Level 3 - Yoga Therapy for Youth Certification January 2023

Shawnee is a C-IAYT -Certified Yoga Therapist, P-SEP Somatic Experiencing© Practitioner, M.Ed., and Educational/Behavioral Specialist. She is the Founder of Asanas for Autism and Special Needs and the Founder/Director of Yoga Therapy for Youth Certification Program. Shawnee has worked with children and adults with and complex and diverse needs for 30 years. She has specialized in working with children and adults with neurodiverse needs, sensory processing challenges, communication differences, developmental disabilities, mental health challenges and trauma backgrounds. Shawnee works with private clients of all brains, bodies and abilities to facilitate health and healing. Her goal is to bring the experience of yoga to all individuals no matter their differences or challenges.

She wrote a published a book, Asanas for Autism and Special Needs – Yoga to Help Children with Their Emotions, Self-Regulation and Body Awareness and is the creator of the C.A.L.M.M Yoga Toolkit. She is in the process of writing her second book - Yoga Therapy for Children and Teens.- Embodying a While Child Approve to Wellbeing. Scheduled to be released in 2023.

She has a Yoga School through Yoga Alliance in order to train others in yoga approaches to support children and adults with neurodiverse needs and children and adults with complex needs needs and travels globally to share her teachings. Shawnee is dedicated to helping support youth and adults in developing strategies to cope with stress in order to live happier, healthier more peaceful lives.

Through her study and experience teaching yoga to her students in her classroom, she quickly realized the benefits of yoga on her students attention and focus, reduced anxiety, body awareness and development of calming strategies. She also noticed the positive reaction from her students and the excitement they displayed each time they practiced yoga.

She has experienced first hand the benefits yoga and somatic practices can provide to health and overall well-being as she is a survivor of childhood trauma as well as multiple significant traumas in her adulthood, resulting in a diagnosis of PTSD. She is also a cancer survivor. She has a unique combination of understanding neurodiversity, developmental disability, trauma and other complex needs and knowing how to support people of all ages in connecting to their essential self and building more capacity and resilience in order to live life in a more embodied and empowered way.

Shawnee has led several workshops at major conferences both in the US and Internationally; including MISTY (Montreal International Symposium for Yoga Therapy) and IAYT (International Association of Yoga Therapists) SYTAR Conference on Yoga for Sensory Processing and Self-Regulation for children with ASD, BOOST Conference (Best Out of School Time) on Yoga for Children with Special Needs , Yoga and Mindfulness for Youth and Yoga to Reduce Stress and Increase Relaxation for Educators. TRUST Conference (Teens Understanding and Reflecting Stigma Together) on Learning to Breath, Yoga and Mindfulness for Teens, including teens struggling with mental illness and UCSD Bridging the Hearts and Minds of Youth Conference on Yoga and Mindfulness for Sensory Integration and Self-Regulation.

Shawnee has written for and has had her work featured in several magazines and online resources. See media features here.

Shawnee also offers private and small group therapeutic sessions for children and adults as well as yoga and somatic movement workshops and trainings through her company Embodied Wellness Yoga Therapy.