What makes me tick is to help my clients find the emotions that hide in the body.
I’ve also always been a lover of movement and I’ve studied the emotional life for decades.
I was born in Paris in an Italian French family. As a young adult, I loved dancing and acting. I also lived inside an emotional armor, ready to please everyone else’s needs before mine. One day, I realized I needed to heal so I explored therapy, sophrology and deep breath work.
In 2004, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. That’s when I bumped into yoga for the first time, as well as my teacher. Aline Frati, a yoga teacher of 40 years in Paris, taught me her unique yoga practice for 14 years until she passed in 2018.
In 2006, love pushed me to move to the States, in Atlanta, GA. I started teaching yoga in 2010. I trained in gestalt therapy and, in 2013, I became a certified yoga therapist under the International Association of Yoga Therapists. A year later, I was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time while my father was diagnosed with lung cancer. In 2014, I separated from my husband, went through the treatments and lost my dad.
Advocate for integrative oncology
I came out on the other side with a greater desire to find my purpose. That’s when I started designing my own style of yoga therapy that combines yoga and verbal therapy.
In June of 2022, a new shockwave. I was once again diagnosed with the disease and I’ve been living with metastatic breast cancer since then. It was time for more safety and security and, to me, that meant moving to my native country. So after 16 beautiful years in Atlanta, I’ve settled in Paris, France where I’m now starting to teach yoga therapy again.
I’ve been using complementary medicine in addition to conventional Western medicine for my own health for 19 years. I’m so convinced by integrative cancer care that I’ve become an advocate for integrative oncology. Integrative oncology is a field of cancer care that uses mind and body practices, natural products and/or lifestyle modifications from different traditions alongside conventional cancer treatments. As an advocate, I am an active member of both the Society for Integrative Oncology and the American Psychosocial Oncology Society.
Yoga and Circle work
I believe the journey towards wellness is a path of transformation that involves mind, soul and body work. That’s why I have designed a style of yoga therapy that’s at the crossroads of verbal therapy and yoga.
I use the Circle work to invite you to speak your truth, to become aware of your inner reality, to name it and share it so that you identify your needs, come out of isolation and feel more alive. I also use a specific yoga practice to help you connect deeply with your body, become aware of the stories that are behind the tensions, and listen to the signs the body sends us and that, often, we choose to ignore.
This yoga therapy is for everybody, whether you are young or in your 90’s. It helps you become aware of what’s really going on with you, of your true needs. Practiced regularly, it’s a path towards more authenticity with yourself and with others, and, therefore, a path towards more joy and wellness in your life.
Photo: © Fernando Decillis.