"Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It is a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others." (Pema Chodron)
Background
My main professional background is in physical therapy, having completed a 3 year Bachelor of Science program in Physical Therapy and Special Motricity. I have worked in this field for the last 7 years in a private practice in France and I've completed various Continuous Education Courses (such as Pelvic Floor Rehabilitation, The McKenzie Method of Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy, Motivational Interviewing etc.).
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I'm interested in guiding people through their yoga practice in a safe and compassionate way, hoping that that will inspire them to become more embodied and kind to themselves. Being trained as a PT, I have an approach based on postural alignment and injury prevention in yoga.
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I’ve been lucky enough to study with teachers like Mary Taylor, Richard Freeman, Ty Landrum and Patrick Winogrond (Yoga Hana), who have shown me the magic of this practice and have inspired me to continue discovering it in every phase and transition of my life. Nowadays, you will find me in Timothy Lynch's (Atha room) Mysore room in Oakland, practicing alongside a thriving community who chooses to show up every day on the mat.
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Transitioning from a busy physical therapist's schedule to a more mindful, qualitative 1-on-1 time, my main bodywork modalities are Thai massage, Craniosacral Therapy and gentle Therapeutic Massage.
* This video was part of my Craniosacral Therapy class and it is a metaphor to me finding my identity through this work.
I hope it reaches your heart in the way you need at this moment!
My Story
You know that saying “There’s beauty in the struggle”? I am the living embodiment of it - not in the sense that I’m beautiful because I struggle, but more like my struggle is beautiful because it’s SO REAL. How do I know that? First of all, because I was blessed with a stiff body, made to run, have tight hips and well contoured muscles. My body is not lean, flexible and slender - and that’s okay. It has gradually learned how to become supple, after many years of showing up on the mat and breathing, one pose at a time. So that’s how I know the struggle is real.
I also know because I grew up living life from the shoulders up - thinking my way through every little step. Yoga showed me that sometimes there’s nothing that the thinking mind can do - you can’t actively think of your right hip and it’ll magically let you get into Padmasana. Yoga showed me that sometimes you have to sit with your body and invite it to interact with you - build up the prana fire when needed, or soften into apana when holding too tight.
My yoga practice was my first therapist - it taught me how to be gentle and kind to my body, and at the same time how to stop avoiding the work. Most of all, it taught me how to work with my body from within, not with the mind. And that’s the beauty of my struggle.
I grew up in Romania and, if you know anything about the history of that part of the world, it's a country that has always been in a constant battle for identity- and it still is nowadays. Having to defend its territory, constantly fighting to push away every big empire that was attacking, leaving it with a chronic inability to define itself. It’s an eclectic culture with influences from all over Europe, and it's the only country in the Balkans that is not a Balkan country. So that raises the question : who are we really?? I’ve been observing this over the years and I know that it all has a big influence on how I was raised, how I view the world and maybe even part of my personality.
Because of all these things and how they translate into my body, my main goal is to accompany people who are also blessed with stiffness (in any form that might take - physical or mental), because I’m a firm believer that (ashtanga) yoga is for EVERYONE. It might not look the same for everyone, and that’s exactly the point - we are all unique individuals with unique stories and baggage that we carry with us daily.