EMBODIED PRACTICE
A way to reinhabit and take care of our bodies
After trauma occurs, many of us experience symptoms of anxiety, depression, and complex PTSD that can be extremely challenging to live with. These experiences can also arise simply by existing and bearing witness to socio-political-environmental oppression. Amid these difficult realities, I provide customized sessions for community members to access trauma-informed yoga, meditation, and somatic practice.
Trauma-informed yoga and meditation classes help to empower community members with the space and practice to exercise breath regulation, sensory mindfulness, movement to release tension, personal choices to restore safety and agency, as well as overall cultivate mind-body awareness. I am also trained in the Trauma Resiliency Model, which helps to deepen one’s awareness of their nervous system and natural survival responses, and shows how we can practice skills to help our bodies return to a zone where we feel more grounded to take care and make choices with more clarity, calm, and creativity.
Drawing from these modalities, as well as my own spiritual lineages of Shin Buddhism from Japan and Zen Buddhism from the Plum Village Tradition, I work with organizations of diverse communities to hold space for grounding and embodiment - where people have an opportunity to restore, connect, and learn with and from in their bodies.
My approach values many longstanding spiritual lineages, including Yoga and Buddhism, which both originated in India at least 2500 BCE. I appreciate numerous generations of teachers, including the trauma-informed training of Zahabiyah Yamasaki and Hala Khouri, as well as my spiritual teachers, Reverend Patricia Kanaya Usuki, Venerable Shinran Shonin, Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, Valerie Brown, and many countless others.
Since 2015, I’ve been honored to share trauma informed practice with many communities, including the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, the Japanese American National Museum, Peoples Yoga, the San Fernando Valley Hongwanji Buddhist Temple, The Tree Yoga Cooperative, Roots for Peace-Los Angeles, AF3IRM-LA School of Youth Activism, Center for the Pacific Asian Family, Liberty Hill Foundation, Testimony Ministries, Human Rights Watch - National Life Without Parole Project, and more.
