Abbi Jaffe
"The spirit, adventure, and joy of your class has stayed with me."
~Margi Flint, Herbalist "Abbi, your smile is immanent sunshine; your hands are transmitters of peace; you are a being of grace. I am blessed to be surrounded by such love." ~Krista Nickerson, Nurse Mid-wife "With Abbi I am able to let go of everything outside of my mind and truly focus on my body and what she allows it to do!!! Even though we only met that day I could let go and trust her expertise and felt her strength and knowledge." ~Melissa Decker, Social Worker "Abbi holds space in a warm, comfortable, and loving way. Her bag of tricks is full of great and simple directions that brought us to group play with ease-full creativity and full-on belly laughter. Weeeeee, fabulous, light, and satisfying." ~Lani Lisa Nahele Schmidt, Movement Educator and Bodyworker |
Abbi Jaffe is an embodiment teacher and activist, bodyworker, social worker and community builder. Abbi inspires others to follow their own body's curiosity and impulses, embrace grief and celebration, unleash their radiant resilience, and to be exquisite.
Abbi passionately teaches classes and workshops in somatic movement education, growing resilience and being trauma informed, contact improvisation dance, acro yoga, authentic movement and embodied community building and has been leading people on expeditions in the wilderness and within themselves since 2000. All of Abbi's offerings are trauma informed. Abbi has been teaching embodiment since 2004 and is asked to teach throughout New England (Middlebury College Center for Health and Wellness, Dance New England Summer Camp, VT AcroYoga Festival, Druid Camp, The Annual Burlington VT International Contact Jam, EarthSpirit’s Rites of Spring, Wanderlust Vermont Yoga Festival). Abbi actively collaborates with Amanda Franz. Abbi has been a lead organizer for the Annual Burlington VT International Contact Improv Jam since 2009. After 5 years of professionally practicing Thai Massage, Abbi now studies Body-Mind Centering. Abbi has a bachelors in Social Work and is a certified Somatic Body Practitioner and a Somatic Movement Educator with ISMETA. Abbi would love to invite you to Reciprocity, the embodiment center she created and runs in Underhill VT. In 2015 Abbi and Amanda Franz opened The Everything Space in Montpelier, VT. Abbi's commitment as a teacher is to always be deepening her own somatic practices and body knowledge and to continually share new insights. Her deepest desire is for her students to find what feels good in their body and to give themselves permission to dwell in that sensation for longer periods of time. Her hope is that through embodiment practice that her students will learn to inhabit their body with more ease, be able to release stress and tension as it is created, and discover more playfulness. |
Services with Abbi
Private/Group Classes with Abbi: Abbi is available for private, couple and group classes in yoga, contact improvisation, acro yoga, and authentic movement. See class descriptions below.
"I want to say how much I enjoy your yoga class-- the best compliment I can give is that when I leave class I feel able to completely attend to myself and I feel attuned to my environment. I am able to notice nature around me and how my body feels, and to more fully connect to the joy in it...It's such a gift, and I thank you!" ~E.M., Trauma Therapist
Private Session with Abbi: Tune into the language of your body and tend to your resilience and health. Abbi will support you to inhabit your body and emotions with more ease, release tension as it is created, and build the groundwork for playfulness. Sessions can include getting in a great workout, moving authentically, deepening your body knowledge and/or decompressing, restoring, and soaking in nourishment. Abbi specializes with working with people who experience depression, negative self talk/body image, have issues with food/nourishment, and/or who want a cultivate a deeper connection to their own personal spirituality. Abbi has worked in collaboration with mental health practitioners to integrate therapeutic goals through movement, time in the studio, being in nature, walking, or hiking.
"Abbi, you listen with the ear of your heart." ~16 year old Outward Bound student
Retreat Facilitation: Abbi is often asked to host special retreats curated by a client who is celebrating a transition. Transitions include become an elder, getting married, celebrating a new birth, moving away, as well as memorial services. Abbi works with you to transition with intention, nourishment and ease. Planning the retreat often includes a private session with Abbi beforehand and sometimes afterwards.
Coaching for Collaboration: From co-workers and co-teachers to people in marriages, we use somatic practices and facilitation expertise to support people who work together to find more connection, understanding, ease and flow.
"Abbi, I just wanted to thank you so much for the time you spent with my collaborator and I. It is so clear how things have changed in our working relationship since we met with you. We are trusting each other more and having so much more fun. We both felt so supported by you. Thank you!" ~Lindsey Foreman
**Contact Abbi at abbi.jaffe@gmail.com or 802-318-3927 for more info and to book your session.** (email is best)
"I want to say how much I enjoy your yoga class-- the best compliment I can give is that when I leave class I feel able to completely attend to myself and I feel attuned to my environment. I am able to notice nature around me and how my body feels, and to more fully connect to the joy in it...It's such a gift, and I thank you!" ~E.M., Trauma Therapist
Private Session with Abbi: Tune into the language of your body and tend to your resilience and health. Abbi will support you to inhabit your body and emotions with more ease, release tension as it is created, and build the groundwork for playfulness. Sessions can include getting in a great workout, moving authentically, deepening your body knowledge and/or decompressing, restoring, and soaking in nourishment. Abbi specializes with working with people who experience depression, negative self talk/body image, have issues with food/nourishment, and/or who want a cultivate a deeper connection to their own personal spirituality. Abbi has worked in collaboration with mental health practitioners to integrate therapeutic goals through movement, time in the studio, being in nature, walking, or hiking.
