Private Yoga & Massage Working out of Baltimore & Annapolis!! Private and group classes available. Annapolis Tues/Wed/Thurs
Yoga at Prana Studio Mon/Fri
I currently work at Alchemy Healing Arts Center in Annapolis MD. Schedule here:
Jackie Melsopp of In Touch Healing offers you an integrated and specialized treatment for what your body needs every session. Goals change with each session depending on how you feel that specific day. I often combine therapies and modalities to obtain maximum results. I love utilizing a combination of myofascial release and sometimes, deep work. Chronic injuries that cause daily unnecessary pain are my favorite challenge. Whether you are looking to relax, deal with an old injury or just connect, I love to work with my clients as a team to help them get exactly what they’re looking for. Jackie's Vibe Yoga:
I teach a vinyasa class that challenges my students to get out of their heads and into their bodies. By challenging them physically, and encouraging them to stay connected to their breath, my goal is to help them surprise themselves, break their limits and let go of whatever may be holding them back. I LOVE to come up with new sequences that aim at various muscle groups, pain patterns and challenging target poses. Incorporating arm balances, inversions and often a bit of yin, I love to give my students a range of postures, variations and options each class; showing them that no matter the day, level of fatigue or stress they may have, anything is possible. Vinyasa is on Friday mornings 8 am at Prana Studio in Annapolis and in Baltimore at YogaWorks in Fells Point Sundays at Noon. In true balance, I also teach a Yin class on Monday nights at 6:30 at Prana Studio. Yin classes are the opposite of the vinyasa class described above. Like Yin and Yang, light and dark, up and down, in and out, yoga practices are best balanced with a combination of some yang (vinyasa) and yin elements. In my yin classes, as with private clients, we take a meditative approach to the practice. We practice seeing ourselves, watching for the subtleties of the body, following the ease of the breath and practice a sense of presence, receiving and allowing in the body and mind. Yin postures are done on the floor and in a way that works with the connective tissue, while dropping the body into the parasympathetic nervous system (restoration). I offer private Yin sessions in combination with myofascial release work at Alchemy (see the website for more details). If you're curious about yin or vinyasa, you should come check out class at Prana and YogaWorks!! We'd love to have you :)
12/10/2022
When we have been traumatized, it is easy to get caught up in self-judgment… 😔
Cultivating nonjudgmental acceptance, compassion and kindness is an antidote to this negative self-view and can be cultivated through the practice of mindfulness.
In fact, top trauma researchers have all asserted that mindfulness is essential to the recovery process. 🧘
Consider this quote from psychiatrist and educator Bessel van der Kolk:
“Mindfulness, awareness of one's inner experience, is necessary for a person to respond according to what is happening and is needed in the present rather than reacting to certain somatic sensations as a return to the traumatic past.
Such awareness will free people to introduce new options to solve problems and not merely react reflexively.”
Cultivating mindfulness comes with practice, care, guidance and choice.
Whenever we are inviting ourselves or our students to pay closer attention to the world within, we are potentially inviting a connection with traumatic stimuli. When not approached carefully, this can lead to re-traumatization.
Here are 4 essential elements to begin the practice of cultivating mindfulness in a yoga setting:
1️⃣ Physical Details - Create a space that won’t be disturbed during practice and that feels intimate and safe. 🛑 Do Not Disturb signs work great for this! 🛑
2️⃣ Safety is 🗝️ - Encourage students to up-level, down-level or discontinue any pose and or breathing exercise if desired — it’s all about finding freedom through choice! 🕊️
3️⃣ Verbal check ins and check outs identifying mood, breath and physical sensation 🍃
4️⃣ Education around sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system - Guiding students to understand the power of the breath through education around the parasympathetic nervous system can give them a clearer understanding of the ‘why’ behind the practices. ✨
Come back to your mat. Enjoy 2 weeks of unlimited yoga for $54 and we will meet you on your mat!
10/12/2021
Sending my love
Scratch the surface and you may find that most people are dealing with the stuff of life: the challenges, the little joys, and all the pangs of growth. Don’t be deceived by external appearances - look deeper to the soul of those who cross your path. If you can, encourage them on their way.
We’re all just walking eachother home. - Ram Dass
Send a 💓 if you are ready to show some kindness to yourself and to others too...
08/05/2021
when folks ask how my practice is going since having surgery: perfectly intact, thanks ☺️
the practice is 8limbed.
meditation is THE thing. it’s why we do all of the other limbs…
yama: don’t be a jerk to others. this helps reduce psycho- emotional mind chatter which can be a distraction in our meditation.
niyama: don’t be a jerk to yourself. this also reduces mental drama so as not to distract you during meditation.
asana: maintain strength and flexibility so you can sit for long periods of time without distraction of physical discomfort
pranayama: learn to control the breath and you will be able to control much more of your experience, actions and reactions both internal and external. this helps with meditation.
pratyahara: learn to control the senses so that you are not ripped around by desire and distracted by things that take time away from meditation.
dharana: learn to focus so that you can begin to identify beyond the body and mind.
dhyana: allow a merge with that stream of consciousness, god, innermost self through meditation and beyond.
samadhi: a bi-product of meditation. samadhi includes levels of understandings that lie outside the limitations of intellect. the phases may come and go but effects will remain.
so yea i’m in a brace and on crutches and lots of things are super hard limited and lost right now. but not my practice. the practice remains intact
🥰👊🏼🙏❤️
by the way announcing an online sadhana soon!
Break-through study led by Emory University’s Ursula Kelly finds trauma-sensitive yoga programs just as effective, faster to work and easier to complete than “gold-standard” cognitive therapy.
