Course Overview: RE-START Your Body and Mind
Experience the power of somatic movement, energy work, and trauma release to transform your relationship with your body and mind. In RE-START, you’ll explore a holistic approach to movement and healing that blends intuitive dance, yoga, and breathwork practices designed to help you release stored tension, reconnect with your body’s natural wisdom, and find balance from within.
What You’ll Discover:
- Somatic Movement: Learn to move intuitively, unlocking areas of tension and allowing your body to express itself freely.
- Energy Work: Experience powerful breathwork and gentle energy-focused practices that revitalize and recharge your entire system.
- Trauma Release: Gently process and release deeply held stress and emotional patterns, creating space for healing and peace.
- Mindful Integration: Develop new self-care practices that restore physical energy, mental clarity, and emotional balance.
Why RE-START?
This course is a unique journey into self-discovery and wellness, using movement as a pathway to profound personal transformation. Each session is crafted to empower you to feel lighter, stronger, and more in tune with yourself, creating lasting shifts in how you live, move, and connect with your own body.
Hi, My name is Zina.
Are you feeling disconnected from your body? If so, you’re certainly not alone. The demands of everyday life can often cause us to lose touch with our own physical and emotional needs. But the very fact that you’re reading this shows you’re ready to make a change. It speaks to your desire to reconnect with your body, deepen your awareness, and experience a new level of clarity, balance, and well-being.
I invite you to join me on a transformative journey to rediscover the connection between your body and mind. Together, we’ll create a space where movement is more than just physical exercise—it becomes a pathway to self-discovery, healing, and personal growth.
Why take this journey with me?
Movement has been my passion since I was nine years old. My journey started with martial arts, teaching me discipline and inner strength. Over the years, I embraced modern and contemporary dance, physical theater, Gaga movement language, and the Alexander Technique. Today, I’m a certified instructor in Ashtanga and Kundalini Yoga and a professional dancer with 20 years of experience working with somatic therapy, breathwork, and mindful practices. These diverse practices have shown me the profound impact of movement on mental clarity, emotional balance, and physical health.
In our sessions, I’ll share everything I’ve learned about the intricate connection between breath, body, and movement. Each class is designed to help you tune into your inner wisdom, reconnect with your body, and find renewal in the rhythms of your own movement.
Through dance, yoga, and mindful movement, we’ll:
- Deepen your connection with your body,
- Reawaken your inner vitality,
- Foster a sense of peace and emotional balance,
- And unlock potential you may not even realize you have.
This journey isn’t about perfection or performance; it’s about finding freedom, joy, and self-expression. I would be honored to guide you and share my passion for movement with you as we discover the power of reconnecting with ourselves.
Let’s take this step together—your body already knows the way.
RE-START
Take a moment to slow down, tune in, and explore the transformative power of intuitive movement, breath, and energy work. Through a combination of online video classes and carefully selected reading materials, RE-START offers a unique opportunity to step away from the everyday noise and reconnect with the wisdom your body already holds.
What RE-START Includes:
- Curated Reading Materials: Evidence-based articles to deepen your understanding and support your journey.
- 30+ Recorded Classes: A diverse library of video classes designed to guide you through movement and breathwork at your own pace.
- Live Bimonthly Q&A Sessions: Regular sessions for support, insights, and open discussions.
- Community Access: Join a supportive network of like-minded individuals ready to inspire, uplift, and connect with you along the way.
Touch Reduces Stress and Promotes
Well-being:
Research underscores that safe, consensual touch triggers the release of oxytocin, known as the "bonding hormone." This hormone lowers cortisol levels and reduces stress, promoting a sense of security and comfort—essential for trauma recovery and emotional resilience. According to somatic therapy studies, touch has been shown to activate parasympathetic responses, which are calming and grounding, helping individuals reconnect with a sense of safety in their bodies. Experience Life & Psychology Today
Movement for Trauma Healing: Movement-based therapies are increasingly recognized as valuable for those recovering from trauma. These practices can reduce trauma symptoms by helping participants maintain a state of “dual awareness”—focusing on the present moment, which shifts attention from stress to a sense of agency and control. Studies show that gentle, intentional movement promotes brain plasticity, gradually re-patterning the body's response to trauma triggers toward resilience and calm. Experience Life
Trust and Self-Compassion Through Somatic Awareness: Somatic movement combined with therapeutic touch fosters self-compassion and emotional healing by cultivating a positive relationship with one's body. Research has shown that developing physical comfort and trust in one's bodily sensations can help rebuild relational trust, self-acceptance, and compassion. These qualities are key in supporting trauma survivors as they work toward more secure and fulfilling connections with themselves and others. Psychology Today
TESTIMONIALS:
"(The) pelvic floor is so important... To say I’m happy you’re talking about this is an understatement. It’s so important and wonderful that you’re doing it"
-Michelle
"I felt a deeper presence in my body, freedom, and newfound flexibility in my sacral and navel chakra centers".
