Longtime member has plans to offer more virtual programming, sliding scale fees, and a focus on diversity

NORTHAMPTON—Thornes Marketplace announced that Yoga Sanctuary has changed hands, and the new owner—a longtime studio member—has plans to revitalize programming, restructure pricing to increase access, and foster diversity and inclusion in the space.

Lindsay Pope purchased Yoga Sanctuary from former owner Sara Rose Page on Aug. 1 in a major career shift for Pope, formerly the assistant director of the Dallas Symphony Chorus and a visiting choral director at Williams College.  

Page made the decision to sell after COVID-19 forced the closing of the studio in March, which caused sales to drop by a third. Page was also caring for her daughters at home.

Pope said her decision to purchase now, in this uncertain and unusual time, came because she feared Page may not have found another buyer. “I feel like this time is incredibly liberating,” she said. “What do I have to lose? The alternate was that we could have lost this space, and instead, we’re going to give it another shot, and we’re going to try to evolve to meet the needs of the times and the next generation. That’s what we’re all being called to do right now in the chaos that’s happening.”

On Aug. 29, Pope unveiled a new website for the yoga studio, and Sept. 8 she will launch reinvigorated studio programming. She will announce new online and live programming, sliding scale pricing, an online video library platform, and four yoga series.

Another major initiative Pope has undertaken is creating educational opportunities for students to “unlearn racism and ableism” as it relates to the practice of yoga.

She will host Dianne Bondy Oct. 17-18 for a weekend workshop entitled “Yoga for All.”  Bondy is an internationally recognized yoga leader who specializes in the intersection of racial inequality and body image within yoga; she will discuss how Yoga Sanctuary can evolve into a space that is more inclusive. For more information, contact the studio at studio@yoga-sanctuary.com.

Pope will also offer two new classes led by Angelica Lopez, of Holyoke—one for Spanish speakers and one for Black and Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC). 

Lopez is one of nine instructors who currently lead classes at Yoga Sanctuary. Pope’s partner, Jonathan Gregory, the general manager of PV Squared in Greenfield, a worker-owned solar cooperative, is consulting with Pope as she imagines new programming and offerings.

“We’re thinking about how we can adapt in this particular time, in terms of our virtual content and being accessible outside the physical space and using our space in Thornes in different ways that don’t involve the gathering of lots of people,” Pope said. “I also want to incorporate my creativity into the studio culture and reach more people because of that. We are restructuring the programming and culture and making it a much more viable online business.”

Pope holds a bachelor’s in music from Mount Holyoke College, a master’s in music from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, and a doctorate of musical arts in choral conducting from the University of North Texas. 

She started her career directing the choral program at Mount Holyoke in 2011, the same year she joined Yoga Sanctuary as a member. While working on her doctoral degree, she was the assistant director of the Dallas Symphony Chorus. Most recently, she served as a visiting choral director at Williams College. 

Offerings at Yoga Sanctuary have been online since March. These new programs will be offered as part of the relaunch:

• An on-demand video library platform, through which instructors will offer short yoga sequences for waking up, going to bed, managing anxiety, addressing aches from gardening, etc. “It gives our teachers a different format to express themselves and draw more specifically on their specialties and interests.” Access to the platform will be included in any studio membership and is also available as a separate subscription for $29 per month after a two-week trial.
• Three community classes, which include the yoga class to be taught in Spanish and the class for BIPOC, will be offered at a pay-what-you-can rate.
• Three-tiered, sliding-scale pricing offered at $79, $99, and $119 per month. “The price will be up to the clients,” Pope said. “People can decide what price makes sense to them due to income or the frequency they might use the services. We’re giving people different access points.”
• New drop-in pricing at $10, $15, and $20 per. “That will make yoga more accessible. You decide what will work for you,” Pope said.
• Four, six-week yoga series, focusing on prenatal yoga, postpartum with baby yoga, yoga for teenagers, and intro to yoga. Each series will also be offered on a sliding scale from $80-$160 for the series.

For more information, contact the studio at studio@yoga-sanctuary.com.

After closing in March due to COVID-19, Thornes Marketplace reopened on June 8. All shops are open. 

To learn more about Thornes Marketplace, visit thornesmarketplace.com.

Thornes Marketplace has been the cornerstone of downtown Northampton and at the center of the Main Street shopping district for more than a century. Built in 1873, it holds 55,000 square feet of space for merchants and includes features like pressed tin ceilings and hardwood floors.

The post Yoga Sanctuary in Thornes Marketplace Has New Owner appeared first on Beetle Press.

AMHERST—Ginny Hamilton was diagnosed with scoliosis at 9 years old and suffered chronic issues with neck and jaw pain for most of her life. For years, she tried—unsuccessfully— to reduce painful spasms using standard western medicine as well as alternative approaches.

