Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Reinen.
Hi Jennifer, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
About 14 years ago I realized that I couldn’t move forward without healing a past trauma. I had been seeing a talk therapist but had found that because of the somatic nature of my trauma, most of my deep insights and release had occurred during yoga classes. I remember telling my mom that I had wished there was such thing as a yoga therapist, someone I could see to work through my body to heal.
Enter…Yoga Therapy
Apparently yoga therapy WAS “a thing”, and it was waiting for me. I started my training with Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy (PRYT) in 2008, as a gift to heal my trauma. Then after nearly two years of training as a yoga therapist, I went back to work as an elementary school teacher. That didn’t last long, I wanted to share this gift that I had learned. So I started my own yoga therapy business in Seattle working mostly with kids in wheelchairs.
When my family decided to move back home to Minnesota from Seattle, I went back to teaching elementary school and found myself once again yearning to guide people to their body’s inner wisdom. To me the most precious gift is the ability to drop in to the space of silence where inner knowing resides, to hear what your soul speaks and to draw insight from that wisdom. I look forward to guiding each client to that space of inner knowing and reflecting the wisdom learned there within.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Yoga Therapy has been a calling that I have left and come back to several times. When I graduated and got my yoga therapy certificate I wasn’t in a position financially to open a yoga therapy business. So I combined what I had learned from yoga therapy with my teaching degree and lead youth in outdoor wilderness therapy programs at Pacific Quest (Big Island, HI) and then at Odyssey (Bellingham, WA). This to me was a way to teach what I had been learning about Svadhyaya (self-study) in the yoga tradition and combine it with my growing knowledge about children and development. At this time I also felt a huge connection to nature and the need for children to find this connection in order to reunite with their true self, or Atman. I slowly transitioned out of Outdoor Wilderness Therapy and I started my own yoga therapy business in Seattle called Nectar. I taught yoga and had a handful of young clients that I would give sessions to at their homes because they were in wheelchairs. I loved the work I was doing but making a living in Seattle meant I would need to see more clients than I was seeing and I had already felt I was at my limit physically. Another thing that I had learned and gotten really good at through my yoga therapy training was making transitions and evolving or Pariṇāma. So when I met my husband and we moved to a small town north of Seattle I went back to teaching for the benefits and stability of income. Recently I have been able to get back to yoga therapy and create my business Inner Knowing here in Minneapolis, and I lean greatly on the partnership I have with my husband to be able to give in this way.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Inner Knowing is a yoga therapy business that also specializes in somatic work and tools. Clients may or may not be seeing a therapist or have a care team and are looking for connection to body. I work with clients who may or may not have mental health issues like anxiety, depression, neurodiversity, physical pain, going through life transitions, grief and spiritual connection.
A yoga therapy session gives clients an opportunity to take time from the chaos of the outer world to explore the workings of the inner world. In a traditional hatha yoga class students are guided to join breath and body in asana in order to meet themselves in the present moment. In a yoga therapy session we go beyond the classroom and explore what is coming up in each posture, or even in just laying in savasana with breath.
In each co-created session I move clients through the postures using hands on/off assist to find their edge. Yoga Therapy sessions can be hands on and passive, or hands off and self-directed. The client will explain sensations, images and emotions that are present in asana and I reflect their words, sensation or emotion. I encourage breath and sound and release throughout the session. A yoga therapy session begins with an intake form or questions from the last session, and ends with a meditation and integration. Clients make connections with what is happening in their body in the present moment and release held emotions from the past.
After a session most of my clients report feeling grounded, more clear about life issues and empowered to make change or use their own wisdom to grow. A yoga therapy session is a very powerful way to see yourself reflected.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
Podcast = Yoga Therapy Hour with Amy Wheeler
Pricing:
- 1 Yoga Therapy Session = $70
- 3 Sessions = $200
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ik-yogatherapy.com
- Instagram: @ikyogatherapy
