About

About

Your body already knows what it needs to feel whole

When we reduce the external distractions of the predatory wellness-industrial-complex and untangle from our layers of conditioning, we are free to step more fully into our purpose. The reason that we are here.

I believe that…

  • Community and connection are the keys to transformation.
  • When we transform ourselves we transform the world.
  • We are here to love and be loved.
  • Life is meant to be lived, that we are creative beings.
  • We are here for each other and that we are all deserve to be well.

My work is an invitation to get quiet enough to listen to what your body already knows. To turn down the noise of a culture that needs you to feel disconnected from your body and your wholeness. To align with the rhythms of nature so that you can build the capacity not just to cope with this culture of disconnection and separation, but to transform it into a culture of cooperation, community and deep connection.

I want you to feel free to be exactly who you are, to be unapologetically who you are meant to be in this world. I want you to experience true connection and feel a deep sense of love and belonging. I want you to be in awe of this life, to create, and find joy in the simplest ways. I want you to share your unique medicine with the world. I want you to trust what your body already knows, seek truth and justice and live more fully into your purpose.

And this is our work together.

Bio

Jamie Hanson

I’m Jamie Hanson and I’m a Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher and Revolutionary Resilience Guide.

I help people get off the hamster wheel of shoulds, get free from the predatory wellness-industrial-complex and live life differently—on your own self-determined path.

Because your body already knows

But we live in a culture of disconnection. A culture that conditions us to look outside of ourselves for what we need to feel whole.

My approach is simple. Through the lens of modern Psychology, Yoga and Ayurveda we can build our capacity to cope with everyday stressors, the intensity of our emotions, and residue from our past hurts and traumas. We do this by re-aligning with what our body already knows and reconnect to the rhythms of nature.

When we align the whole body we have the skills to sit in the discomfort that arises as we unravel ourselves from our conditioning, we make space and time to awaken the soul, and we reconnect to our purpose. The reason we are here.

My approach rests on the pillars of embodied personal practice, community connection, a balance of self-interrogation and self-compassion, and service or action.

This work is an invitation to get quiet enough to listen to what your body already knows.

It’s an invitation to align our thoughts, words, and actions.

To align our mind, heart and gut.

To turn down the noise of a runaway Capitalist culture that needs you to feel disconnected from your body and your wholeness.

When you work with me it’s an invitation to align with the rhythms of nature so that you can build the capacity not just to cope with this toxic culture of disconnection and separation, but to transform it into a culture of cooperation, community and deep connection.

Jamie Hanson

Benefits of working with me:

  • Live in integrity with your core values
  • Untangle yourself from outdated habitual patterns of thought and behavior
  • Unlearn past conditioning
  • Transform your wounds into your purpose
  • Handle life with greater ease
  • Simplify your daily life
  • Find time to do what fills you up
  • Get unstuck
  • Build your capacity to cope with everyday stressors
  • Experience joy
  • Put yourself on your to-do list
  • Build tools of resilience

Credibility Statement

Over the past decade, I have facilitated transformational experiences in the classroom, yoga studios, trainings, retreats and coaching programs.

I am deeply committed to supporting you in the transformation of your wounds into purpose and power. When you can begin let go of outdated conditioning and step into your own unique purpose this will change the world.

When we transform ourselves, we transform the world. And the world needs all of us living on purpose.

The participants in my programs are seeking deeper connection and community. More ease, space and time to focus on what really matters to them. A world where everyone is taken care of and mutual care is celebrated.

I have a degree in Psychology and am a Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher with more than a decade of experience. I use yoga, Ayurveda, and modern behavioral science as tools of resilience, preparing students to engage in their lives with more compassion and truth.

As the founder and lead teacher of the Empowered Yoga Teacher Training™, a Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga School, I have trained over 100 yoga teachers through a trauma and justice informed lens. My curriculum includes the intersection of yoga and social justice because one cannot be truly trauma-informed without an understanding of both historical and current systemic injustice and collective trauma. Because I have a Masters of Education Degree in Curriculum and Instruction and as a former high school teacher I have well over a decade of experience writing, refining, and implementing effective curriculum.

