Happy Birthday to Studio A! 🎉

celebrating with a bucket-list item

This summer, Studio A turns 5 years old! Woot woot!!

Five years!

And my oh my, how far we’ve come. There’s not enough space to talk about all the ways the studio has changed and grown since its inception, so I’ll stick with the thing that stands out to me as most significant: the amazing team that has come alongside me to build Studio A into what it is. While it may look like a solo endeavor, it is anything but! Let me give a quick shout-out to some of the people that keep Studio A going:

• my husband David, who patiently does all the finances and taxes for the studio

• the studio advisory board, a small group of hand-picked wise folks who encourage me and help me when I’ve got big decisions to make: Denis Roy, Steve Freeman, Matt & Rachel Williams, and my husband David

• Ben Green, my amazing tech person who built and maintains my database to track and automate aaaallllll the things: clients, the Sliding Scale program, the Lending Library, intake forms, text reminders, etc.

• Michelle Ester-Bode, yoga teacher extraordinaire, who so seamlessly joins me in co-teaching the Release & Refresh classes twice a month

• my various trainers and mentors who I still occasionally consult with on client cases or when making infographics

• my kids, who help set up and tear down the room for various events, and who help sort and organize massive amounts of printed material for groups

• Randy Clark, my suite-mate who runs his counseling practice next to me, for camaraderie, conversation, and my occasional tears

• the professionals I partner with to bring the best trauma-healing modalities to central Indiana: Ryan Moore and Laura Carr (you can read the bios of all my partners here)

• my clients, who keep showing up!—I’m in awe of the vulnerability, courage, and resilience you demonstrate on the sometimes painful journey of healing

• my parents, who regularly watch my kids so I can work and keep up with trainings

There are others, lots of them! If you’re one of them, please don’t be offended that you weren’t specifically mentioned. You KNOW I’m so thankful!!

Checking something off my bucket list…

To celebrate this big milestone for Studio A, I applied to join (and was accepted into) a special 6-day course offered by Gil Hedley, the famous integral anatomy expert, in Colorado, doing a dissection of an un-embalmed human body. (I know some are grossed out by the thought of such a thing, but for me this is a dream come true!) I cried tears of joy when I received the acceptance email; this is a rare and unique opportunity to study the human body with arguably one of the world’s leading experts on anatomy, and he’s certainly my favorite authority on the topic. Gil is especially known for his deeply respectful way of treating each body he gets to work with, fostering curiosity and reverence in his students.

Why un-embalmed, you may ask? Well, because when you get to work with a fresh cadaver that has not been put through the preservation process, you get to see and work with the muscles, fascia, and other soft tissues in a way where they are much closer to their natural state. Being a very visual learner, I eagerly await the course in October where I’ll get to finally see for myself all the things I’ve been feeling under my hands. I imagine it will profoundly impact the way I work with people’s bodies moving forward.

Another birthday gift 🎁— a redesigned website

I also decided it was time for a website overhaul, which takes massive chunks of time but is always so worth it. Below is a screenshot of the new homepage; I am pleased with how it turned out and I think it better reflects the heart of the studio. You can check it out here if you like.

newly designed website!

New client hours coming soon

Currently I work mostly evenings and weekends, but starting in August my schedule for one-on-one work with clients will switch to mostly daytime hours. This has been long in coming, and the reasons keep stacking up why I need to switch to a more normal and sustainable schedule. The new hours will be

• Tuesdays 9:00-3:00

• Wednesdays 11:00-3:00

• Thursdays 1:00-8:00

• 1 Saturday per month 9:00-6:00.

I am hopeful that my clients will be able to find time slots within the new schedule that work for them. For already-existing clients, you will see these new hours reflected in the Client Portal/scheduler on my website when you look at August 8 and beyond. Let me know if you have any issues.

Fall 2024 round of Feel to Heal now open for enrollment

We recently concluded the Spring round of Feel to Heal and received excellent feedback from the participants. We are now looking ahead to the Fall round, meeting on Monday evenings for 8 weeks, beginning August 19, and enrollment is now open. Feel to Heal is Studio A’s flagship program, where we get to do a deep-dive into the connection between emotions and tension/pain in the body. Drawing from multiple approaches and grounded in neuroscience, we safely and gently explore our emotions and our nervous system patterns, and discover new ways to handle stress and emotions, thus introducing more ease into the physical structures of the body. It is not group therapy (I am not licensed to provide such); it is an educational program, with experiential somatic exercises sprinkled throughout, to enhance the learning and help bring it to life. Read more details here, including pricing and payment options, testimonials, and the curriculum.

Release & Refresh classes

We continue to offer two Release & Refresh classes per month, one 1.5-hour class on a Wednesday evening (typically the 2nd Wednesday of the month) and one 2-hour class on a Friday evening (usually the last Friday of the month). We continue to get really great and valuable feedback from clients, and every class has sold out except two since we started them back in September of last year. It’s a great way to decompress from the stresses of life, gain awareness of how your body is holding/manifesting the stress it’s carrying, and give it an opportunity to gently and organically release some of it. Many clients report that they feel lighter, more grounded, and more deeply connected to themselves when they walk out. Check them out here and consider joining us for a class! There are still spots open for our upcoming Friday, June 28 6:00-8:00pm class.

Please note that there is no Wednesday class in July, only a Friday one. We will return to our normal schedule of twice-monthly classes in August.

Friends, enjoy the upcoming weekend! I will be assisting in another Somatic Experiencing training for the next 4 days, which is always a delight. Take care of yourselves, and I hope to see you around!

~Allie