What we do here: The Chicken Yogi Way

I am passionate about bringing radical wellness to those who are commonly left out of the discourse around wellness. I do this by reimagining the wellness wheel to be more holistic, more flexible, and beyond the current mental/physical health dichotomy. My purpose is connection: to ourselves, to each other, and to the wilder and wider world around us. By finding and cultivating connection, we move beyond thinking about our health in neat, little boxes like mental or physical, and instead, began to see that it’s a messy, beautiful, wonderful spectrum, and YES, you can cultivate wellness even when dealing with a chronic illness or disability.

Oh and by the way, being neurodivergent in all it’s forms (not just Autism or ADHD), isn’t an illness. It’s not a deficit. It’s a developmental way that your brain grew, and while it may have some genetic component, you can’t ignore the role trauma played.

A trauma-informed wellness practice understands that you cannot seek wellness until you are safe, or at the very least working toward safety. Basic needs like food, shelter, transportation, emotional and physical safety, need to be met first. You cannot separate socioeconomic issues from wellness issues anymore than you can isolate pieces of a whole (like a roof from a building) and expect it to still work. (If you take the roof off a building, then it’s going to rain inside.)

That’s why you often won’t find me giving traditional “eat better move more” advice. My approach to wellness comes from a radical, holistic approach. We work from the inside out, from getting to know ourselves, from moving our bodies in a way that feels good to us, and understanding our trauma, our neurodivergence (if neurodivergent), and our chronic illness/disability. Too often the external things are impacted by our socioeconomic factors or things outside of our control. (like can you access a doctor? Do they believe you? Do they treat your condition?) Telling someone in that situation to ‘find another doctor’ or ‘find another job’ without actually offering real, tangible supports tailored to their unique situation is useless and also rather traumatic.

Yes, I do talk about energy and breath work, especially in conjunction with yoga and meditation. I will not use the narrative or language of cure. I believe these things can help connect us to ourselves and our physical bodies.

So if it seems I work with several diverse methodologies, know that they all have one common root: connection.

My work is to connect you to yourself in a safe and healthy way, and then we can begin to connect with others.