R&R for Therapists this Saturday
and a personal note from Julia, our newest provider
Release & Refresh class for Therapists
Hey therapists and counselors! We have a special offering for you!
To help take care of our local mental health therapists, we occasionally host Release & Refresh classes exclusively for them for a significant discount or free. The goal of these discounted, exclusive classes is to give a chance for those who take care of those in our community to also be taken care of; it provides a safe space for therapists to somatically move through and out of residual stress that they’re carrying from their work or life, so they can continue serving from a refreshed place. It’s one of the ways we at Studio A seek to build up and serve Hendricks County and beyond, striving for good health and vitality among our communities.
This Saturday, Jan 3, we are offering one of those special classes from 9:30-11:00 am at a 50% discount.
This class is led by me (Allie) and seeks to support our local therapists to ring in the new year with good nervous system hygiene and flow, rather than carry into 2026 any stagnant or residual weight from this past year. So if you are a counselor/therapist, I welcome you to join us!
If you are not familiar with our Release & Refresh classes, you can read more here. I created these classes and have been offering them regularly since 2023, and they provide a truly unique combination of somatic and myofascial techniques, that facilitate awareness of the fight/flight and freeze patterns as they currently present in the body and offer guided exercises to invite the nervous system to complete the cycle, thereby shifting out of the pattern and into something new.
And as one who holds space for clients and their trauma, I thoroughly understand how our own personal nervous system patterns show up and apply themselves to our work with clients. Handling the difficult stories and trauma material of our clients impacts our own nervous system and triggers our own patterns to emerge.
Different than simply engaging in grounding or breathing exercises (or even yoga) to down-regulate a hyped-up nervous system, these classes are specifically tailored to move participants’ nervous system THROUGH the stress cycle (not just short-circuit out of it), which requires skillful guidance by a well-trained practitioner.
We’re doing true rewiring of the neural pathways responsible for executing the fight/flight and freeze patterns, which is delicate and sacred work.
Here is what one local mental health therapist, Crysty Huffman, owner of Harper Rose Counseling, said after attending a Release & Refresh class:
I can’t say enough about how freeing this was. My physical body felt lighter. My thoughts slowed down and I was able to be in the present. I’m still riding the high today. Thank you for investing yourselves into this work in order to bless and serve others. Well done.
Thank you Crysty for coming, and for your feedback!
So if you are a mental health therapist who practices here in Hendricks County or other places within the Indy area, and would like to join one of these classes, sign up here and join us! (Use coupon code MHT-RR50 to obtain the 50% discount when booking.)
If you are not a mental health therapist but you utilize one locally, please forward this email to them so we can pour into them and support their nervous system health so they can continue to pour into YOU.
PSA: Greater consistency now available between R&R classes
Speaking of R&R classes, while we played with doing Beginner and Intermediate-level R&R classes this year, in the end we decided to have each class be the same: same level (open to all), and same length of time and cost.
Typically the Wednesday and Friday evening classes are taught by Allie, and the Saturday morning classes are taught by Callie. Every class contains exercises designed by Allie, it’s simply a matter of who delivers them. 😊
This makes it much easier for you to reschedule to a different class if you have a scheduling conflict come up, as you can now choose freely from all the other class options rather than being limited to the class level and/or instructor you originally signed up for. You can reschedule to a new class by clicking the link to do so in the confirmation or reminder email of the original class.
Every Release & Refresh class is now 90 minutes and $24. There is still a coupon code available (HELP-ME-OUT) that takes 25% off, for those that wish to engage in affordable somatic work but find it difficult to pay for the class because of too-tight finances.
Classes still follow this schedule:
One Wednesday evening class per month, usually the 1st or 2nd Wednesday of the month, 7:00-8:30pm. This is a mid-week chance to keep the stress at bay and to engage in self-care. Typically taught by Allie.
One Friday evening class per month, usually one of the last Fridays of the month, 7:00-8:30pm. Decompress from the week, release stored tension, and find refreshment for the weekend ahead. Typically taught by Allie.
