Shana's Journey
As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to get my hands on tools that would bring me more understanding of my own experience of life. I would always ask this question “Why am I the way that I am?” and then seek help to be even better.
Reflecting back to my first therapy experience at 4 years old, I can still smell the playdough of the figures I would build up and smush to express my emotions and then sticker my calendar with a sad, mediocre or happy face.
Skip a few years, and you’d find me studying Health: Science, Society, and Policy, as well as Environmental Studies at Brandeis University. I would later use this degree to work in cancer research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Here I was given the opportunity to certify in mindfulness facilitation and create a meditation program for hospital workers through Mindful Leader at the Brigham Education Institute.
In 2018, I took a pit stop in Mexico for my first official certification in yoga. I lived in the Mayan Jungle for a month with Shamans, experienced indigenous plant medicines for the first time, and learned the traditional practice of Ashtanga yoga, which originated in Mysore, India.
Next stop, I was running clinical trials in mindfulness and publishing on Integrative Medicine at the Beth-Israel Deaconess Medical Center. During this time, I began my study of Ayurveda through Sacred Paths Yoga. My partner at the time, and I, were hired by Massachusetts Institute of Technology as Graduate Resident Advisors to the co-ed International Student House, where my training and experience centered around community facilitation and mentorship. While there, I received an excellence in leadership award.
My next was a huge leap of faith, the jump into the unknown: I committed to a yearlong study of Yoga Vidya (the wisdom of yoga) in Mexico and also completed my Vinyasa Yoga certification. The bulk of my experiential learning was ‘on the job’ as they say, when I worked as a member of the wellness staff in The Yoga Forest, living in Guatemala for 5 months. And oh by the way, I threw a Zumba training in there for fun! I am currently enrolled in my second Ayurveda program through the Shakti school.
All of these experiences have allowed me to grow and connect deeper to myself and the richness of life.
I am a lifelong learner of healing modalities, and I can’t wait to share all of it with you!