Hello, I am Jess
(she/her)
I could never stay in a box, even at 5 years old.
Lifelong Student. Nature Nerd. Explorer. Movement Muser. Wonderer. Animal Lover. Friend. Facilitator. Gratitude Seeker. Mother. Wife. Advocate. Daughter. Sister. Backyard Farmer. Auntie. Cousin. Nurturer.
Nature Education
My journey of understanding nature began, as it does for many, in childhood. I remember sitting under my favorite white pine tree wondering how far and deep did the tree’s roots run? What creatures lived their lives underground among those roots? After graduating from Elmira College with a bachelors in Business Administration, a 10 year career in corporate America, my hands-on training and education in nature began in 2008 when I began volunteering as a field trip naturalist at Mass Audubon’s Stony Brook Wildlife Sanctuary. It was at the sanctuary where I re-learned what it is to explore as a child…in wonder and awe of our natural world. Employed as an outreach educator (among many other “hats”) for over 10 years at Mass Audubon, I enjoyed and nurtured the innate enthusiasm and connection children expressed for and in nature.
Feldenkrais
My path to somatic education, specifically the Feldenkrais Method, was accidental and one born of an unexpected surplus of time. At the height of Covid in 2020, I participated in online Awareness Through Movement group lessons that brought my attention to what I did well; rather than to try and ‘fix’ what was wrong. It was the first time I was asked to follow my own path in a learning environment. There was no one way or instructor to mold myself to. Once again, I returned to how it is to explore as a child without judgment or a preconceived idea of what is right or wrong. Consider the wisdom in what we call beginner’s luck or what it is to “look through a beginner’s eyes”. To explore without expectation. To value the path as much, if not more, than the destination. I was encouraged to listen to my kinesthetic sensations, trust my nervous system and follow the path of ease that unfolded like a long forgotten map towards better organization and greater freedom. Wanting to learn more, I joined the Kelowna Feldenkrais Teacher Training and became a guild certified practitioner a little over 3 years later.
It is my desire to connect those I work with to a deeper understanding of themselves and the freedom and choices that lie dormant within.
“If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength”
Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder