing up in a loving home, in a beautiful country with high-quality human rights; and yet, I was adrift in culture of sleepiness, a culture void of holistic or spiritual consciousness (though still brimming with righteous doctrines in the fields of religion, education, politics or sciences).  The scene was just right to inspire change:-) Curious, confident and unsatisfied with the current "norms", my adventure began!  The challenges I faced along the way ensured I woke up, and most certainly inspired empathy and compassion for others, as well as resilience, endurance, patience and self-esteem for myself!  I have faced (hopefully) enough "demons" to truly know there are none.  To instead abide in a deeper truth that suggests my life is as is, to enable and support my growth and evolution.  I feel blessed to be at a point in my becoming where I am grounded enough in intuitive wisdom and active compassion to now share the pilgrimage consciously and intentionally with others.  My intention is to be both storyteller and healer: to share my personal story (and other stories) as a means to inspire others along their peaceful, harmonious and beautiful way, and also to assist those seeking healing along their journey through life.
The skills, education and training I've amassed and sought out, both inside and outside of the classroom, inform and inspire my therapeutic and healing practice with others.  Healing is both an experience of therapy and co-creativity.  It is an experience of becoming and realizing our wholeness.  Please find below details of my study paths.  If you are interested, I look forward to working with you to help you heal and discover your own resilience and brilliance.
Loving kindness and wise presence are my wholehearted passions and intentions, both professionally and personally.
Have further questions?  Keen to start working together?  Great! Me too!  Please email me at info.yogainthehouse@gmail.com.
MEDICAL DISCLAIMER
The contents of this website are for informational purposes only and are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)