Well, Hello There!

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

My philosophy is to be a guide that empowers every body to take their acro practice and make it their own. That means providing a lot of different ways to work with and around any roadblocks in a skill. Through scaffolding or modification and plenty of one on one coaching, there won’t be just one right way to find success. I encourage all my students to access and approach this version of experimental play with safety and accurate self-assessment. Demonstrations, cue cards and warm-ups centered around communication, creativity, and safety are integral to my teaching.

I am energized when brainstorming new perspectives on a familiar or new challenge. I firmly believe in celebrating what your body can do, without comparison and regardless of level.

The 4 A’s, are guiding principles I have learned to use and I encourage all my students to tune into: Assess, Accept, Adjust, and Advocate.

Assess: Proper self-assessment is so important to a safe and long acro practice. It requires a moment of stillness and tuning in, ideally without judgment.

Accept: This one can be hard. We have to set the ego aside long enough to accept the place we are at, on that day, at that moment. This doesn’t mean you resign yourself to be stuck here forever, it means you accept this is how it is for right now.

Adjust: Once you’ve accepted your “right now” you can make the proper adjustments to keep you engaged and active. Brainstorming ways to find modifications or making rest your next step are all examples of adjustments.

Advocate: This is self-advocacy and if you’re not used to it, it can feel very awkward. Practice and taking baby steps by scripting ways to ask for help can ease those feelings. Even just asking for clarity is a great way to advocate for yourself. It’s important to understand that needing support does not make you weak, in fact advocating for yourself will give you a boost of power and strength as you take control of your movement practice.

Seeing how each of us responds to this creative freedom brings me endless learning and joy. I’m sustained by the well of collective knowledge from my peers, teachers and students as it takes my practice to even deeper levels.

MY JOURNEY WITH AUTO-IMMUNE DISEASE

I fell in love with the practice of acro yoga accidentally. I walked into a class in 2012 and dug my heels in thinking, "there is no way I am trying that!" but by the end of the class, after all the little steps working up to the final move, I did it! That sealed the deal. 2012 was a rough year for me and I found acro to be the one place I was able to completely forget myself.

I found myself steadily improving week after week and eventually went to one of the weekend-long campouts. My inexperience with boundaries concerning my body and spirit was at a breaking point and that's when I injured my rotator cuff to the point that I was unable to lift my arm or sleep. I went to the doctor, I went to physical therapy, but things only got worse. It just seemed to spread throughout my body. Come to find out I had myself an auto-immune disease called rheumatoid arthritis.

As a lover of movement, this was painful in more ways than one. Now I don’t need you bore with all the bummer details but I did have to quit everything. No acro, no swimming, no elliptical, not even yoga - I have to admit, I don’t miss running.…BUT there were times I wondered if I would end up in a wheelchair.

Through the miracle of my favorite drugs and therapies, I avoided that wheelchair and gave acro another try. Even though I started back as a beginner, I was pretty scared my body would disappoint me. To my infinitely grateful surprise, I found success, and better still I grew my practice. There are bad days and there are good days but like Seinfeld said, “Pain is knowledge rushing in to fill a gap”.

Let me tell you RA and acro have so much knowledge to drop. I learn how to assess, accept, adjust and advocate again and again. I learn how healing trust, touch, and play are. I learn my limitations and turn them into wild and wonderful expressions of my capabilities. And I even learned how to take a limp and give it some swag. And who doesn’t want a little swag in their step?

I am exuberantly sharing this message of empowerment, creativity, and joy through acro to all bodies. My hope is that any of you out there dealing with injury, illness, or anyone in need of a tweak to their outlook on physical fitness might glean a little insight from what I have to share.