Since I have graduated from UW-Milwaukee I spent 10 years working for Harley-Davidson Motor Company in marketing and advertising. Soon after, I moved to Door County and established Brilliant Marketing Communication – a small boutique marketing agency where I used what I learned in the corporate world to help local businesses. Brilliant Marketing will turn 10 years old in December of 2026. In 2024, I shifted my focus to open a non-profit yoga and wellness studio in Sturgeon Bay.<\/p>\n
I had received my yoga teacher certification in 2013 at Kripalu in Massachussets and was teaching in Milwaukee at various studios. My marketing career has been a blessing and an amazing experience, but I always had a dream to open a non-profit center that embraced the principals of yoga and meditation to help people improve their lives and heal trauma – essentially changing the relationship they have with themselves. When I moved to Sturgeon Bay I taught for Door County Yoga for 8 years as kind of a side gig while running my marketing agency. My vision was always still in the back of my mind. Our studio closed in 2023 and the door was open to establish something new in this beautiful rural community.<\/p>\n
I started saying it out loud in the early summer of 2024, and by October 1st, our doors were open. We had a space, a board of directors, a dedicated group of students and a name, The Yoga Womb. Yes, it’s pink. Yes, it’s a womb. No, it’s not just for women. We all came from a womb – it’s the safest most nurturing place to grow – and that’s what we provide here. In February of 2025, we received approval from the federal government on our non-profit status and we have been working hard to fulfill our mission to make yoga and meditation accessible to as many people as possible.<\/p>\n
In order to fulfill that mission, we offer trauma informed yoga and meditation classes that are free to specific populations, we have a scholarship program (we currently provide 12 scholarships for membership to the studio to people that qualify) and we work with local mental health organizations with a prescription program that allows therapists to actually prescribe yoga and meditation to patients. For example, Trauma Informed Yoga for Domestic Violence Survivors, a Soulful Sobriety Circle, Yoga in the Park (free for all) and we just wrapped up a series on Yoga for Caregivers.<\/p>\n
Some day, we will offer Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher Trainings – the only trauma-informed yoga teacher training in Northeast Wisconsin (in fact, it will be one of only two in the state).<\/p>\n
My background in marketing and advertising is proving to be an invaluable asset as we continue to operate with a very small marketing budget, but running a non-profit is much different than running a marketing agency.\u00a0We continue to fundraise constantly and just wrapped up our biggest fundraiser of the year where collaborated with other area yoga studios to facilitate 108 sun salutations overlooking Sturgeon Bay as the sun was rising on summer solstice. We raised over $4,000 and had 30 attendees. It is my personal mission to have over 100 people attend and I’m confident that we will see that day soon. Just last weekend we had more than 40 people attend Yoga in the Park.<\/p>\n
Yoga and meditation are scientifically proven to help people improve their overall wellbeing. Not just physically, but mentally, spiritually and relationally as well. We want it to be available to the people that need it most – not just the people that can afford the $25 drop-in fee. The Yoga Womb is no longer mine – in addition to the board and the facilitators, so many of our students have shared their gifts and talents and spread the word and claimed this space and movement as their own. I hear from people in the and outside of it constantly about how much it’s meant to them or people they are close to. Our community is strong and growing. We support each other through celebration and loss, we inspire, we connect we grow in community.<\/p>\n
I am constantly called back to a book I used to read to my daughter (Jett, 11) called What Do You Do with an Idea? by Kobi Yamada<\/span><\/em>: “And then, I realized what you do with an idea… You change the world.”<\/span><\/p>\n It all started when I was attending UWM and living with Dana Breunig (Conniff) when she dragged me, along with all my reluctance, to my first ever yoga class on the East Side. I hated it. I didn’t get it. But I am so grateful that she did, because eventually that changed. For me, yoga and meditation have been life-changing and even life-giving. I am so incredibly lucky to be able to share it.<\/p>\n Learn more about what we are doing at www.theyogawomb.org.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19712,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"class_list":["post-5583","class_notes","type-class_notes","status-publish","hentry"],"uwm_unpublish_requested":false,"yoast_head":"\n