"Abbi, you listen with the ear of your heart." ~16 year old Outward Bound student
Retreat Facilitation: Abbi is often asked to host special retreats curated by a client who is celebrating a transition. Transitions include become an elder, getting married, celebrating a new birth, moving away, as well as memorial services. Abbi works with you to transition with intention, nourishment and ease. Planning the retreat often includes a private session with Abbi beforehand and sometimes afterwards.
Coaching for Collaboration: From co-workers and co-teachers to people in marriages, we use somatic practices and facilitation expertise to support people who work together to find more connection, understanding, ease and flow.
"Abbi, I just wanted to thank you so much for the time you spent with my collaborator and I. It is so clear how things have changed in our working relationship since we met with you. We are trusting each other more and having so much more fun. We both felt so supported by you. Thank you!" ~Lindsey Foreman
**Contact Abbi at abbi.jaffe@gmail.com or 802-318-3927 for more info and to book your session.** (email is best)
Abbi's Private, Couple and Group Class Descriptions:
Yoga: Listen to your body. Be playful. Breathe. Connect with your power. Express your fullness. Move and be authentic. Listen for your next impulse. Follow your curiosity. Come experience a yoga practice that is rooted in traditional yoga and is infused by other potent embodiment practices. Let yoga be a place for you to inhabit your body with more ease, release tension, and discover more playfulness. Abbi can teach beginner friendly yoga that also offers plenty of instructions for advanced practitioners.
"I want to say how much I enjoyed your class-- the best compliment I can give is that when I leave class I feel able to completely attend to myself and feel attuned to my environment. I am able to notice nature around me and how my body feels, and to more fully connect to the joy in it...It's such a gift, and I thank you!" ~E.M. Trauma Therapist
Contact Improvisation Dance: Contact Improvisation Dance is dance/sport/art form involving an open-ended exploration of movement by listening with our bodies through a moving point of contact. It is a meeting point of physics, meditation and playfulness investigated within the body and in dialogue with another. In class you will learn: ease of movement as you practice safe ways to share and receive weight; to cultivate awareness and listening with eyes, ears, and skin; to be authentic to your own dance while moving with others. No prior experience required. Great for individuals, couples or groups.
Authentic Movement: Authentic Movement is a potent and simple contemplative dance practice. Move with eyes closed and access and allow your conscious and unconscious movement. A non-judgmental witness holds space for you to journey and to observe your movements. Sometimes we just need a witness to do our own personal work. "May you move what you are ready to move. May you see what you are ready to see."
Acro Yoga and Partner Yoga: Possibilities expand and new learning is available when another person joins your yoga practice. Through counter balancing and exquisite stretching you will discover new ways of connecting with yourself and others. Acro yoga is a practice of having a base, flier, and often a spotter. It looks like flying airplane as kids often do with adults. You might be surprised how easy and satisfying it can be to support someone's whole weight and fly them in relaxing or acrobatic postures.
Exploring Exquisiteness: Through partner practices and authentic movement we will take time to explore, tend to and celebrate the exquisite worlds inside of ourselves, each other and nature. For those willing to close their eyes and interested to see beauty everywhere. Bring your full self, comfy clothes and a journal. (This has been taught at Dharma Door and at Dance New England Summer Camp)
Movement Practices for Grief and Resilience: How do you experience grief and sadness? What is resilience and how is it cultivated? Join Abbi Jaffe for this 75 minute workshop and discover different movement practices for grief and resilience. These practices will help you to inhabit your body and emotions with more ease, release tension as it is created, and build the groundwork for playfulness. Take the time to decompress, restore, and soak in nourishment. Your health and vitality are important. (This has been taught at Middlebury College, Center for Health and Wellness Education).
