About Chaya
Since opening my practice in 2009 I have had the honor of supporting hundreds of women and wombkeepers in their healing. My focus is on supporting healing from struggles related to menstruation, bladder health, digestion, pelvic health, pregnancy and postpartum. My passion is supporting people to connect to their pleasure, whether that be sexual or not, with self or other.
What brought me to this work was my own struggle with and healing from Interstitial Cystitis, a debilitating bladder condition. The techniques I now offer were everything in my path to full recovery from a condition that EVERY doctor told me was a life sentence.
Through my own healing journey and work with others, it became clear that many of these conditions are rooted in early trauma experiences. Traumatic experiences can range from the trauma of a car accident or a fall to the sacrum or tailbone at a young age to sexual or emotional abuse to invasive medical procedures that did not feel consensual at a young age.
All the phases and cycles inherent in being a womb holder, from menstruation, to pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum, to menopause contain inherent joys and losses. In addition to the physical care I offer, I hold space for the spectrum of feelings that accompany them.
Together we can assess what aspects of my work might be most helpful for YOU! We generally weave together a combination of Maya Abdominal Massage, Holistic Pelvic Care™, Health and Sexuality Coaching and Posture Play and Movement Therapy.
Training and practice.
I graduated from from UMass Amherst Nursing school with Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2008. During nursing school my case of Interstitial Cystitis became unbearable. In my search for effective treatment I discovered Maya abdominal massage and studied with Rosita Arvigo of the Abdominal Therapy Collective. After giving birth in 2013, I deepened my studies of pelvic health and healing with with Tami Lynn Kent, through her Holistic Pelvic Care™ program, where I learned internal vaginal massage and the art of womb whispering.
As I was beginning my practice in 2009 I completed the Priestess Path initiation with ALisa Starkweather has been a significant teacher and mentor in my life as well. I went through her Priestess Path initiation in 2009 and it opened me to ritual and ceremony in ways I could not have imagined at the time. ALisa invited me to co-facilitate the Women’s Belly and Womb Conference for a number of years, which was a huge gift and honor. She profoundly influenced me to weave women’s empowerment into my work, to bring the deep tide of spirit into practice.
Zahava Griss has had a profound influence on my life and teaching about love, sex, polyamory, kink and cultural power dynamics, which has felt hugely relevant to healing our connection with our wombs and sexuality.
Bellydance, contact improvisation and yoga have been the central core of my spiritual and physical practice for over 20 years. I weave the knowledge I've gained about movement patterns and body structure into the pelvic work I do to assist clients in actively healing their own bodies.
Love and family.
I am blessed with an incredible partner and son. They both teach me about unconditional love, patience and compassion everyday. Birthing my son has expanded my capacity to love and my empathy for what wombs experience in the journey of pregnancy and birth. In the face of such deeply intimate relationships, I have the opportunity to see myself more clearly, and practice the self-acceptance I strive to invite my clients to offer themselves.
Passions and hobbies.
My primary experience of the world is kinesthetic. Dance is my medicine. My primary loves in dance are bellydance and contact improvisation. I love the sinuous, sensual movements of bellydance. And I love the intentional colliding of bodies, and the kinesthetic experience of being in a dance with another body where I cannot tell where I begin and other ends.
I love plants. More than people sometimes. I am especially drawn to the ones we call poisonous. Poison is medicine in small doses. My favorites are the spring ephemerals, trilliums, bloodroot, pulsatilla, solomon’s seal, black and blue cohosh the understory plants. The ones that are easy to miss and hard to ignore. This continually emerging love has led me to start creating herbal medicines and flower essences. More information at Earthly Ephemerals.
I love all things related to sexuality and sensuality. Delighting in strawberries dipped in chocolate, exploring the depths of wild lovership, and everything in between.