Jennifer Spofford, Yoga Therapist and healer

For me, yoga therapy is the culmination of a lifelong cultivation of creativity in the context of healing and yoga.

When I was a young adult I was in a car accident that synergistically helped me to discover my drive to be in the health field contributing to people’s truest self. Contrary to my younger self’s perspective, I now realize that the summer I healed from the car accident was actually quite tumultuous and left me feeling disheveled and disoriented with my world around me. But I am forever grateful for this because it set me on this path towards becoming a yoga therapist.

In the military my aptitude for the medical field landed me a role as a medic. The rigid structure of the military stifle my creativity which made me realize that further searching was needed to find my best place in the health field. This experience enabled me to realize the importance of one the missing pieces of myself: creativity.

There were a few years that I experimented with becoming a Medic One Medic, working hard at school at community college towards Nursing, getting my CNA certificate at Green River CC.  All the while realizing that I am meant to strongly and nonjudgmentally hold space for people rather than diagnose and operate on them.

A health concern  in my early 20’s lead me to discover yoga and its benefits. I found Sivananda Yoga classes to be calming and provide almost immediate relief to my symptoms. My commitment to yoga expanded to other classes, videos, festivals and seminars on various topics. At a yoga festival in Vancouver I discovered Eoin Finn and realized creativity can come through in yoga as happy, positive, playful movements. Around the same time frame I discovered one of my current mentors Hemalayaa Behl dance yogini. These uplifting experiences inspired me to become a yoga teacher. There was a short transition between knowing I wanted to teach and knowing I was to become a yoga therapist.

I spent years studying different types of yoga healing for myself. I took a chronic pain class for healing my back injuries, only to discover a plethora of other things going on inside of me that needed to be healed as well. I went to yoga therapist, Laura Humpf, and discovered that all of my answers were available if I just listened to my deeper self within. She had a way of showing me how to access those hidden spaces inside. Through yoga I restored my physical self and released the effects of car injuries and both familial and relational emotional abuse.

After dating an alcoholic, I figured out that I have a gift of listening and picking up the subtleties of others. I recommitted myself to becoming a yoga therapist. Because of my own traumas in my past, I am able to see the importance of doing things gently and with mindfulness, especially in being present with other people. My approach can be especially helpful for clients that have severe traumas they are working through, or big life changes.

In my practice I work with clients looking to find mind-body connection, release past traumas, and integrate parts of themselves into their present life. As a 600 hour Certified Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapist, I combine assisted yoga postures with bodywork, talk therapy, and meditation all into one lovely package that is unique to each individual in their present moment. I bring creativity to this healing process, and meet each individual where they’re at.