Explore Embodiment - Listening Through Movement (A Yoga and Somatic Awareness Workshop): This 4-week workshop invites students to learn the language of the body from the inside out through the practices of yoga and somatic movement. In the context of self-discovery and openness, participants will learn to cultivate awareness and understanding of their relationship to themselves, others & their environment through direct somatic experiences. Students will learn principles practiced in Yoga, Somatic Awareness, Contact Improv, & Mindfulness. Please join us for this fun series! Dress comfortably and bring a yoga mat if you can. No prior experience is required. (This was offered as a part of Middlebury College's J-Term, sponsored by the Parton Center for Health and Wellness)
Exploring Right Relationship Through Movement and Play: What does it mean to live in right relationship with ourselves, our neighbors, and with nature? Inside the studio and outside in nature we will use authentic movement, partner yoga, improvisation and PLAY to embody this question and discover new ways to connect. The activities will cultivate community and inner and outer support. We will have time to follow our curiosity and to witness nature and have nature witness us back. Lastly we will use photography to frame our inquiry as we either blend in with nature, reflect nature, move like an animal in the landscape or just be distinctly human. (Offered at WEAVE, an inter-disciplinary event offered at Earthdance Retreat Center)
Yoga for Stress Reduction: Yoga for Stress-Reduction is a 6-week drop-in workshop for any student looking to benefit from the stress-relieving benefits of yoga. The workshop will provide you a safe, fun, and affirming space to foster your relationship to your body and mind through yoga and basic embodiment practices. Participation in this group is completely confidential. No prior yoga experience is necessary. (Offered at Middlebury College, sponsored by the Parton Center for Health and Wellness and the Center for Health and Wellness Education)
And More: Abbi loves to create classes based on your group's unique needs. Contact her and let the collaboration begin.
"I want to say how much I enjoyed your class-- the best compliment I can give is that when I leave class I feel able to completely attend to myself and feel attuned to my environment. I am able to notice nature around me and how my body feels, and to more fully connect to the joy in it...It's such a gift, and I thank you!" ~E.M. Trauma Therapist
Contact Improvisation Dance: Contact Improvisation Dance is dance/sport/art form involving an open-ended exploration of movement by listening with our bodies through a moving point of contact. It is a meeting point of physics, meditation and playfulness investigated within the body and in dialogue with another. In class you will learn: ease of movement as you practice safe ways to share and receive weight; to cultivate awareness and listening with eyes, ears, and skin; to be authentic to your own dance while moving with others. No prior experience required. Great for individuals, couples or groups.
Authentic Movement: Authentic Movement is a potent and simple contemplative dance practice. Move with eyes closed and access and allow your conscious and unconscious movement. A non-judgmental witness holds space for you to journey and to observe your movements. Sometimes we just need a witness to do our own personal work. "May you move what you are ready to move. May you see what you are ready to see."
Acro Yoga and Partner Yoga: Possibilities expand and new learning is available when another person joins your yoga practice. Through counter balancing and exquisite stretching you will discover new ways of connecting with yourself and others. Acro yoga is a practice of having a base, flier, and often a spotter. It looks like flying airplane as kids often do with adults. You might be surprised how easy and satisfying it can be to support someone's whole weight and fly them in relaxing or acrobatic postures.
Exploring Exquisiteness: Through partner practices and authentic movement we will take time to explore, tend to and celebrate the exquisite worlds inside of ourselves, each other and nature. For those willing to close their eyes and interested to see beauty everywhere. Bring your full self, comfy clothes and a journal. (This has been taught at Dharma Door and at Dance New England Summer Camp)
Movement Practices for Grief and Resilience: How do you experience grief and sadness? What is resilience and how is it cultivated? Join Abbi Jaffe for this 75 minute workshop and discover different movement practices for grief and resilience. These practices will help you to inhabit your body and emotions with more ease, release tension as it is created, and build the groundwork for playfulness. Take the time to decompress, restore, and soak in nourishment. Your health and vitality are important. (This has been taught at Middlebury College, Center for Health and Wellness Education).
Explore Embodiment - Listening Through Movement (A Yoga and Somatic Awareness Workshop): This 4-week workshop invites students to learn the language of the body from the inside out through the practices of yoga and somatic movement. In the context of self-discovery and openness, participants will learn to cultivate awareness and understanding of their relationship to themselves, others & their environment through direct somatic experiences. Students will learn principles practiced in Yoga, Somatic Awareness, Contact Improv, & Mindfulness. Please join us for this fun series! Dress comfortably and bring a yoga mat if you can. No prior experience is required. (This was offered as a part of Middlebury College's J-Term, sponsored by the Parton Center for Health and Wellness)
Exploring Right Relationship Through Movement and Play: What does it mean to live in right relationship with ourselves, our neighbors, and with nature? Inside the studio and outside in nature we will use authentic movement, partner yoga, improvisation and PLAY to embody this question and discover new ways to connect. The activities will cultivate community and inner and outer support. We will have time to follow our curiosity and to witness nature and have nature witness us back. Lastly we will use photography to frame our inquiry as we either blend in with nature, reflect nature, move like an animal in the landscape or just be distinctly human. (Offered at WEAVE, an inter-disciplinary event offered at Earthdance Retreat Center)
Yoga for Stress Reduction: Yoga for Stress-Reduction is a 6-week drop-in workshop for any student looking to benefit from the stress-relieving benefits of yoga. The workshop will provide you a safe, fun, and affirming space to foster your relationship to your body and mind through yoga and basic embodiment practices. Participation in this group is completely confidential. No prior yoga experience is necessary. (Offered at Middlebury College, sponsored by the Parton Center for Health and Wellness and the Center for Health and Wellness Education)
And More: Abbi loves to create classes based on your group's unique needs. Contact her and let the collaboration begin.