07/03/2021
This week I was listening to a Tara Brach podcast on loving the self. I usually turn to her podcasts on the hard weeks. Her teachings help me turn towards myself with an energy that remembers what love feels like.
I’m paraphrasing here, but in her podcast, Tara tells us to hug ourselves with the left arm over the right. This is symbolic of loving the parts of ourselves that are easy to love. Then she asks that we switch up our arms so that right is over left. Again we hug, but this time it’s loving the parts of ourselves that we brush up against.
I gave myself these hugs, while on a walk with Jema. When she instructed us on the second hug, I involuntarily said out loud, “well F**K.” It was exactly what I needed to be reminded of.
Life is challenging- that’s inevitable. But as we move forward, we must remember to love all of ourselves. To ALLOW all of ourselves to be here. To value and nourish all of ourselves, as we are. Not because we’re perfect and flawless, but bc we are worthy of self compassion, especially when we’re in struggle.
I guess I’m sharing in case you had a tough week and needed the reminder too. The yoga practice teaches us that we are always whole. Nothing can make us more or less whole. We don’t have to hustle for wholeness, strive for it. Instead we can practice noticing when we forget and choose to remember as an act of love.
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I teach an all levels vinyasa (flow) class that challenges my students to get out of their heads and into their bodies. By challenging them physically and encouraging them to stay connected to their breath, my goal is to help them surprise themselves and let go of whatever may be holding them back. I love to come up with sequences that work muscle groups together, connecting top and bottom halves, integrating a strong foundation and centering the breath while building towards target postures. Incorporating vinyasas that demand your full presence, inversions and often a bit of yin, I love to give my students choices and variations each class- showing them that no matter the day, level of fatigue or stress they may have, anything is possible. By giving variety and options, my intention is to encourage students to listen and decide what feels right for themselves.
Vinyasa is on Friday mornings 8 am at Prana Studio in Annapolis and in Baltimore at YogaWorks in Fells Point Tuesday/Thursday mornings at 6:30 am
In true balance, I also teach a Yin class on Monday nights at 6:30 at Prana Studio. Yin classes are the opposite of the vinyasa class described above. Like Yin and Yang, light and dark, up and down, in and out, yoga practices are best balanced with a combination of some yang (vinyasa) and yin elements.
In my yin classes, as with private clients, we take a meditative approach to the practice. We practice seeing ourselves, watching for the subtleties of the body, following the ease of the breath and practice a sense of presence, receiving and allowing in the body and mind. Yin postures are done on the floor and in a way that works with the connective tissue, while dropping the body into the parasympathetic nervous system (restoration).
---I offer private Yin sessions in combination with myofascial release work at Alchemy (see the website below for more details)---
-Yoga Privates-
I’ve been teaching yoga since 2010. The more bodies I work with, the more anatomy I study, the more I realize that Yoga, and yoga alignment are not a one size fit all thing.
While this seems obvious- given it isn’t a team sport and instead a much more individual practice- I don’t feel like this fact is not given so much attention. I think that’s because we usually find a strong sense of community when we find yoga. However, no amount of community will change the fact that your body is different from mine, your bodies history is different than mine and your bone structure is different than mine. Therefore, shouldn’t your cues and alignment be different than mine? Please, don’t get me wrong, I love group classes. I love to teach to a community of students all breathing in sync, encouraging each other, connecting to each other; There’s such power in that. However, I can also acknowledge that teachers cannot teach to each individual student, in a group setting.
Add to this the unfortunate reality that most yoga injuries are repetitive stress injuries. This means that they are injures that don’t hurt the first time you do an action- they hurt after you’ve done them repetitively for a prolonged period of time. Can anyone say Chaterunga? Sun Salutations? Inversions? Folds? We do these quite repetitively in a vinyasa class.
Working one on one with a yoga teacher will change the game for you-whether you’re brand new to yoga or already have a relationship to your practice. The reason? Working one on one helps you learn what YOUR body needs. It helps you recognize what alignment for familiar postures feels like in YOUR body. It teaches you modifications for YOUR body. Then when you go into a group setting, you’re able to be in your body confidently aware of YOUR alignment and free to move in class without fear of injury.
We can work these individual sessions how you want them. The best place to start is with a conversation :)
-Massage-
I work at Alchemy Healing Arts Center in Annapolis MD. Schedule here:
https://alchemyhealingartscenter.as.me/jackie
My goal is to offer you a specialized treatment for what your body needs each session. I intend to listen to how you’re feeling and do my best to hear what you’re goals are. Treatment changes each session depending on how you feel that specific day. I often combine therapies to be as efficient as I can with the time we have. I specialize in Myofascial Release. I often combine myofasical work with deeper work as well as passive stretching and yin postures. Myofascial work can be extremely helpful with chronic pain.
I’ve really enjoyed bringing the myofasical work into yin yoga sessions. These sessions introduce yogic themes of mindfulness and physical presence in combination with bodywork.
I’ve seen such remarkable shifts by simply adding the yin practice to the bodywork I’ve been doing for years. Students/Clients are connecting with themselves and their breath- learning to look inward, and healing as they go. One of the best take aways from the yin sessions, is that fact that due to the very nature of the session, clients are given tangible tools to use on their own. This knowledge empowers them on HOW to take care of themselves when something starts to ache after a long day, or that usual pain starts to flare up. These sessions are a space where clients are able to learn about their body and how they might be to better able take care of themselves at home. Whether you are looking to relax, deal with an old injury or just connect, I love to work with my clients as a team to help them get exactly what they’re looking for.
Please give Alchemy a call or check our website if you have any questions. If you're curious about yin or vinyasa, you should come check out class at Prana and YogaWorks!! We'd love to have you!!
