Livia Cohen-Shapiro

I am an acquired taste to say the least. Often people say I am a breath of fresh air. Its probably because I swear a lot and tell the blunt truth.  Which of course has some pluses and minuses.

I am a Mama first and foremost, a wife, a lover of words, a teacher, counselor, spiritual activist and forever a student. 

To this day, I am uninterested in fluff and woowoo and am utterly convinced that trust, honesty, and truth in ourselves, in each other, in the great rocking mother goddess and in this planet is what we must cultivate.

The teachings of Yoga and Somatic Explorations rooted in earth-based rituals can help us in creating trustworthy, honest and truthful lives.

I delight in helping students and teachers of yoga grow their ranges of motion and emotion through steady asana practice, somatic education, and body centered mentorship/counseling. 

I bring essential Somatic Psychology principles and tools to the lives, practice and teaching of dedicated yoga students and instructors worldwide. I provide deeply held space for psychotherapeutic healing and mentoring--into the places asana opens but needs more guidance. I provide rigorous online classes that call to action and educate teachers to build more nuanced psychological knowhow in their classes.  Digestible classes, workshops and trainings leave students empowered,  ignited and pushed right up to the edges of their own progress mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally. My teaching 'style' is thoughtful, clear, direct and witty.  In my asana classes you will find progressive sequencing and articulate alignment instruction conveying the teachings of yoga asana, tantric and earth-based philosophy, and somatic psychology. This is a blending of years of study in the Iyengar and Anusara yoga methods along with Rajanaka Tantric philosophy, body centered psychology, 5 Rhythms dance and Rites of Passage.

I began studying yogic traditions at age 15 through the lens of mythology and iconography. My interest turned to the yoga mat because I felt messed up, lonely, terribly depressed and threw up everything I ate. I turned to the mat because looking at beautiful pictures and studying esoteric ideas did not help me love myself. Practicing yoga asana helped me make a deal with myself to live life, day-by-day with reverence and devotion. Over time my desperation and angst has dissipated but my love for yoga--its stories and its practice--has never dwindled. 

I have many influences and teachers to be grateful for. I have studied Iyengar Yoga and Anusara Yoga extensively and now study with Christina Sell. I am a student of Neelkantha meditation under the guidance of Paul Muller Ortega. I continue to study the 5Rhythms, expressive arts and Rites of Passage work with Melissa Michaels and her SomaSource Map which influences my teaching and counseling deeply. I have studied Rajanaka Yoga since a teen with Douglas Brooks.

I am forever grateful for those who have cared for me and taken me under their wing. I hope I embody their collective wisdom well and with respect. Ms. Hanson my 9th grade history teacher, who handed me Siddhartha. My Bubby, my very short and very cute Grandmother. My first yoga mentor Piper Petrie.  My mentors in somatic psychology Arielle Schwartz and Leah D'Abate.   

I have been practicing yoga since 2000 and teaching yoga since 2003. I  have studied psychology since 1994 and have a masters degree in Somatic Counseling Psychology from Naropa University which I earned in 2013. I live with my devoted and fearlessly loving husband Elliot (check out his radically grounded work here), our beautiful and sweet daughter Olive and our two cats, Layla and Mr. Ray.

Elliot Cohen-Shapiro

Elliot is a life-long adventurer with a deep appreciation for wilderness and the incredible diversity of life on Earth. Elliot has been leading wilderness expeditions recreationally for over ten years and professionally for five. His love of adventure has taken him through the mile-high canyon walls of the Green, San Juan and Colorado Rivers, the mammoth glaciers of Chilean Patagonia, the impenetrable jungle of the Bolivian Amazon, fragrant eucalyptus forests of the Blue Mountains of Australia, torrential rainstorms on the wild coast of Tasmania, dazzling sunsets on the Sea of Cortez, rushing waterfalls in the interior of Brazil, the towering Himalaya of India, and the fabled Northern coast of Sri Lanka. To see just one is to be star struck by your own planet.
 
Elliot is a graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School, the Wilderness Medicine Institute, and the Patagonia Mountaineering School. He also holds a bachelor of science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland and a doctorate in Environmental Engineering from the University of Colorado Denver. After completing graduate school, Elliot served as a Fulbright Scholar in India and then taught at Columbia University in New York, before returning to Colorado to join a tech startup.
 
When Elliot is not in the field or at the office, he loves to forage, garden and cook with his wife Livia and their daughter Olive at their home in Boulder, CO.