Embodied Awareness is a holistic healing approach I uniquely bring into the session space. I incorporate all the modalities, approaches, and my own experiences to support your process of journeying inward and exploring possibilities of healing. Please see the bottom half of this page for details of my approach. The two primary modalities I bring into the space are the approaches of Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy and Compassionate Inquiry.
Experience of non-ordinary states of consciousness can be beautiful, insightful, challenging, and/or confusing. Integration supports bridging the awareness from the psychedelic experiences or other non-ordinary states into our day-to-day lives to foster transformation. If you have plans to experience such states, I offer support in both preparation and integration.
Yoga therapy for couples offers an opportunity for a couple to explore each other's truths from embodied awareness. This session fully utilizes somatic awareness and active listening processes based on Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy. It is an opportunity to reconnect with yourselves as well as each other, remember how to deeply listen and communicate, and .
Carl Jung considers midlife to be the noon of life, when we perceive our life as the sun's movement across the sky. We are born as the sun rises, establishing the sense of self as we navigate through life as an aspiring young person, and as the sun sets, we transition to the next stage. It is crucial to revisit who we are and explore the sense of authenticity as we navigate through the later half of our life.
Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy invites us to befriend our bodies, become aware of and accept what is arising at the moment, make choices and discernment from the place of awareness and acceptance, and find truths within. It inspires actions from the truth and empowers us to live in the flow of life.
"Trust the process" is one of the insights from this work that I deeply resonate with.
"This is a practice that promotes transformation by drawing on the unique wisdom of the body; it is an approach to yoga therapy that focuses on empowerment of every aspect of one's being." ~Michael Lee
We are often our worst critics, and we carry hidden beliefs which create our suffering. When the hidden belief is brought under the light in a compassionate and nonjudgemental space, we are empowered to let go of what no longer serves us and what limits us from our potential. Through this process, we can gain insights and clarity into our experiences and take steps to nurture compassion towards ourselves.
“The purpose of Compassionate Inquiry is to drill down to the core stories people tell themselves – to get them to see what story they are telling themselves unconsciously; what those beliefs are, where they came from; and guide them to the possibility of letting go of those stories, or letting go of the hold those stories have on them ….” ~Gabor Maté
Yogic and Vedic traditions bring holistic insights into the realization of our individual and universal selves. Yoga is not just about perfecting postures or movements; it is about how we quiet the movement of our busy mind and remember the true nature of our "selves."
While I am not religious, as a Japanese person, Buddhist and animistic beliefs of Shintoism are a deep-rooted part of my upbringing, culture, language, spirituality, ethical views and identity. Shintoism is an ancient and native religion of Japan ("Shinto" can be translated as the path of the divine). Here are some concepts I deeply resonate with.
縁起 (Engi): Dependent origination, dependent co-arising
諸行無常 (Shogyo Mujo): Impermanence
色即是空 (Shiki Soku Ze Ku): Teaching from Heart Sutra, "Color is emptiness (sunyata)"
インドラの網 (Indra No Ami): Indra's net, a metaphor for the interconnectedness of all things
森羅万象 (Shinra Bansho): Nature, everything that exists in the universe
自然崇拝 (Shizen Suhai): Nature worship
祖先崇拝 (Sosen Suhai): Anscester worship
I am informed by Parts Work approaches such as Internal Family Systems. I personally have profound experiences exploring "parts" of myself. Parts Work approaches allow us to become aware of the aspects of ourselves that we may not usually feel connected to and bring insights into our current challenges.
I am especially interested in how the experience of non-ordinary states of consciousness may holistically support healing as individuals and as a collective. Transpersonal explores experiences beyond our individualistic sense of self, diving into mystical, numinous and spiritual realms.