Flourish with Bri

My Story

As a child of 10 I dreamed of becoming a therapist. I pursued this dream vehemently and did not back down from the dream. I attended college straight out of high school and after completing my BA in Clinical Psychology I continued on to pursue my Masters. I completed my Masters degree in 2004 and became licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist in 2008. Throughout my practice and training I made a point of practicing what I preached. I believed (and still do) that if I was going to ask my patients to do something I myself had better believe in and understand what I was asking.

This underlying belief system and drive spurred me on to pursue my own healing and find what would work for myself and hopefully those I was helping. In pursuit of this quest I addressed nutrition very early on. I had learned how affected the brain is by our food in school and I believed that food would help me if I used it properly. Nutrition is absolutely vital to our health and should be foremost in our mind. Along with this I continued to exercise as I knew and recognized what a natural anti-depressant it was for me. I pursued running and joined the cross country team in college. My love for running and being physical continued and I made sure that my running routine along with the food I ate was a priority in my day.

In 2011 a yoga studio opened up by my house. I had a chronic hip/knee issue caused by my posture and running. At the time I did not fully understand what was happening in my body but I thought yoga might help me address my pain so that I could continue running. I began practicing at the studio and found that indeed yoga did help my pain. I experienced something more as well. At the time the only way I could explain it was by the framework I had which was that my 90 minute yoga class always felt like at least 2 or 3 of my personal therapy sessions. I felt like I had found a practice that was closing the loop in my understanding. The things I had learned and practiced in my therapeutic work were being expressed and processed in my physical being and I could feel mental, emotional and physical shifts happening simultaneously that were leading me to a place that I wanted to experience more of and felt like the healing I had been pursuing was finally coming to fruition.

In 2016 I pursued my yoga teaching certification in further quest of the experience I was having in my classes. I wanted to learn how to continue to practice and teach myself. Even though going to a yoga class was rewarding I wanted to know what the teachers knew and I wanted to understand how to help myself further. Finishing my teacher training two years ago I learned so much about the body and breath and continued my personal practice. I wanted to teach but was focused for the most part on wanting to continue to teach myself.

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