I’m a Facilitator of Being Our True Selves.  By title: Professional Clinical Counselor, Yoga Teacher, Reiki Practitioner, and Creator of Evolution Counseling and Yoga. I’ve spent the past decade studying yoga, counseling, and wellness.

Starting the journey through movement.  Distance running, training, tennis and teaching group fitness after college, my yoga path began in 2007 when I took my first yoga class and experienced what it was like to let up off my own critical back and actual be gentle with myself.  I could feel the pressure valve release some steam!  My yoga journey was and is steeped in ever so humbling and continual lessons around self-acceptance, compassion, and the beauty of being daring and vulnerable.

I realized how hard I was being on my body and my entire self by experiencing the opposite with yoga.  These lessons and reflections traveled with me off mat and I decided to try counseling to address some mental and emotional stuff that hadn’t been getting as much attention as the physical stuff.  I had several, let’s say, “not a fit” experiences with counseling in the past.  They say your teachers arrive when you are ready.  I believe that is true.  I had a transformative experience with counseling that paralleled my experience in yoga.  The combination of those two experiences in tandem was so good and so powerful.  The vision of Evolution Counseling and Yoga was born.  I wanted to share this gift with others!

In 2010, I headed to India, traveling around the country solo for a few months.  I eventually staying in a tiny town close to Tibet, where I became a 200 Hour Registered Yoga Teacher.  Upon my return stateside, I started teaching yoga, mostly hot power yoga, teaching over 2000 classes in the following four years.  I have training in posture-based yoga and children & teen yoga.

I began graduate studies in Clinical Counseling at University of Toledo in 2011, graduating in 2014 with a Master’s in Education, obtaining a license in professional counseling.  I went on to work in community mental health, in inner city Toledo where I received training in EMDR.  During the same time, I started my own private practice, Evolution Counseling and Yoga.  Juggling teaching yoga, counseling, and running a private practice got to be a bit much, taking a toll on my own well-being.  I left the studio and agency in 2015 to focus solely on my business and my wellness.

In 2018, I moved back to my hometown.  I was looking for ways to self-care and enrich my spiritual life.  I began studying and practicing Usui Reiki for my own wellness.  Like yoga and counseling, I now use it as a modality to help clients heal.  I love to unite the powerful experiences in my life to inspire healing in others!  Eventually, I re-opened Evolution Counseling and Yoga in Medina, Ohio. I’ve fashioned my practice around sharing what I know about healing, wellness, and authenticity….in between my own ups and downs, imperfectly navigating this thing called “balance.”

To sum it up: I believe that you gotta feel it to heal it.  You have bring down the defenses and open up to connect.  Whether it is in a tough yoga pose, a relationship, or everyday human-ing, these experiences will take you to some uncomfortable places.  Sit in the discomfort with attention, be gentle, and have intention to heal as you move through it. You just might free yourself from the stuff that doesn’t serve you, find you can dig deeper than you thought, and create space.  Space = Acceptance + Love + Compassion + Truth + Freedom + Experiences.  I am in constant pursuit of creating space with integrity in my breathe, a pose, with myself, or with others.  I am here to help you find this space for yourself.

Facilitator of heart smiles.  By title: Licensed Dog, Greeter, Time Keeper, Janitor of Food Spills, Amateur Therapy Dog, and Yoga Disrupter (will most assuredly lick your face when you are upside down and balancing or laying on your back in savasana.  You’re welcome.)  She has spent the past decade studying human beings and how to best get their love and attention.

Sakshi is skilled in aromatherapies with experience in both worm chewing and rolling, poop rolling, specializing in skunk oils.  If there is a smell, she will find it, roll in it, and bring it back to you to enjoy.  What, you aren’t thinking about your problems when your eyes are stinging from skunk?  Exactly.

Sakshi stays up to date with all her shots and medical treatment.  Experienced with a variety of leases, leads, and harnesses.  Highly adept in parlaying displays of interest and affection into session long belly rubs.  Proficient at sitting when properly motivated.  A longtime good girl.

Mice apprehended and neutralized: 5.  Bees eaten: 3.  Territory marked in 4 states.  Went to beach and had a salt water cleanse.  Consumed an entire container of rotisserie chicken meat off the bone from the table in 30 seconds.  Consumed half a small pizza of the table in 1 minute.  Once jumped in a pond after a remote control boat, sunk like a stone, managed to jump out, pushing off from the bottom and rising out of the water like a majestic whale beaching herself.

Having endured trauma in the first few years of her life, Sakshi was turned into a high kill shelter after littering.  She successfully appealed, resulting in rescue foster, and eventually was adopted by Jessi.  Jack pot!  Sakshi went on to complete her own therapy, healing from her past in mind, body, and spirit.  Over the years, she has honed her skills and craft, modeling self-compassion, self-acceptance, and asking for what you need.  There is no shame in her game.  She knows and experiences she is completely lovable and most definitely important.  She wants you to experience the same for yourself.