Trauma-Informed Restorative Yoga Offering
Month of May: Connective roots
Thursday evenings 7:00 - 8:00 pm
Thursdays in May, Starting May 2
*Sign up for the whole series or drop in to a class.*
Led by Franca Bibow, MSW, LMSW, RYT (she/her)
To so many of us, the practice of rest and stillness is one that’s accompanied with notable challenge. Even the name “restorative yoga” or the idea of attending an offering that is centered around intentional rest and non-doing may feel intimidating, or even pointless perhaps. We tend to save rest for our sporadic vacations or occasional open weekends, but the truth is, even those moments of rest may be filled with distraction or irritation with the quiet around us. In this society where we are socialized to link our value with productivity, letting ourselves recharge and simply take up space and be, may be the last thing on our mind.
This offering is intended to support you in the practice of resting, being, and coming as you are. When we make consistent time to be still and be with, space opens within ourselves—our minds, hearts, & bodies. Something in us gets to settle as we tend to our inner world with attentiveness and curiosity. Join me in sharing space with loving community this May and explore the presence and gifts of connection. As our natural world has entered longer days, the blooming of spring, and transitions to summer’s warmer rays, our spirits may feel afresh and extending with the hope for connection.
This offering will include gentle invitatory movement, restorative shapes, guided tapping, simple breathing practices, and gentle sound practices (such as humming), All practices offered in this series are an invitation and rooted in the understanding and respect that every single person knows what feels most aligned in their bodies. Care will be placed in supporting each individual to determine for themselves which shapes feel most nourishing on a given day, and how they wish to move and express throughout the class.
Class will be limited to six people so please complete the google doc form to reserve your spot prior to the start of class. Please feel free to reach out with any further questions, comments, concerns, etc.
Registration
Venmo: @Franca-Bibow
After you complete the registration form, Franca will be in touch with you via email to confirm your registration and to answer any questions you may have.
EQUITY PRICING:
Empowered Spaces and Franca Bibow value community care. Given the systemic injustice in this world which affects each of us differently, this equity pricing scale acknowledges that our ability to pay for services, and access those services, varies. We offer a self-determined sliding scale based on the ways that your identity grants you access to privilege and to social capital, e.g. race, gender & sexual identity, socio-economic status, educational background, able-bodied-ness, etc.
5- Week Series Price
Sustainer Rate - "I can pay my way" - $75 full series
Supporter Rate - "I can help support my community" - $100 full series
Community Rate - "I can use support from my community" - $50 full series
5- Week Series Price
Sustainer Rate - "I can pay my way" - $15
Supporter Rate - "I can help support my community" - $20
Community Rate - "I can use support from my community" - $10
**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 Precautions
We will follow CDC guidelines when it comes to masking. Currently: Masks are optional. If cases go up in St. Louis County and guidelines change, masks will be required throughout the practice. Please stay home if you have symptoms, test positive, or were exposed to someone with COVID-19. If anyone would like to participate and would only feel comfortable if everyone is masked, please email Franca to name this request.
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.