Village Healers
We are delighted to introduce you to the Healers who share their restorative practices with our Village.
Each healer brings a range of modalities and experiences which we match to the requests of Villager cohorts for each residency.
How might you expand your own
restorative practices?
Angela Omulepu (she/her)
Reiki, Medicine Energy, Poetry, Movement, and Laughter Therapy
Angela Omulepu is a wellness consultant, healing practitioner, and change-maker who facilitates personal, organizational, and societal healing through diverse healing modalities such as Reiki, guided imagery, non-violent communication, and creative writing.
Her school, Reiki to the People, represents the intersection of spirituality and socio-political revolution. Ms. Omulepu's perspective and approach is shaped by her over 10 years of experience as a union organizer and regional community organizer working for racial, social, and economic justice. Reiki to the People is committed to leveraging the energy of grassroots movements to help shift the collective consciousness. It calls for a heightened level of engagement through sacred resistance and vibrational/energetic acuity.
Ms. Omulepu believes that healing society starts with healing the self—letting go of resentments, rewriting harmful narratives, and learning the language of energy. It is her strongly held belief that a critical mass of people adept at navigating the energetic plane can catalyze a positive shift–elusive solutions and creative new strategies will emerge, making equity, cooperation, and abundance an achievable reality. In her heart, she believes that through Reiki practice and exquisite attention to self-healing, we can change our world.
Berenice Dimas (she/they/ella)
Plant Medicine, Reiki, Body Work, Massage
My name is Berenice Dimas and I am a queer herbalist, birthworker, and published writer.
Through my work, people become inspired to begin a healing process, continue a healing journey already in progress, or take a new direction in that journey by gaining new insights of the self. I hold space for you to figure out your own transformation process.
For me, healing is cyclical. Always changing. Always in motion. I am simply the facilitator of the journey not the one necessarily doing the healing for you.
Berenice's Offerings: Plant Medicine, Reiki, Body Work, Massage
Location: Bay Area
Contact: https://berenicedimas.com/
DejaJoelle (she/they/us/we/yall)
Movement, Meditation, Breathwork, Coaching, and Dance
DejaJoelle is a Black-Centered - Healing Artist, Choreographer, Director, and Cultural Healing Curator. She believes Dance serves as our connection to ourselves, our communities, and our overall Divinity.
DejaJoelle creates intentional spaces for Black, and LGBTQ2 community to discover their own practices toward Healing using Dance, Body Reclamation, and other Healing practices.
As the world experiences collective hurt and grief, DejaJoelle trusts that our greatest act of REVOLUTION and REBELLION against hatred and corruption is Self-Love, Healing, and Dance. As she refuses to fuel the fire of destruction and heinousness, she instead focuses her Art and energy on properly handling Black people who continue to be mishandled.
DejaJoelle’s offering:
Movement, Meditation, Breathwork, Coaching, Dance
Location: Minnesota
Connect: Body Prayers/The Melanated Remedy
Dr. Joi Lewis (she/her)
Meditation coach, yoga teacher, multi-disciplinary artist
Dr. Joi Lewis is a visionary community healer and facilitator of liberation, and social justice As a speaker, author, CEO of Joi Unlimited, and President of The Healing Justice Foundation, she’s on a mission to put healing in the hands of anyone, anywhere. Dr. Joi helps individuals, institutions, and communities heal from oppression-induced historic and present-day trauma, using Healing Justice as an on-ramp to reclaim our own humanity and each other.
Dr. Joi’s book, Healing: The Act of Radical Self-Care, educates individuals on the Orange Method of Healing Justice, a framework to interrupt historic cycles of oppression through both self and community care.
The Orange Method is an integrative process that uses four practices: meditation, mindfulness, emotional liberation, and conscious movement. She offers this meditation to all who believe in freedom: #MayTheRevolutionBeHealing.
Dr. Joi’s Offerings: Group Facilitation/Space Holding - Orange Method of Healing Justice: (Meditation, Mindfulness, Emotional Liberation, Conscious Movement), Radical Self-Care & Healing Coaching, Two-Way Prayer (Journaling), and Yoga (Recovery, Restorative).
Location: St. Paul, Minnesota.
