A Conversation with Somatic Coach and Resiliency Expert, Jennifer Degan

"Yoga is my medicine," says Jennifer Degan.  Jennifer has 30 years of practice as an educator, counselor, yoga teacher and somatic-based coach. Life brings her great joy and great challenge.  Jennifer is a life-long learner, with the equivalent of two master’s degrees. She is a member of Wellspring Institute of Mental Health Advanced Graduate Study of Trauma. Attachment and the Embodied Mind is her most recent pursuit. She began the transformative process of her life when she was very young. Her spiritual life opened with the death of a sister when she was six years old. She had a supportive family and people around her that helped her understand grief, sorrow, hope and connectedness to something greater, a spiritual connection to the God of her understanding. From the age of three on, she has known this deep connection resides in us, and that we have the capacity to use the intimate and profound happenings in our lives for greater good. Since this experience, she has transformed and grown from other life experiences. She was dropped at age  11 on her back during an Outward Bound program and carried off on a stretcher. That “trust fall gone south” only made her dig deeper into her capacity to push through pain, debilitation and challenge, and find new ways to discover hope. The experience of being dropped was only the beginning; she has since suffered brain trauma and surgery, multiple losses, and falls that keep her getting back up again, curious and aware that caring for ourselves is an important and necessary job to undertake, as we never know what will throw you back, literally! She takes her practice of life seriously. Hope, persistence, deep love and connections are a starting place for her yoga and meditation practice. She encourages all her clients to find their authentic voice. It is from this core source that we gain the most inspiration. Learn more at https://mindbodyawareness.net/ and http://restoringresiliencyclub.com