COACHING, YOGA, PRANASSAGE
Meryl Sykes, MSW, LCSW, RYT200
Coaching and Yoga were not always my friends.
I didn’t grow up on tempeh and tofu having emotionally open conversations with my family. (I’m not sure many people do.)
But somehow the Universe led me to an experience in Costa Rica where there was a noticeable curve in the road I was carving out.
I was on an actor’s retreat and we started each day with Yoga which began to open pathways previously unexplored. I then had a Pranassage/Yoga bodywork and afterwards there were big shifts! I felt my actual height (and as a 5 ft 10 woman who slumped all her life), this was huge; I felt my actual SELF.
I hightailed it back to NYC to study yoga because I wanted to learn how to give that feeling to other people, and I suppose, how to maintain it for myself.
After years of teaching I decided to go back to school for a Master of Social Work so I could deepen the work I provide. The dimension this work has given me both personally and professionally has been profound.
I have had the privilege of working within the medical field including hospice and the school system where I currently lead a team of therapists who provide support to the most amazing humans you could ever meet.
I am passionate about helping people to see their value, their magic, their strengths and to consciously choose to be here on earth and to create the lives that support that desire.
YOGA, MEDITATION, SOUND HEALING, PRANASSAGE
Freddie Henken, ERYT 1000
Hi everyone, the last thing I want to do is talk about myself, yikes!
I am very passionate about everything yoga, especially yoga therapeutics, conscious breathing and meditation. I like to think of these three parts of the practice as movement, control, and focus.
In my younger years, construction, sports, and a short stint with substance abuse molded my body and mind into a resistance which limited my ability to flourish both physically and mentally.
Fortunately yoga and I met in 2005. Soon after, feeling the powerful effects that the practice moved in me, it lead me to my formal yoga education that started in 2006 at the world renowned Nosara Yoga Institute where I became a master yoga educator, and senior faculty member under the tutelage of Amba and Don Stapleton, Ph.D, Dean of Yoga Education at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, and co-founders of Nosara Yoga Institute in Costa Rica.
It has been a wonderful journey that has allowed me to open up and share myself, my experiences, and my teachings with others who are in search of their true nature.
I’ve been honored to work with military vets, cancer, MS, and parkinson’s patients, athletes, and children on the spectrum.
My biggest blessing that arrived through yoga was when I met my life partner Meryl!
Possibilities are endless when you shift your perspective.