Connect: website: www.joiunlimited.com | info@joiunlimited.com |
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn: @drjoilewis
Kendra Coupland (she/her)
Meditation coach, yoga teacher, multi-disciplinary artist
Kendra Coupland is a sādhaka (one who is on the path to self actualization) of Caribbean and Canadian descent. After studying and practicing yoga for 7 years, in 2017 Kendra was officially initiated into the yogic teaching tradition by Swami Vidyanand while studying Transformational Yoga in South India.
Experiencing the world as a queer, neurodivergent, Black-mixed woman, and survivor of childhood sexual violence Kendra brings a compassionate, trauma-informed, and intersectional framework to her practice. She is constantly striving to create safer spaces for folks who experience marginalization and systemic violence to practice self-liberation and self-actualization within the context of a larger, and oftentimes oppressive community, and is most excited about building communities of care.
Kendra’s Offerings: Transformational Yoga - Hatha, Breathe Deep, Yoga Nidra, Spiritual Coach
Location: Vancouver BC, Canada
Connect: www.kendracoupland.com | hello@kendracoupand.com | instagram.com/kendracoupland
Marla Renee Stewart
Coaching, Body Work, Breathwork, Meditation
Marla Renee Stewart is a Sexologist and Sexual Strategist at Velvet Lips Sex Ed and Co-Founder of the Sex Down South Conference. Her work centralizes sexuality and she helps her clients through tactics used in sex therapy, somatic bodywork, and comprehensive sexuality education. Healing, rest, and self-care is one of the core truths and she lives it almost every day.
Her approach to healing is ensuring that she meets a person where they are at. She does this by getting a brief history, have an understanding of their goals and what they want to accomplish and then making a game plan. But she just doesn't leave it there; she typically follows-up because she highly values accountability and ensuring her clients that they are doing the work so they can have the results they need to help them evolve.
This also means that she’s a co-collaborator; she believes there are multiple modalities that will contribute to a person's well-being and having colleagues that she can refer to are key to healing our communities and setting ourselves up for the possibilities of future generations’ success and prosperity.
Marla’s offering: Acupuncture
Location: Atlanta, GA
Connect: https://www.velvetlipssexed.com/about https://www.instagram.com/velvetlipssxed/
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Prajna Choudhury (she/her)
Acupuncture, Meditation
I have been practicing Traditional Chinese Medicine for over 15 years, having graduated from Yo San University in Los Angeles, and currently practicing at Energy Matters Acupuncture & Qi Gong in Oakland, CA. My practice is to listen deeply to what ails you, to what your body is telling me, and to alleviate suffering and help bring peace and comfort with the tools I have.
Philosophy: “When people come in for treatment, of course, they want their symptoms to go away. Alleviating pain and discomfort – whether physical or emotional – acupuncture and Chinese Medicine are great. But in the process of treatment, I’m also curious about: What is your pain or discomfort telling you? What lessons are there to learn from your experience of ill-being?
I have also been a mindfulness meditation practitioner in the tradition of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh since the early 2000s. I have facilitated meditation groups for many years and in 2013 was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh as a lay practitioner (Buddhist chaplain) in his Order of Interbeing.
Prajna’s offering: Acupuncture
Location: Bay Area, California
Connect: energymattersonline.com prajna@energymatterseastbay.com
Raj Escondido(she/they)
Coaching, Body Work, Movement, Somatics, Reiki, Astrology, Yoga / Pilates, Meditation, and Breathwork
Raj Escondo is a Filipinx and South Asian healing justice practitioner, facilitator, and coach.
Her healing modalities include yoga, reiki, and Eastern Ashiatsu where she centers communities of color and social movement leaders. She integrates her healing practices and principles into her work as an organizational development consultant, facilitator, and coach.
You can expect her offerings to be focused on accessible movement, mindfulness, and the cultivation of your own inner leadership. Raj supports folks in developing a compassionate and cozy home within themselves towards building community with others, the land, and ancestors. Her practice offerings strengthen one's interoception skills supporting folks with histories of trauma, overwork, and stress to decompress and look within.r transformation process.
