The Elemental Body

I teach from my life experiences in combination with a lot of techniques and methods. This ranges from performance training that I picked up in my college basketball days, to rehabilitation, injury prevention, and functional movement from a career as a strength coach, to meditating at ashrams in the Poconos and visiting shrines in India, to sitting in inquiry circles in the hills of Arkansas.

With there being such a variety of influences that you might even ask, what even makes this stuff yoga?

It is the vision of health and the promises of freedom and fulfillment that make it yoga. What I’m striving to teach is more than a random batch of movement or mindfulness practices. It is a detailed, personalized, and progressive course of yoga sadhana. That takes on a life of its own, through you. 

“Sadhana is the discipline of skillfully applying mind and intelligence as a means of being liberated from ignorance.” - Matthew Krepps

Yoga is at the core of what I do because the model of health and map of the self that it gives us are the guides to remembered wholeness.

In my experience, the path to creating a life of health has been confusing. I’ve spent so much time in doubt, how can you know what’s right for me with so many people telling me what's ‘the way’ and so many options to choose from?

Outside of bias and fads, there is a reason that I continue to teach yoga instead of following fitness trends or even developing my own method. It is because within the context of yoga practice our effort makes us wiser and is not about fixing yourself but rather experiencing yourself differently. By looking at your life and situation through a more whole lens, you can make impactful change with relative ease. 

Yoga tells us we have 5 bodies that correlate with the elements of nature.  

These five essential aspects of ourselves need attention for us to experience a sense of wellbeing. This means yoga tells us that our relationships and our intuition are as much a part of us as our body and emotions so it is vital for health and healing that we learn to connect to and trust our own hearts by cultivating a sense of our own inner knowing rather than outsourcing decisions. So much of the healing I’ve seen happen has been through cultivating a vision of what is possible for our lives and reconnecting to Spirit and inner wisdom. This is why I have begun to focus my work around supporting folks to cultivate a spiritual discipline that touches all these aspects of themselves, creating a greater sense of ease and joy in daily life and fostering healing over time.  

Before developing a yoga practice and experiencing a supportive community I was depressed, confused, anxious, flakey, and resentful. It wasn't until I saw people living a sensible yoga lifestyle and how healthy they were in all aspects of life, even their shortcomings, that I believed it was possible for me too. It was through their lived example that I believed it was worth it to commit myself to practice.

Through consistent self-inquiry practices supported by circle and therapy, I have been able to recognize self-defeating behaviors and unseen aspects of myself that were keeping me in unhealthy patterns. I can see now that I have spent years of my life running away from commitment and responsibility often in the name of ‘being spiritual.' 

In my own healing process, it was only when I turned my attention towards myself, slowed down, connected to my inner resources, and started to seek to understand myself (rather than avoid or defend) that I began to develop genuine and healing relationships in my life that continue to support me to find clarity and stay committed. It is through my own trials and many many errors that have developed my down-to-earth approach to creating a soulful home yoga practice.

Working with the 5 elements touches on all aspects of what it means to be human and yoga is about building a personal and felt relationship with each of them. My programs are designed to do just that. As you may know, relationships take time, which is why my program durations are 1-3 months all the way up to 1 year and longer. I hope to see you achieve your current goal and beyond.

As a yoga therapist, it is my goal to be a steady person for you and give you a clear and realistic action plan for achieving your goals and include the additional resources to make it doable for you.  In our time together I strive to provide a mirror for your own highest wisdom and inner knowing and provide you with a personalized plan combined with on-demand practice progressions of functional movement flows, contemplative and meditative practices, and practical tools for designing a lifestyle for thriving that will help you learn to listen to your body while building strength and mobility while keeping longevity and joy as our focus.

So much of the healing I see happening for folks comes from a willingness to turn towards what is causing pain and listen deeply to what the pain is saying. This is not something I would recommend doing alone, which is why I have worked so hard to create a supportive container for this work. 

If you feel ready to take this courageous first step we can create an action plan to empower you in your healing, minimize the impact of your symptoms, and ease your physical, mental, and emotional suffering so that you can connect to your own inner wealth. There is no quick fix but with support and guidance, you can begin to let go of what doesn’t serve you and build a life you love living.

We can call this model of wholeness the elemental body and it is a throughline of everything I teach. If you’re curious to learn more about how developing a therapeutic yoga practice can play a vital role in your healing and talk about how my at-home yoga programs can help you specifically let's chat. 

To get started working with me schedule a single session or check out my new client program bundle.