About
My name is Zachary, and I am a trauma-informed yoga and movement teacher living in Brooklyn, NY on occupied Lenapehoking land. I am passionate about making healing spaces accessible to those who have been pushed to the margins of traditional wellness and yoga spaces—including incarcerated people, Black and Indigenous people, people of the global majority, queer and trans people, people living with addiction, chronic illness, and chronic pain, and others navigating systemic harm.
A trauma-informed movement practice acknowledges the ways trauma impacts us on individual and systemic levels, and is supported by developmental psychology and the growing body of research on the neurobiology of trauma. This somatic approach honors our bodily wisdom in healing as understood and practiced by Indigenous people for generations. Through mindful movement we can heal from harm, reconnect to our core self, and find balance and harmony in our lives.
My practice, Move Soma, is rooted in principles of abolition and transformative justice, and seeks to dismantle white supremacist systems and reduce harm in the world by first addressing the individual needs of the body. In a society shaped by spiritual dis-ease and chronic disconnection, true healing is collective and calls for a conscious relationship with ourselves, eachother, and the earth. I believe every person deserves to heal and feel more embodied, present, and connected in the world.
As a trauma-informed facilitator, I am committed to fostering spaces of deep care and guiding your body with an open, loving heart. Most importantly, everything I offer is simply an invitation to explore.
Wholeness is already here. Thank you for trusting me to help guide you back to it.
-> Read more about what this work means to me.
Education:
Dynamic Embodiment, Working with Breath & The Torso: Laban and Bartinieff with Becky Dyer (4 hours)
Prison Yoga Project, Foundational Training: Yoga Through the Lens of Trauma and Incarceration (34 hours)
Harm Reduction: A Workshop for People Who Speak Movement with Sofia Engelman (2 hours)
Prison Yoga Project, Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher Training (200 hours)
certified by Yoga Alliance
*Institute of Applied Somatics, Nervous System Regulation Practitioner Training (96 hours)
certified by the International Practitioners of Holistic Medicine
*in progress