In late 2018 I took the teachings of yoga and Ayurveda beyond the studio, beyond the teacher training and now share these tools of resilience as a Revolutionary Resilience Guide. I have coached over 30 womxn over the past two years to live a life that feels more whole, to trust that the body already knows, to let go of the shoulds and create space to be unapologetically who they are meant to be.

Align & Awaken™ is a series of my signature programs and invites members to slowly unravel years of conditioning and self beat and return to what the body already knows. It’s and invitation to reconnect to who you truly are and create a container of ease that allows space to live a life that feels whole and on purpose.

Personal Qualifications

  • E-RYT500
  • RPYT
  • YACEP
  • I have a BS in Psychology and a MEd in Curriculum and Instruction in the area of Social Studies
  • I worked in social services as a Domestic Violence Counselor/Advocate in the Westside of Chicago for 2 years where I facilitated small support groups, provided individualized action and safety plans, accompanied womxn to court and worked directly with the Chicago Police Department as part of the DV task force
    • Received 40 hour Domestic Violence training in both the state of Illinois and Colorado
  • I spent nearly a decade in the classroom teaching Social Studies
    • Special Education program in Minneapolis Public Schools for 2 years
    • Served 3 years as a U.S. History classroom teacher at International School in Guatemala City
    • Taught for 4 years in a Social Studies classroom teaching Psychology, Sociology and U.S. History
  • While serving as a public school teacher in Chicago I spent 3 Years on the Courageous Conversations About Race® Continuing Education Committee
  • I am a Yoga Alliance Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher 500 Hour and have over 1,000 hours of training in Yoga and Ayurveda
    • Core Power Yoga 200 Hour Teacher Training
    • Awakened Heart, Embodied Mind 200 Hour Teacher Training
    • Trauma-Informed Training with Hala Khouri
    • Yoga, Purpose & Action Leadership Training with Off the Mat, Into the World®
    • Advanced Social Justice Training with Off the Mat, Into the World®
    • Street Yoga® Teacher Training
    • Registered Prenatal Yoga Teacher and Teacher Trainer with Ma Yoga®
    • Alcheme 300 Hour Advanced Yoga Teacher Training with a therapeutic lens
    • Yoga Health Coaching® Certification with Cate Stillman
    • Transcending Sexual Trauma Through Yoga with Zabie Yamasaki
  • I completed a two year training with Cate Stillman and am a certified Yoga Health Coach
  • I am a member of the Race and Resilience Leadership Training with Michelle Cassandra Johnson and Kerri Kelly
  • I am an Embody Love Movement® Facilitator, Facilitator Trainer and Board Member where our mission is to resource everyone to reclaim beauty on their terms.
  • Over the past decade I have led over 8,000 hours of yoga instruction
  • I created the Empowered Yoga Teacher Training™ curriculum, a 200 Hour trauma-informed Yoga Teacher Training curriculum that incorporated the intersection of yoga and social justice.
  • I have facilitated 7 separate 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Trainings and trained over 100 yoga teachers through a trauma-informed lens
  • I co-founded Bridge Yoga Programs and facilitated Teaching Yoga to Those in Recovery where 45 yoga teachers have been trained to bring yoga into therapeutic settings
  • I am a mother to a smart, spirited 5 year old daughter
  • I am an unapologetic Intersectional Feminist and social activist
  • I have lived in four different states (in the U.S.) and Guatemala City, and now call Southern California home
  • I am a life long learner. I love to read, to travel and to experience the world through the lens of people and places that are different from me.

