My Teaching Style
Blending gentle movement, breath, affirmations, thematic exploration, and yogic philosophy, I create trauma-informed mindfulness meditations and yoga flows that provide a safer space for participants to connect with their whole body and to build feelings of safety, wholeness, and agency.
My classes use invitational, empowerment-based language and offer choices and options for each shape. I strive to minimize possible triggers and to use gender-expansive language.
Why trauma-informed somatic practices?
I believe that we all deserve to be having sex that brings us joy, deep connection, and expansive pleasure.
But sometimes, because of experiences we’ve had across our lives, or just because of growing up in a deeply sex negative culture, it might be difficult to access all the amazing things that sexual intimacy can bring us.
Sometimes, to get to that place, we might need to take a step back and build a foundation of safety and agency in our bodies. To experience feeling rooted in our own worthiness, our own value. To know, deep within ourself, that our boundaries are beautiful, that our choices are valid. To practice accessing the full expansiveness of our body’s sensations
There are so many ways to access these things, but I believe that trauma-informed mindfulness practices, such as mediation and yoga, are powerful tools that can help people find safety & build skills that translate directly into our intimate lives.
What makes these practices trauma-informed?
-Empowerment-based language is used, so that cues are invitations rather than commands ("You're welcome to raise your arms to the sky" vs. "Raise your arms to the sky")
-Choices and options are offered for each cue, allowing students to decide what is accessible and best for their body in that moment ("You might like to...or you could..."
-Emphasis on bring curiosity and compassionate awareness to the present-moment sensations of our bodies
-Expansive language will be used (i.e. using terms like "folks" vs. "girls", "goddesses", etc. )
-More space and time in between any movement that is offered
-Special care will be taken when cuing breath practices and movements that tend to be more vulnerable for folks (i.e. with cat/cow, forward folds, svasana, etc.)
-Students are seen as experts of their own experiences
-Minimal stimulation (low ambient music or no music, no scents, calming lights, managing voice, and so forth)
-No calling out individuals to give praise or adjustments
-For in-person classes, physical assists are not offered
“What if fully experiencing the present moment, including all of the ups and downs of emotions and thoughts, could lead to a satisfying sexual life without the grief of trying to change anything at all?”
— Dr. Lori Brotto
Practice Online with Me
“On my journey to my own wholeness, this class helped me open up to see and feel myself in a new, empowering perspective. It brought me into a new space and spirit of experiencing my body sensations and feelings in a nurturing way .”
-Aurelia, Class Participant