The Light You Cast

Healing and health happens in the nervous system

Through The Light You Cast™ Somatic Movement experiences, we train the nervous system to stay calm under pressure while integrating core principles of the TLYC curriculum. Stress becomes a catalyst for growth, resilience, and vitality.

These practices help you:

Strengthen the nervous system’s relaxation response
Reduce stress hormones and ease anxiety
Enhance clarity, focus, and emotional balance
Improve mobility, flexibility, and joint health
Release stored tension and difficult emotions
Boost mood, energy, and overall resilience

You can’t get this in pill form.

Meet with Dr. Jen to Learn More

Scientific Benefits
Somatic Movement

Somatic movement is mindful, gentle movement that helps you reconnect with your body from the inside out. Instead of focusing on how a movement looks, it’s about how it feels. By tuning into breath, sensation, and tension patterns, somatic movement helps release stress, restore natural ease, and build resilience. It’s a simple, accessible way to support both physical and emotional healing.

Scientists have found that regular participation in movement-based exercises has been shown to decrease overall levels of tension, elevate and stabilize mood, improve sleep, and improve self-esteem. Even five minutes of mindful movement and focusing on the breath can stimulate anti-anxiety effects.

Studies show that mindful, somatic movement is effective at reducing fatigue, re-energizing your system, improving alertness and concentration, enhancing overall cognitive function, and soothing an over-active nervous system. Somatic movement exercises increases blood circulation to the brain, especially the amygdala and hippocampus — which both have roles in controlling motivation, mood and response to stress.

Site-Based Healing IN-MOTION

Imagine engaging courageous conversations, strategic planning sessions, curriculum development days, or data dive meetings AFTER everyone has calmed their bodies, energized their systems, cleared their heads, and reconnected with their purpose?

A little guided mental health/concentration/body scan exercise or a short, invigorating sequence of movement poses is a perfect way energize your leadership team and staff before, during, or after their "work" day.

Each session designed for all bodies, and all are welcome.

Every body is guided into their body in their own unique way.

No experience, mats, or special clothing required!

We love to use our chairs as the perfect platform to assist our minds and bodies in stretching and stressing our systems in energizing ways. Jen has mats and support blocks she can bring to your site if you so desire.

We keep it secular.

Secular, by definition, means not pertaining to or connected with religion. Yoga, mindfulness, and somatic movement are secular; meaning there is no intent within the practices to practice any religion or instill a particular set of religious beliefs or content. The "content" of our movement practices is the body's wisdom and information. These introspective mind/body practices are based on explicit, empirical evidence and are intended to diminish the onset or exacerbation of dis-ease in the body and mind.

Jen is a 200 hour CYT

(certified yoga teacher)

I became a certified yoga teacher in 2013, and my area of expertise is the restorative practice of yin yoga. I have been an avid yoga and mindfulness practitioner since 2007. Yoga and mindfulness is what buoyed me as a new mom after my three daughters were born. I started practicing yoga because of the recommendation by my therapist when I was struggling with postpartum depression and healing from complex PTSD.

Healing my nervous system's chronic stress response through gentle, somatic movements is what significantly decreased my anxiety, overwhelm, and exhaustion. Thus when I was developing a burnout prevention curriculum for classroom teachers, I knew that while the collective of the community would be healing and the cognitive - behavioral practices would be transformational, I knew that the secret agent necessary to catalyze sustainable healing and health was in and through the body's regulated nervous system.

I have brought classes on mindfulness, somatic movement, and yoga to promote on-site staff wellbeing and mental health for the Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota, Lifetime Fitness, the University of Minnesota College of Education + Human Development and Carlson School of Management, and Target Corporation.

I bring somatic-based, restorative practices like mindful walking and restorative breath and movement experiences to school districts and local public health organizations throughout Minnesota, and to annual conferences where caregivers gather to connect.

Signature Somatic Movement Practice

Every somatic movement session (30, 60, or 75 minutes) includes engagement of the 3 core pillars of mental health and healing of The Light You Cast™ curriculum in a body-based practice.

REST

Healing Pillar

Regulate Nervous System

We start every and all sessions with a RELAXING BODY SCAN so that you can feel how your attention relieves tension in parts of your body where it likes to hold stress. During our opening practice, we also integrate a core perspective of The Light You Cast™ curriculum.

RESTORATION

Healing Pillar

Process energy in the body through stress and breath

You will be guided to strategically engage a series of SOMATIC MOVEMENTS to get into your body as you concentrate on your breath. Each pose is designed to create a low load of safe stress on your muscles, joints, connective tissue, and ligaments. When we release each pose, you will experience the benefits of the "squeeze and soak" phenomenon when oxygen rich blood flushes the area we stressed which results in increased strength, flexibility, mobility, and resilience.

REVITALIZATION

Healing Pillar

Create space for the mind and body to integrate energy and grow stronger

We know that the cells in our bodies are listening to the thoughts in our heads, so we close every session with a MENTAL HEALTH VISUALIZATION that allows the body the time and space it needs to actively recover and build strength from the stress it endured. We discuss a "take-home" mental health practice from The Light You Cast™ curriculum.