If you feel the pull of chronic stress, anxiety and even panic, it may feel like it takes significant energy to simply make it through the day. I understand the potential-stealing effects of habitual anxiety, worry and intrusive thoughts and I am honored to share the tools that can help you restore calm, ease and authentic confidence.
You are unique, the system of healing that is right for you will be unique too. Somatic Therapy/Therapeutic Yoga are meaningful modalities that offer specific techniques for your own individual needs. Through appropriate movement, breath skills, meditations, imagery, cognitive tools and much more, I help people who are struggling with a variety of challenges that are often related to anxiety, like depression, addiction, stress, shame, self-doubt, digestive issues and physical pain.
About Me
Wounds can
become wisdom
Lisa dumas
In my early thirties, after over a decade as a radio host, I was seeking respite from acute anxiety and scary attacks of panic. I received surprising relief after discovering the power of appropriate movement, breath and mindful meditation. Newfound presence taught me to compassionately question my thoughts and rebuild a relationship of trust with my body. Always a seeker, my studies have been continuous as I gratefully share the teachings that continue to support me.
My formal education in the studies of therapeutic yoga began in Encinitas, California in 2009. I became a certified yoga instructor in the Anusara method which was just the beginning of gathering insight into why the elements of a yoga practice are so helpful for soothing an anxious mind and body. I continued to study somatic coaching in Avila Beach, CA, and completed Ashley Turner’s 300 hour “Yoga and Psychology” program in Venice Beach.
Desiring to take this work into spaces attending to mental health, I was drawn to Yoga Therapy and the Breathing Deeply Yoga Therapy School based in Massachusetts. Now, as a certified Yoga Therapist, Somatic Coach and a 500 hr Yoga Teacher, I offer a variety of therapeutic experiences at Behavioural Health Centers, in yoga studios, at workplaces, retreats and during personalized sessions.
A yoga therapist draws from the vast system of yoga, the inspiring science related to yoga, ayurveda, and western science to craft experiences to help people support themselves through difficulties like anxiety, overwhelm, injury, fatigue and stress. Whether it's peace, strength, flexibility of the body and mind, physical or emotional healing we seek, yoga, meditation, and the countless empowering skills in a yoga therapist’s toolbox can be helpful. I humbly and thankfully acknowledge the origins of these practices and am honored to pass them on through the lens of someone once seeking mental health support, and coming away with a life long practice that bolsters every aspect of life.
A Meaningful Resource for Members:
Worrier to Warrior Yoga Therapy
I created an accessible, affordable resource of self-care to support you from home as your own personal yoga therapist! Members receive a continuously updated selection of therapeutic offerings in varying lengths and intentions.
Find classes that attend to your energy levels, mood, time of day, desires and emotional state.
This robust resource includes countless practices featuring my blend of yoga therapy, somatic coaching and personal development. Here’s just one example of a practice to quiet an anxious mind.
Therapeutic Sessions
Work with me in a sacred virtual space to soothe your anxious mind and body and reclaim peace and purpose. I am passionate about helping people shift fearfulness, worry, overwhelm and panic attacks by empowering them with the ability to cultivate a kinder inner voice and reconnect with the part of them that is not afraid.
Worrier to Warrior Resource
Monthly members receive continuously refreshed therapeutic yoga experiences, meditations and personal development skills for body, mind and spirit wellness and wholeness. Includes live classes.
Corporate Wellness
The role of a somatic therapist in a modern corporate culture:
Evaluates best practices for individuals and prescribes specific, evidence-based, accessible movements, breath techniques and (possibly) meditation skills to support them.
Offers simple stress reduction and grounding practices to encourage nervous system regulation in overwhelm, creating conditions to respond from a place of authentic confidence, rather than past conditioning.
Creates protocols for better sleep, supportive morning routines and perspective shifts to enhance relational issues and increase energy and focus.
Supports physical issues like neck and back pain, postural imbalances, digestive issues and injury that can impede wellbeing and productivity.
Facilitates therapeutic group classes with varying themes (anxiety/depression relief, creativity, team building) and leads inspiring retreats if desired.
With twelve years as a therapeutic professional including studio and people management, I am passionate about curating systems to empower the modern busy human, supporting them in leading and working from a place of authentic confidence.
What people say about Lisa
“During a very intense long period of uncertainty in my life and my families, I found I was not engaging with life, others and myself in a open and compassionate way like I had. This compounded my feelings of sadness but also I felt a destructive heightened awareness about events that I anticipated or were experiencing. Through Lisa’s dialogue, empathy, natural teaching and guiding ability and actual doable tangible things to implement in the moment of uncertainty, I was able to better embrace the waves coming at me and ride them without drowning. I could not recommend Lisa and her course more highly. Even if you don’t think you worry! You will get life skills for when you recognize that you are and become a warrior-”
“What Lisa offers her clients and students is greater than a service. It is truly a gift. She is able to create a safe container for her students to simultaneously heal AND become empowered. This gift can only come from first walking the path herself and then opening her heart to send the gift to others. She is truly one of a kind. ”
“Lisa teaches from her own personal life experience and THAT is what is so transformational. When you meet Lisa, you would never guess in a million years that she was someone who has suffered with anxiety & panic. She inspires real & sustainable strength. She leads by example. She holds space for you while you learn to hold space for Yourself.”