Raj’s offerings: Somatic Mediation, Embodied Coaching
Location: Bay Area, California
Connect: https://rajpractice.com/connect, email: rajescondo@gmail.com
Rashmi Guttal (she/her/they/them)
Coaching, Meditation, Reiki, Somatics, Body Work
Rashmi (she/they) is a somatic practitioner, restorative justice facilitator, and mediator. Through her background in asana (yoga), meditation, and conflict resolution, she created somatic mediation, a coaching process to help individuals and couples resolve conflict. Using the Internal Family Systems model, Attachment Theory, and body-based practices, Rashmi guides folx into deeper awareness and compassion for their different ‘parts’. She focuses on nervous system regulation, emphasizing rest, silence, and moving slowly.
She is influenced by her Buddhist contemplative practice, background in trauma-informed asana (appropriated as yoga in the West), Reiki training, Restorative/Transformative justice, teachers Mark Tanaka, Lama Rod Owens, and the works of Kai Cheng Thom, adrienne maree brown and bell hooks.
Rashmi identifies as Queer, South Asian, woman of color, differently abled, and has lived experiences with trauma and grief. Rashmi enjoys being with the earth, petting animals, and being with her lovely community.
Rashmi’s offerings: Somatic Mediation, Embodied Coaching
Location: Bay Area, California
Connect: rashmiguttal.com | rashmiguttal@gmail.com
Rosanna Chang (she/her)
Rosanna "Rose" Chang is a devoted facilitator and ally of healing. She helps others release their bondage of internalized shame and reclaim their most precious birthright: to love and be loved. Rose offers embodied heartfelt wisdom gleaned from over 25 years of both deep personal healing and her work serving others. She utilizes a dynamic holistic blend of integrated tools that helps to activate the organic inner intelligence inside her clients. It is this force inside of all of us that drives us toward healing and growth. Rose is honored to witness trauma transform into sources of unshakeable resiliency, wisdom, and compassion for self and others. In her spare time, she revels in the magic of Nature, is learning how to center rest and pleasure as an act of liberation, and can be found in the kitchen cooking up global soul food for her loved ones.
Rose’s offerings: Reiki, Plant Medicine, Coaching, Therapy, Somatics, Personalized Soul Collages.
Location: Bay Area, California
Connect: www.rosannachang.com
sister sadada’s Offerings:
Coaching, Movement, Somatics, Yoga/Pilates, Breathwork, Expressive Arts, Embodied Liberation
Location: Massachusetts
Connect: https://sadadaj.wixsite.com/sister-sadada Email: sistersadada@sistersadada.com
Instagram @sistersadada
Facebook @sistersadada
sister sadada (she/they)
Coaching, Movement, Somatics, Yoga / Pilates, Breathwork, Expressive Arts, Embodied Liberation
i am a student of liberatory practices: i live in my body and vacation in my mind. i am black nipmuc. i am an embodied liberation teacher. i work with individuals and groups who do the work of healing and education. the aim of my work is to guide embodied liberation in our relationships and our structures. i believe that a love-based relationship with our bodies is essential to all liberation.
i approach my work as a guide, supporting the developing and deepening of embodied love-based relationships. i use movement, yoga, breath, rituals, and ceremony in partnership with earth elements when in my work. as i work, i maintain a clear and generative heart and mindset and rely on the partnership of our labor to inform our time together.
i am deeply committed to justice, access, love, spaciousness, and the liberation of all beings. my commitments are rooted in my black and indigenous identities and traditions. for over 20 years I have been a practitioner of contemplative practices from buddhist and yoga traditions.
i am a trained hatha and therapeutics yoga teacher. i trained with bo forbes. for 25 years i have trained, performed, and taught as a modern and folkloric dancer.
Sonja Trejo (she/her)
Dedicated to an inclusive, come-as-you-are yoga experience; ensuring that all levels, ages, body types, ethnicities, and walks of life feel met and acknowledged in their practice.
Sonya Trejo specializes in "Vibey Vinyasa Flow" yoga to work the body and soul. Set to fun playlists that guide students on a journey building strength and equanimity, the teaching incorporates fundamental yoga practices with an emphasis on pranayama and mudras to encourage others to cultivate conversations with their own bodies and make spiritual concepts accessible through asana.
Bringing a sense of light-heartedness to the asana, Sonya's love of people and yoga shines through mindful sequencing, setting students up for success, and is designed with the intention of shifting energy into alignment. Sonya has been working in retreat settings throughout the Caribbean for the last 5 years.
