Thanks for wanting to know more about me!
After giving birth to my son in 2019, I struggled to reconnect to movement, due to residual pelvic floor and back pain trauma. I am a survivor of sexual assault and have recovered from two major back injuries (including one spinal fracture), experiences that have a deep connection to pelvic floor energetics. I grew my understanding for pelvic floor health, deep-core stability work, and mobility. These are practices I utilize in my daily life and inform the way I teach folks to stabilize their physical body, along with their nervous system, for holistic movement practices that support healing.
I have a bachelors degree in Public Relations from Western Washington University and was a hairstylist and educator for 10 years. By caring for individuals with personal touch, I developed a sense of my calling to hold space for those needing compassionate witnessing. Through working as an educator in the beauty industry, I have devoted 5+ years of my experience to learning, and educating others, about systems of oppression in the beauty industry.
My work is greatly informed by my dance-healing mentor, Hayley Shannon, and my partners in The Well - Jenny Wade and Julie Jean Davidson. As a student of Somatic Experiencing, I am studying the work of Dr. Peter Levine and Stephen Porges. As a healing professional in a culture dominated by white supremacy, and a society perpetuating systems of oppression, I am committed to my own healing and activism for the liberation of marginalized people. At the intersections of embodiment, somatics and dismantling systems of oppression, I study the work of Michelle Cassandra Johnson, Resmaa Menakem, Ijeoma Oluo, and Alok Vaid-Menon.
I am a mixed-race, Japanese American, cis-gender, queer woman, and Mom to a 4-year-old human and sweet pup. I was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, with familial roots in Hawaii, currently residing in Shoreline, WA (occupied Duwamish Territory).
When I am not working, you can find me dipped in a body of water, immersed in long conversations with friends, watching competition reality-TV, enjoying a good chocolate chip cookie, or seeking adventure with my sweet family.
I’m honored you’ve taken the time to get to know more about me, and I hope to connect with you!
With care, Jen
As a life-long dancer, movement is one of the ways I feel the most at home in my own body. For a series of years in my 20s, I disconnected from dance completely and found myself moving through the world angry and afraid. Eventually, alongside therapy, I began taking yoga and dance classes to reconnect to myself, quickly realizing that movement - free and liberated movement - was not only the medicine I needed to come home to myself, but a mode of healing I wanted to facilitate for others.
In 2018, I completed my 200-hour RYT certification with The Craft of Teaching Yoga, led by Adrienne and Eric Rabena. This training brought richness and connection to a more soulful way of life, and jump-started my desire to blend yoga and intuitive dance. Through mentorship with Haven Yoga Seattle, I have grown into my own style of somatically-informed movement healing.
I’m currently a student of Somatic Experiencing®, a trauma healing modality rooted in the nervous system. I recently completed a Dance Healing Facilitator Training program with Hayley Shannon at Embody Soul.