-Jill
"I just loved the effects of how this class feels! I practiced the recording every day it was available... never have I experienced something like what you offered!... So fun! Thank you!!"
-Kendra
Rebuilding Resilience: The Essential Role of Movement and Touch in Trauma Recovery
In a world where we encounter both daily stresses and, for many, deep traumatic experiences, connecting with our bodies through mindful movement and safe touch can be powerful tools for healing. Trauma affects not only our minds but also our physical sensations, disrupting our sense of self, safety, and connection with others. Dr. Peter Levine, author of Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, emphasizes that enduring prolonged stress erodes resilience and disrupts a person’s ability to feel safe and at ease within their own body.
Movement as Medicine: Reconnecting Body and Mind
When trauma disconnects us from our bodies, movement can serve as a pathway back to self-awareness and healing. Trauma-informed movement practices, like those offered in the RE Start course, aim not to directly "cure" trauma but to help individuals rebuild body awareness and choice. “Physical movement can activate parts of the brain that help us be more aware of our bodies,” says David Emerson, a trauma-sensitive yoga specialist. This awareness, combined with the freedom to move experimentally, allows participants to reclaim control, experience comfort, and ultimately foster a sense of embodiment. Such practices target the body's proprioception (awareness of body in space), interoception (internal sensations), and exteroception (perception of the external world) — all of which trauma can disrupt, often leaving individuals feeling "disembodied" or detached from their own experiences.
Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, a leading trauma researcher, explains that trauma makes people feel like "some body else or like no body" at all. The journey toward healing involves reclaiming a sense of self through body reconnection and regaining the ability to notice and trust one's own bodily sensations. Reintegrating these senses through movement can help regulate the brain's stress response and create a foundation for rebuilding resilience and well-being.
The Power of Touch: Safety, Comfort, and Emotional Healing
Safe, consensual touch plays a profound role in reducing stress and promoting a sense of security. It triggers the release of oxytocin, often called the “bonding hormone,” which lowers cortisol levels and decreases anxiety. This oxytocin release can facilitate emotional closeness and resilience, crucial elements for individuals recovering from trauma. “Touch is a fundamental human need,” Levine notes, explaining that it fosters security, connection, and comfort. For those with traumatic histories, therapeutic touch can offer a safe environment to experience touch positively, reshaping their relationship with physical sensations and building confidence in relational trust.
Building Self-Compassion Through Movement
Gentle, mindful movement combined with touch can also foster self-compassion, as it allows individuals to explore their bodies without judgment. Trauma often leads to harsh self-criticism and a fractured sense of identity, and reconnecting with one's body can be transformative. Trauma therapist Babette Rothschild describes mindful movement as an “anchor” that helps individuals notice both internal and external experiences, cultivating a dual awareness that is vital for healing. By integrating movement, individuals can increase their ability to manage both physical and emotional discomfort and feel more grounded in the present moment.
Practical, Trauma-Informed Movement
Movement for trauma recovery doesn’t require intense workouts but instead involves progressive, mindful practices that rebuild strength, resilience, and confidence over time. Exercises like balancing activities, contralateral movements (those that engage opposite sides of the body), and primal movement patterns (like squatting, lunging, and pushing) encourage focus and proprioception, creating a steady and empowering progression toward reclaiming agency over the body.
Psychologist Christina Hibbert, PhD, discovered the value of gentle movement in managing her mental health and grief, and she encourages others to view movement as a form of self-kindness rather than punishment. Simple movements, she explains, can be an essential way to process difficult emotions, particularly for those who feel "trapped" within their bodies due to traumatic experiences. She recommends that individuals start small and gradually build their physical resilience, which can foster both inner peace and confidence in their capacity to navigate the world.
Embark on Your Journey to Healing with
RE-Start
The RE Start course integrates these trauma-sensitive principles, offering a supportive space for reconnecting with your body, exploring gentle movement, and developing self-compassion. Here, participants are encouraged to approach movement and touch not as goals to achieve but as paths toward self-discovery, resilience, and healing. Through mindful movement and touch, it is possible to rebuild resilience and rediscover the capacity for joy, security, and well-being.