She loves to dive deep to empower people to have agency in their own healing, providing a range of tools such as astrology, meditation, breathwork plant-based healing, and foods to enhance your transformation process.
Sonja’s Offerings: Yoga/Astrology/Temazacal Ceremony
Location: Atlanta, GA
Connect: www.EighthLightYoga.com, email me at sonya@EighthLightYoga.com or dm me on insta @eighthlightyoga
Taraneh’s Offerings:
Guided Embodiment Sessions: Movement, Somatic Inquiry, Expressive Arts.
Location: Bay Area, California
Connect: taraneh@toembodylove.com|
Taraneh Sarrafzadeh (she/her)
Teacher of yoga, dance, somatic inquiry, meditation, expressive and creative art practice
Taraneh identifies as a Pinay Iranian American woman, the daughter of immigrants, born and raised across Ohlone lands, known as the Bay Area, CA.
Taraneh is a lifelong student of embodiment in its many forms as a path to reclaim, dream, rest, and reimagine our way back to ourselves and to ways of being (individually and collectively) that are restorative, transformative, and liberatory.
The current container for Taraneh’s work as an artist and guide is To Embody Love. To Embody Love draws from the well of her studies in yoga, dance, somatics, ritual creative practice, and devotion to nature, spirit, and our interconnectedness. With To Embody Love, Taraneh guides spaces for BIPOC women, femme, and gender-fluid folks, to listen and connect inwards to their bodies through movement, healing practice, and creative expression–working both in 1:1 coaching and holding classes and workshops.
Teresa Ellis (she/her)
Strong Squad Captain, Pilates
Teresa loves to find joy in the ordinary. She practices Pilates and piano, and being present but also has no shame in binge-watching some mind-numbing show like Claws. Music and laughter are her love languages. She's a fan of puns so share one if you have one.
Teresa’s offering: Pilates for Badasses
I teach a group mat Pilates class that is slow-paced and with different options for each exercise to make it accessible to all who desire to practice this modality. I always start with the base movement and will invite you to find the level that works for you and stay there until you are confident to move up to the next level. This makes the practice yours. All options are offered to meet you where you are in your body at that moment.
Teresa’s Offerings: Pilates, Movement, and Somatics.
Location: Oakland, California
Connect: www.PilatesBarreAndJams.com |
IG-@PilatesBarreAndJams | FitnessByTeresa@gmail.com
Dr. Teresa's offering: Nervous System Energetics.
Location: National
Connect: dr.teresa@vibrantbodywellness.com | lab.vibrantbodywellness.com
Teresa Lau (she/her)
Energy and Bodyworker, a specialist in somatics and tending to the nervous system
Dr. Teresa Lau, DC, has a passion for the beauty and richness life has to offer, and she is an expert in real-world health, and solutions for stress. She has seen thousands of lives transformed by the lightest touch at the right moment and frequency. Dr. T, as she's affectionately called by her clients, is committed to revealing and reveling in the embodied expression of the power of our humanity, and she is dedicated to more of us skillfully inhabiting our bodies, as an integral component of transforming systems of oppression and co-creating our new, emergent world.
Dr. T is licensed as a chiropractor, specializing in the energy of alignment, somatics, and awakening for sixteen years at Vibrant Body Wellness in Berkeley. Raised in the Washington DC area, Dr. Teresa has a Bachelor of Science in Physics, and one in Women's Studies, from MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She received her Doctorate of Chiropractic summa cum laude from Life Chiropractic College West in Hayward, California, and Dr. T has been voted Best Chiropractor of the East Bay three out of the past four years.
Her work is to cultivate a world of radical belonging, through body-based healing and creating collective learning space.
I enjoy working with people in groups, creating a shared field that is felt and acts as a greater resource for everyone. I lead groups in movement and breathing rhythms that will facilitate the embodiment of different states of consciousness, resonating with the cyclic stages of healing and awakening.
I work with individuals using gentle and light touch along the spine to engage the connective tissue and energetic intelligence that organize the body. The result is a somatic movement into ease, peace, transformation, awakening, release, focus, unwinding, and other forms of healing directed by the body's innate intelligence.
Are you interested in being a New Seneca Village healer?
Check out our Healer Offering