One Saturday morning class per month, usually one of the last Saturdays of the month, 9:00-10:30am. Start off your weekend right by releasing tension and reclaiming your sense of calm. Typically taught by Callie.
Actual class dates are always determined months ahead of time, and can be viewed on the scheduler. The classes can sell out at times, so be sure to book in advance to reserve your spot!
Celebrating our newest practitioner, Julia
Julia Piner, our Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) in-training, began seeing clients this fall for Somatic Healing Sessions at Studio A under my supervision. Very young, yet wise beyond her years, she has a decade of doula work plus several years as a massage therapist under her belt and intuitively understands how to care well for those that are hurting. As the owner of the studio, I have the strictest standards for hiring practitioners, and Julia exceeds those standards and continues to impress me in our 1:1 mentoring hours spent together. She truly understands the complex relationships of the nervous system, emotions, and myofascial structures, and holds the sensitivity required to work directly with people’s trauma as it shows up in the body.
In addition (and perhaps most importantly), she allows herself to impacted by the work, and gets curious about her own nervous system patterns and stuck places. If you are wanting to do 1:1 somatic work at Studio A but do not want to wait for Allie to have availability, I cannot recommend Julia enough as a practitioner. She deeply understands healing from both a personal and professional standpoint, and is rocking it as a provider at Studio A!
I asked if she would want to contribute to this newsletter, to share a bit about what her journey has been like. Here is what she wrote:
If you had told me two years ago what I would be doing today, I probably would have laughed and said that was crazy talk! After just about 2 months of seeing clients here at Studio A, I am amazed at the hard, and often unseen, work people are doing. I am honored to be able to hold space for that work.
My whole journey to Somatic Experiencing has been overwhelmingly providential. My work as a doula (birth/postpartum) post COVID-19 started me on a path of realizing how much we don’t give ourselves grace and space in difficult times. How, as a society, people stopped listening to each other because things felt too heavy. My clients at the time needed more support (especially in their trauma), and I didn’t feel like I was equipped to give that support. In a wild turn of events, that led me to connecting with Allie at Studio A, within a week of chatting with her, I had applied to the 3-year Somatic Experiencing professional training program and enrolled in an upcoming cohort—a process that should have taken a minimum of 6 weeks. It all felt so fast, but I never looked back. The information and knowledge that I have received training to training has been monumental for the space I can provide when people are processing hard things.
One of my favorite things is that when we start to learn how to slow down, we start to listen to our body and hear what it has to say. A beautiful being that is full of emotions, sensations, memories, power, connection, and wisdom. A beautiful being that takes us everywhere we want to go. A beautiful being that carries and feels all for ourselves and others. And yet, a beautiful being that is often the last to be checked in with. My intention at Studio A will always be to get curious about what shows up when we change the narrative to checking in with this beautiful being first.
Julia, we are so glad you are here at Studio A and we celebrate you and the good work you are doing with clients!
New year, renewed commitment
Friends, I know that many of you are navigating difficult situations and are wanting desperately to gain a nervous system that knows how to organically and smoothly move through past trauma, cycles of stress, and difficult emotions. Let us all move into this new year with a renewed commitment to finding the wholeness that is our birthright! We are here to support you in that journey, with our body-centric and deeply trauma-informed approach, that comes through in all of our offerings:
Release & Refresh drop-in somatic classes
Feel to Heal 8-week program - new round starting in just 2 weeks!
Yes/No & Letting Go - a somatic day-long workshop on boundaries, autonomy, and choice
Trauma-Informed Massage with the fabulous Callie Willoughby to relieve body tension, receive safe and attuned touch, and stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system
Somatic Healing Sessions with me (Allie) and Julia, to engage in deep work to renegotiate the body’s hold of traumatic events and to rewire nervous system patterns stuck in fight/flight and freeze
May 2026 be a year of continued movement towards wholeness and healing. 🥂🧡
~Allie