Five years ago, acting on a tip from a friend, Hamilton, now 47, met in a private session with Lee Albert, a pain specialist at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in the Berkshires. What Hamilton learned allowed her to keep the pain at bay in a way that was “incredibly gentle and simple.”

A pain specialist herself who uses yoga and reiki as treatment modalities, Hamilton wanted to learn Albert’s treatment method, and on Oct. 15, after 300 hours of study, she was certified as an Integrated Positional Therapy Professional in the Albert Protocol for Muscle Pain Relief.

“It worked for me, so I wanted to go deeper to understand it for myself,” said Hamilton, now one of 18 people with this certification, earned after four levels of classroom instruction with Albert and 200 clinical hours, during which Albert supervised her practice on individual clients. “IPT has put my care in my own hands, and now I can teach others how to manage their pain.”

Hamilton, of Amherst, owns Ginny Hamilton Yoga and has been a Registered Yoga Teacher since 2010. She has also been studying reiki since 2013 and is currently an apprentice with Haleya Priest at Sanctuary Healing Arts Center of Amherst, seeking to become a Certified Reiki Master Teacher; she is on track to receive the credential in 2018.

Hamilton works with people in group classes, one-on-one, and she also leads workshops in the workplace. Her work is based on the philosophy that most chronic pain is caused by muscle imbalances in the body—from sitting, driving, typing, texting and other repetitive motions.

In working one-on-one with people, Hamilton said she first holds a two-hour session with a new client to hear about their physical challenges; the session includes at least one hour of Integrated Positional Therapy bodywork and reiki, received by the client while fully clothed on a massage table or yoga mat, and the session ends with a personalized wellness plan.

“Muscles work in pairs,” she explained. “We often tend to have one stronger than the other because of how we use our bodies every day. These imbalances can create muscle pain. It’s about knowing what to strengthen, what to stretch, and specific body positions to slacken and release muscle tension.”

Hamilton’s group classes are also built on the stretch-and-strengthen principle. She leads a class at the Hadley Yoga Studio in the Hadley Health Center on Route 9 on Fridays at 10 a.m., with drop-ins welcome, and at Serenity Yoga Studio in the South Hadley Village Commons, in six- or eight-week clusters on Thursdays at 7:30 p.m.

Students rave about Hamilton—as much as Hamilton raves about Albert.

Norma Friedman in South Deerfield, a student in Hamilton’s yoga classes and a private client, is a retired professor who has several physical ailments that cause chronic pain, including scoliosis and spinal stenosis.

“Those two things, on top of a work lifestyle that had me sitting, reading, and working on the computer, has caused me to have pain all 40 years of my adult life,” Friedman said. “I’ve tried a variety of modalities, and there was really nothing I could do about it except work on posture issues.”

Several years ago, Friedman attended Hamilton’s yoga class. “Within two sessions, the knots in my back were completely gone. Even my physician noticed I was sitting taller. I started to work with Ginny on a one-to-one basis,” Friedman said. “I have found remarkable results. It is just incredible, loosening muscles when they get too tight. It seems so logical to me that the stronger my back muscles become, the straighter I stand and the better I feel.”

Hamilton also leads workshops in schools and businesses around the Valley. Diane Chamberlain, the principal of Fort River Elementary School in Amherst, brought Hamilton in this fall to lead a self-care workshop for staff during a professional development day.

“There was a 100 percent success rate,” Chamberlain said. “Ginny was fantastic and lovely and receptive to different questions people had. It was a great educational opportunity for our staff, and they learned stretches they put in practice right away for themselves, and they are also teaching what they’ve learned to students.”

Likewise, Kara Noonan Pear, director of Human Resources at Noonan Energy Corporation in Springfield, said Hamilton led workshops for about 35 employees in March and May after a technician—who she helped with a muscle-release suggestion while he was servicing her boiler—raved about what he learned.

“She showed them stretches to do on the job and at home,” Noonan Pear said. “I wasn’t sure how the techs would respond. I thought they might be cynical or skeptical, but many employees came to me and thanked us for doing the sessions.”

Hamilton is the former executive director of the Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston and the former policy director of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless. She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Tufts University. She writes a parenting column for the award-winning Hilltown Families blog.

She is a member of the International Association of Reiki Practitioners and the Yoga Alliance.

For more information, visit ginnyhamilton.com or contact Hamilton at 413-253-0949 or ginnyhamiltonyoga@gmail.com.

The post Yoga Instructor, Reiki Master Adds New Certification to Expand Work in Pain Relief appeared first on Beetle Press.