World View and Lineage

Over the past 25 years, I have learned from and drawn on the wisdom of so many thought leaders and brilliant teachers, theologians, authors and mentors. Some that I have been most deeply influenced by (both known and unknown) are: Seane Corn, Suzanne Sterling and Hala Khouri (individually and as leaders of Off the Mat, Into the World®), Kerri Kelly, Jessica Jennings, Julian Walker, Anusha Wijeyakumar, Michelle Cassandra Johnson, Melody Moore, Kelly Diels, Cate Stillman, Noah Maze, Jules Mitchell, Brene Brown, bell hooks, adrienne maree brown, Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Ruby Sales, Gloria Steinem, Mickey Scottbey Jones, Resmaa Menakem, Lama Rod Owens, Robin Diangelo, Fr. Richard Rohr, Rob Bell, Henri Nouwen, Nadia Bolz-Weber, Jonathan Kozol, Bessel van der Kolk, Peter Levine, Zabie Yamasaki, RW Alves, Ibram X Kendi, Kristen Neff, Chelsea Jackson, Jacoby Ballard, Teo Drake, Glennon Doyle, Anne Lamott, Austin Channing Brown, James Clear, and the Fab Five (Queer Eye).

Also, all of the teachers (both classroom and yoga teachers) that I have collaborated with, learned from and been in community with over the years have greatly influenced my work and life. The communities that I have been part of including Off the Mat, Into the World®, Embody Love Movement®, Ma Yoga®, CTZN Well® and Courageous Conversations About Race® have supported my continued growth, accountability and learning.

My formal education in Psychology, Sociology, Education, Yoga and Ayurveda has greatly informed my lens and approach. I also have been deeply influenced by my studies in: trauma and resilience, somatic experiencing, courage, shame and vulnerability, self-compassion, critical race theory, Feminist Theory, Body Liberation and habit change science.

Jamie Hanson Yoga

My Story

Jamie Hanson Yoga

I grew up in the church, but when I was a teenager I chose to leave because I felt there was a deep hypocrisy happening and I was angry and confused. I found yoga a decade later and it was on my mat that I was able to reconnect to God, reconnect to my body and recognize the interconnection of mind, body and spirit.

As a life-long runner, I’ve always needed to move. I didn’t always have the language to understand why moving my body was imperative to my wellbeing, but running was my outlet for everything.

While a competitive runner I was very hard on my body, running through every injury I had and not knowing any other way. Then everything changed for me while living in a city where it wasn’t safe to run long distances outdoors. I joined a gym and this is where I was introduced to the physical practice of yoga and I began to get a glimpse of what it felt like to find comfort and ease in my body.

Soon I began to notice something else. As a survivor of sexual assault I didn’t realize how much I had dissociated from my body, how much I avoided feeling anything at all. I was afraid to feel. Yoga gave me the space to feel and release years of fear, rage, and grief.

I witnessed how this physical practice was providing me with tools for healing, but didn’t really understand why until I chose to take my learning off the mat. After many years of study I began to have a deeper grasp of what this ancient system was all about. A life-long journey back to the Self.

Today, my yoga practice is a place to build my capacity to cope with the complexity of being human. It offers resources to stay engaged when I want to look away and to face parts of myself that I feel ashamed of. It offers tools of resilience so that I can do hard things, stay in the work, forgive, and ultimately heal.

When we heal ourselves, we heal the world and healing the world is why I am here. To help create a world that is just and free for all.

We cannot heal what we will not face. If we do not transform our wounds, we transmit them.

This practice offers us the tools to look deep within, without judgment, and to grow and transform from there. To evolve into the highest version of who we are.

This practice has made me a better teacher. A better partner. A better mother.

Every program that I have created is meant to do this for you. They are invitations to build your resilience and your capacity to cope with what the world brings you. To transform your wounds into your creative offerings to the world.

To support your journey back to you.

Because your body already knows!

Work with me

Empowered Yoga Teacher Training™
Training

Empowered Yoga Teacher Training™

Yoga Training Programs

The Empowered Yoga Teacher Training™ is trauma and justice-informed, body affirming, and invites students on a journey through both the ancient, traditional practices of yoga and  modern neuroscience and Psychology. Students will walk away from this training with the necessary foundations to begin t...

Learn more
Align & Awaken
Online Coaching

Align & Awaken

Transform Your Life!

You deserve to live a life that feels whole. You deserve to feel the joy that comes from living on purpose. Your people deserve the best of you.

Learn more

Subscribe to the Weekly R & R to stay connected, or follow me on Facebook and Instagram.

Go on a journey with me through my blog.