Leanne Matullo

Perinatal Yoga Therapist, Creative Entrepreneur, MOTHER

www.leannematullo.com

A year

My family lives in Rhode Island, not too far from Providence. My business is a mix of in-person yoga therapy sessions and online work, which was unintentional. We moved to RI from PA four years ago, where I had a yoga center and school. In 2019, I eventually sold that business and moved online to support the clients I loved and it's grown gently as my family has grown, too. Now, I share space with an LMFT in Cranston, RI and see clients there in person.

I am a Yoga Therapist, incorporating Ayurveda, and specialize in mental health, perinatal care (fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum), and chronic pain. I work in a one on one private therapy capacity and also run trainings for other providers.

With clients, we are creating a treatment plan together that supports all parts of Self - the physical, energetic, emotional and spiritual. This will be a mix of physical movement, breathwork, meditation, and practices that look nothing like what you might find in a yoga class!

Through my own struggles with fertility, experiences with obstetrical violence, and a very challenging postpartum, I turned to yoga therapy for healing and studied (and am still studying everyday) to become a supportive Yoga Therapist. Daily, I witness the magic of these practices coupled with the advances in modern medicine.

My dream is to continue to grow my private practice and to work with licensed perinatal professionals who wish to expand their toolkit.

Success to me = joy, freedom, fulfillment, courage, self-worthiness, knowing that I'm serving those who need it.

The construct of ``Success`` is a moving target - there will always be highs and lows because we are human. My view of success means that I know how to access joy, regardless of what is happening around me. That I trust myself wholeheartedly and that I’m courageous enough to follow my internal compass.

I hope to impart that on those I work with.

I've had several and won't choose just one. From a client perspective, it's seeing the woman on her fifth round of IVF conceive and sustain a healthy pregnancy with my support. It's witnessing the woman in breast cancer remission get pregnant quickly with the tools of yoga therapy. Transformational moments are just snippets of all the work that it takes to get there - the hours of study, the hours sitting in meditation, and so forth. Those are important to me.

Oh gosh - selling my studio and being forced to pivot! I came to RI kicking and screaming (not literally, but I did cry so much). I loved my studio and community in Pennsylvania, and I did NOT want to change the way I served. And, yet...this move has allowed me to experiment and move further and further into perinatal health, which I love. I've learned about online business, building online courses, making videos, much more than I ever thought. I hope that being in the BBW, I can meet other providers and women/mothers who need this help on their own mothering journeys.

Having a business is an intense spiritual process. I have grown more connected to myself, my intuition, and my instincts. There are hundreds and hundreds of stories about how other women have built their businesses, which can be inspiring, and yet we have to learn to follow our own internal compasses to build businesses that work for us and that serve our clients.

Strengthening your own relationship with risk taking, vulnerability, making heart choices over logic based ones, and trusting yourself fully are things I am very proud of. I could never support others on their journeys, if I didn't practice this daily.

I'm at the beach, chasing my children, reading/watching Outlander, and writing.

Yoga Therapy is one of those traditions that is incredibly old (5000+ years), but also made modern for the times we are living in now.

This work is unique in that it supports all the layers of our human. The physical body affects the mind. The mind affects the physical body. The connection with Spirit, the Divine, God, you name it affects the entire system. Healing can and DOES occur when we integrate all these pieces of Self.

I also don't want my clients to ``need`` me anymore. Yoga Therapists aren't needed for years and years. Oftentimes, a few months is all we need for healing to begin to take place and for the individual to really integrate these treatment plans. The beauty is the fact that the individual has so much capacity to heal - that she doesn't need to always search outside herself. It's magic to eventually witness that sense of agency ignite within a person.

The best way is via my weekly-ish letters. These are gold mines, full of practical wisdom, storytelling, love, and free resources. Sign up at www.leannematullo.com.