Heart wide open
90 min Restorative Yoga, Reiki, and Sound Healing Offering
Friday, February 21 6:00-7:30PM
Led by Franca Bibow, MSW, LMSW, RYT (she/her)
The winter months brings forth a slower pace of life, shorter days, a greater need for rest, deep introspection, inner wonder and unraveling. At times this season can pull us so far inward that finding openings feels like great effort. This trauma-informed restorative yoga offering is a wonderful compliment to the practice of gently expanding. ‘Heart wide open’ is a 90-minute practice of supported rest in which ones’ body is fully supported by bolsters, blankets, and blocks. Restorative yoga is a practice of receiving, stillness, of being and being with. Throughout the length of the practice participants will be invited to transition through three to four restorative shapes, all grounded in heart opening expressions. During the final piece of the practice, savasana, singing bowls will be played to guide the group into deeper relaxation and attunement. Singing bowls are said to carry the frequency of the energy centers that align the length of our spinal column. Energy centers located within the physical (and energetic) body are known as ‘chakras’ and each chakra holds’ different physical, mental, emotional, and spirituals functions of existence.
In this offering, Reiki will be offered to each individual for about 15-20 minutes each. Reiki is a gentle energy practice, rooted in Japanese tradition and translates most directly to ‘life force energy.’ It is a potent, universal energy that benefits all layers of one’s being and supports one’s nervous system in processing, restoring, and remembering equilibrium. Franca, the practitioner, will connect with all individuals who sign up prior to the offering and answer any questions they may have as well as directly ask for consent to offer hands-on Reiki.
If for any reason one does not wish to receive this piece of the practice that will wholly be respected, and one is still able to register for the offering and simply not receive individual Reiki. If you are a person who is curious about Reiki but does not feel comfortable with hands on Reiki, then requesting to have hands off Reiki is also an option. Since our energetic body expands beyond our physical body, Reiki can also be received through the practitioner holding their hands over the individuals body.
If you are finding yourself wanting to be in community with others while wishing to honor the internal and slow season we are in, then this offering is aligned with you. Please reach out with further questions or concerns!
Registration
*** 1Spot Open***
EQUITY PRICING:
At Empowered Spaces we value community care, we are committed to making our offerings accessible, and we believe in leveraging our privilege and resources when we can in order to support one another. This Equity Pricing Scale acknowledges that as a result of systemic injustice our ability to pay for services, and access those services, varies. Choosing a rate that is accessible and meaningful is a justice-oriented practice that honors our interconnectedness. Choose your rate below:
$45—"I need support from my community”
$55—"I can pay for myself”
$65 – “I can support my community”
**Full & Partial scholarships: Empowered Spaces is committed to doing everything possible to make offerings accessible to everyone. To inquire about the Empowered Spaces Equity Scholarship please contact Kelly at kkcaul@yahoo.com
Questions: reach out to Franca at francabibow79@gmail.com
Health and Safety Precautions
We value community care and showing up for one another. Currently: Masks are optional. Please stay home if you have symptoms, test positive, or were exposed to someone with COVID-19. We use a HEPA air purifier in the studio. If anyone would like to participate and would only feel comfortable if everyone is masked, please email Kelly kkcaul@yahoo.com.
ACCESSIBILITY:
The Empowered Spaces yoga studio is located on the ground floor. There is a 10-car parking lot adjacent to the studio & additional free parking on neighborhood streets. Restroom is wheelchair-accessible, ramp-accessible, and gender neutral in the main building. Please reach out to Kelly kkcaul@yahoo.com if there is anything more we can do to make our offerings more accessible. Empowered Spaces is committed to accessibility, and strives to be accessible and inclusive of all abilities and all individuals.
Meet Franca
Psychotherapist, Yoga Teacher, Reiki Practitioner
It is courageous to choose healing. To practice honoring and holding your heart, bodily sensations, and life experiences with self-compassion and curiosity. To get to know the parts of oneself that were birthed from a place of survival and have a protective origin, but which are no longer serving you at this moment in time. It is courageous to be honest with oneself. To turn inwards and greet parts of yourself that are in need of nourishment, kind inquiry, and accountability to grow. To practice listening to yourself and embodying who you are, listening to your truth; is all courageous. This practice in which we are asked to let go of the shore and be shaped by the currents of the waters ultimately leads to a more fulfilling, connective, and present life.
Welcome! I am so excited you are here and would feel honored to work with you. I am a Licensed Master of Social Work and am currently undertaking clinical supervision with Kelly Caul, MSW, LCSW to becoming a Licensed Clinical Social Worker.
I provide therapeutic services to adolescents, 13 years and older, and adults of all ages. I enjoy working with individuals across diverse backgrounds and identities with a specific joy to work with LGBTQIA+ identifying individuals. I focus in supporting individuals navigating struggles such as anxiety, dissociation, complex relational trauma, grief, abuse, substance use, and challenges with life transitions.
Having a somatic background as a yoga instructor and reiki practitioner, I am passionate about bringing focus to our bodies, the vessels we experience life through and with, in cultivating greater presence, attunement, trust, and fulfillment in our lives.
I deeply resonate with the sentiment of body wisdom and draw upon information about, and exploration of, the nervous system when working with individuals. I work diligently to cultivate a safe and compassionate space for clients to feel comfortable expressing themselves vulnerably and to come as they are on each given day.
Through mindful self-compassion, systems theory, body awareness practices, shame- resilience approaches, deep listening, and open dialogue I work collaboratively with clients to adopt a more loving, self-accepting, and compassionate view of themselves and their unique individual experience in the world.
I often center on processing internal struggles through a relational lens with parts of ourselves, and our external world. I believe sustained, integrated, and desired change breaks down into daily commitments to, and practices with, ourselves and to the aspects of our lives; people, places, spaces, we hold important in our hearts.