Yoga

A safe space to breathe and move

Most yoga rooms ask you to keep up. This one does not.

Classes here are led by Natalie Johnston, MPT, a licensed physical therapist with 500 hours of trauma-informed yoga instructor training, registered with Yoga Alliance. She has spent her career reading joints, muscles and the nervous system, so the adjustments happen without you having to ask for them.

She notices the small things. A shoulder that shrugs to make a shape happen. A breath that stops at the top of the ribs. That is what gets adapted, in the moment, for the body that showed up that day.

Leave feeling better than you arrived. That is the whole standard.

What it costs

$25 per session. Come to one class and see how your body answers.

The classes we run

• Gentle yoga, Tuesdays, 10:00 to 11:00am.
• Chair yoga, Thursdays, 11:00am to 12:00pm.
• Beginner yoga, Saturdays, 8:30 to 9:30am.

Check this month’s schedule for exact dates and any weeks without class.

Why a trauma-informed instructor matters

Because we all carry something.

Trauma is not only a single sudden event that leaves a physical injury. It is any stressful or frightening experience that was hard to cope with, whether it happened once or went on for years. Those experiences disconnect the mind from the body, and the body keeps running the alarm long after the event is over.

A trauma-informed class gives you choice and builds trust. Nothing is forced. No hands land on you without permission. You get to feel safe in your own body again, and learn to regulate your own state. You reactivate the parts of the nervous system that went quiet to keep you safe.

If pain, not stress, is the reason you are looking, the clinical version of this work is yoga-informed physical therapy, one-on-one with a physical therapist.

What people in these classes say

“I'm a 64 year old man and I have been doing yoga for a while now. Yoga with Natalie has improved my balance, strength and flexibility. The environment is relaxed, noncompetitive and nonjudgmental. I highly recommend it.” Joe P.

“I have attended Natalie's yoga classes for several years and really appreciate her careful explanations of positions. The pace is perfect for me and not too fast! She is also great with reminders of upcoming classes via emails.” Donna F.

You already know you need this

You have read about breath work. You know what stress does to sleep, digestion and pain. You have probably already downloaded an app you stopped opening.

None of that was laziness. You were busy holding everything else together, and a class you have to drive to is easy to keep pushing out a week.

Here is the part worth saying plainly. A nervous system that has been on alert for years does not settle by itself. The shallow breathing, the shoulders, the short fuse, the 3am ceiling, they are the same pattern getting more practiced. One hour in a room where someone is watching your movement instead of your performance changes what that pattern rehearses.

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