15 years of Samarya - living, loving and growing together still
15 years ago today I opened the doors to The Samarya Center on Yesler Way with a packed Intro to Ashtanga class. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined the powerful force it would become and the ripples it would send out into the world, and most of all, how it would transform and shape my entire life and sense of self.
Over 15 years we created Integrated Movement Therapy trainings and have travelled all over the world to teach them - as far away as Israel and as far out as Johns Hopkins Medical Center, started different programs for homeless kids, teens and adults, programs for grief support and end of life, programs for kids with autism and other developmental challenges, programs for developmentally disabled adults with coexisting mental illness, programs for stroke survivors, for survivors of childhood sexual trauma, classes for folks with depression, anxiety, chronic pain and head injury, fat yoga, yoga for queer and trans folks, IMT therapy in hospice centers, the VA, skilled nursing facilities, Harborview Medical Center, Neighborcare and UW, graduated over 300 people from our teacher training, certified close to 50 IMT therapists, inspired Unfold Studios in Portland, produced the best yoga deck ever featuring a broad variety of beautiful shapes and colors. We offered Seattle's first totally free community classes, offered scholarships for every training, created the Diversity Scholarship for YTT, started free yoga in the park.In that time, I started a podcast, wrote a book with another one due out in September, offered the country's first Yoga and Social Change workshop, been featured in Yoga Journal, Yoga Therapy Today, the BBC and many more, was Vice President of IAYT for five years and sat on the educational standards committee, began bi - yearly pilgrimages to India, met Ram Dass and found my guru, and got married.The Samarya Center was an incredible force in the world and there is nothing else like it. It was the single most important thing in my life shaping who I am today and the many deep and abiding friendships I have and the community I want to live in and foster. It is the place that "grew me up" and shaped my identity as a teacher, leader and visionary.
Samarya lives on in our strong community and our collective values, in the teachers still teaching and the therapists committed to finding perfection and wholeness in all they see, in the power of partnership and the power of love.
Stay connected. Samarya is alive and well even without brick and mortar. We are a powerful, thriving satsang and we welcome every body. We are all in this together! I'll end with a Ray LaMontagne lyric: