Rebecca Nenno, LMT
Massage Therapist, Thai Practitioner, Yoga Teacher
In June of 2010, Rebecca Nenno opened Mind & Body Wellness in Philadelphia, PA. The practice provided basic massage services and employed 4 other wellness practitioners. In its 8 years of operation, Rebecca honed in on specific modalities, rewrote her business plan, redefined her goals, and eventually downsized, moving to Southern Vermont in 2018.
Mind & Body Wellness now provides holistic treatments, a therapeutic safe-space, and education for the community on methods of maintaining wellness in a world where an individual's health and prosperity are too many times devalued. She believes whole-heartedly in the sacred routine of nurturing one's self, and eliminating any factors that cause our selves harm. She believes that we already have many of the tools needed to maintain homeostasis (balance), both in our bodies and our lives, and that by creating a community of like-minded individuals seeking to remove negative impacts on our health and environment, we can create a better world.
Education & Training: Rebecca attended a 600HR course at The National Massage Therapy Institute of Philadelphia in 2008-09, graduating with a national certification and PA License. Since then, Rebecca has gained experience working for spas, chiropractors, and in wellness centers, while simultaneously opening and growing Mind & Body Wellness. She has been trained in Thai Bodywork by the Vedic Conservatory, and also offers cupping AND GuaSha, two healing Chinese techniques that are not commonly seen on spa menus in the Bennington area. Her preferred modality is Thai, which makes its way into mostly every treatment, and her specialties are in injury rehabilitation and musculoskeletal imbalances. With her extensive knowledge of human anatomy, physiology and kinesiology, her work has been best described as 'corrective', but her spa experience adds an element of comfort and luxury to each treatment. In 2016, she was voted as one of Pennsylvania's top 10 therapists!
Rebecca also teaches Ashtanga-Vinyasa and Restorative Yoga! Rebecca began her yoga practice as a college student in 2001 while completing her bachelor's degree. In 2010, she began her deep dive into classical yoga, under the instruction of Dawn Smeltzer at Motherheart Yoga Sanga in Philadelphia, and completed her 200-hour certification in Vinyasa Warrior Flow at the Yoga Farm in Ithaca, NY. She has taught in many different cities, and now brings her love and expertise of the practice to Bennington with Restorative, Yin, and Vinyasa classes.
Ashtanga- Vinyasa is sometimes interchangeably called Flow Yoga. The word “vinyasa” can be translated as “arranging something in a special way,” like yoga poses for example. In Ashtanga-Vinyasa yoga classes, students coordinate movement with breath to flow from one pose to the next. A vinyasa is part of Ashtanga practice, though the two are typically used interchangeably in America. The purpose is to harness inner power, gain awareness and unify mind, body & soul, creating a sense of well-being while aligning and toning the body.
Restore and Align is a class that will teach you how to scan your body for imbalances and energetic blocks, as well as provide you with the tools and knowledge you need to successfully release them, promoting healing, restoration, and alignment. Rebecca comes with 11 years of yoga experience and a passion for helping others to bring peace and balance to their lives. The class highlights on teachings in the Hatha and Iyengar yoga traditions, and is a series of slow intentional movements and holds that may only LOOK easy. Bring only your desire to release. Your best is good enough for this introductory class, designed for all levels of yoga practitioners.
We are the Architects of Our Dreams:
By Rebecca NennoIn my younger years, a general sense of longing, and a vague urgency to achieve followed me into early adulthood as I struggled to put myself through college, graduating with a bachelor's in interior design, and a minor in Art History. The five or so years after college were perhaps the most trying of my life, facing lay-offs, buying (and then losing) my first house, and birthing my first child in 2008 as a single mother. The struggle to make ends meet and the restrictions my new responsibilities placed on me as a young, single parent caused me to feel as though I was living in the shadow of my own potential, and I began to question my career path, and my purpose. About 6 months after my son was born, I decided to go back to school for massage therapy. Thus began a new chapter, and a renewed dedication to myself and the creation of the life I truly wanted. I attended a 600HR course at The National Massage Therapy Institute of Philadelphia in 2008-09, graduating with a national certification and PA License.
My yoga training began in 2013, and was for the purpose of healing initially - NOT teaching. I had always struggled with mental health, and now I was realizing I had some significant healing to do, after confronting very 'real' and daunting threats to my wellbeing, such as the threat of homelessness, thoughts of suicide, conflict with my son's biological father, and concerns with substance abuse. I begrudgingly dove into my fears, forced myself forward, knowing this was the only way out and acknowledging the one resounding benefit of hitting rock bottom: there's only one way to go from there - UP!
Yoga was my path out of those viscous cycles of thought and destructive behavior. In Sanskrit, the word ‘yoga’ means ‘to harness’ or ‘yolk’. The concept is simple. To harness and yolk together all the different aspects of yourself, mind, body and soul, and attempt to bring everything in balance, so that the body and being can find homeostasis. It is truly amazing what you can accomplish. I discovered that the key to my success was changing the way I thought about myself and my life. It is truly remarkable how much of what happens to us on a daily basis is the result of how we perceive ourselves and our lives.
In my opinion, the number one characteristic of success is CONTENTMENT, and it was always the one thing I was missing in my life. I never felt good enough, or close enough, or strong enough to achieve my goals. Negative thoughts had lead me to chronic stress-based behavior, then to physical tension, physical tension to disease, creating a vicious, self-perpetuating cycle of mind-body illness, and becoming a knot in the center of my being that took years - maybe even lifetimes - to untangle. Learning to harness the mind is the first step to reversing that cycle. Some days are still a struggle. I'm not perfect. Life is unpredictable, and we live in hard times, but I do feel so much better, and always so, so very far away from the negative feelings that once held me back.
My message is simple. You can do this too! With effort, love and mindfulness, you can begin to heal yourself too!
