Meet Emily Peterson
Emily is a Boston-Based Yin Yoga Teacher, Reiki Master Trainer, Resilience Coach and Joy Activist.
Emily’s approach to teaching embraces the power of somatic-based healing and creates the space for feeling, intuiting, reconnecting and transforming. She is celebrated for helping her students to embrace awareness of the present moment and to tolerate emotional discomfort.
The mind influences the body and the body influences the mind; there is no way to separate the two. When we think of them as distinct entities, we inevitably create disharmony.
Emily's healing work is informed by the science of trauma, traumatic stress and post traumatic growth: her technique is based off of how our nervous systems have adapted and developed in response to myriad forces (such as our ancestry, circumstances of birth, primary relationships and our culture).
Emily has experienced first-hand how yoga offers a contemplative practice that nurtures a safe connection to one's body. She turned to yoga over 20 years ago to manage chronic pain from her career as an elite competitive volleyball player—it taught her how to genuinely care for her body outside of performance. Yoga was integral to her recovery from an eating disorder, depression, drug-use, and trauma.
The power of yoga to foster a mindful acceptance of the way things are in each moment is the heart of what Emily teachers.
Whatever it is, wherever you have been—you can heal, and you can grow.
My work draws from a wide range of healing disciplines; I bring together the modern neuroscience of connection, resilience and somatic body work with ancient practices and wisdom drawn from yoga, shamanism, and energy healing to co-create a path back to each individual's truest, most sacred and sovereign self.
We were born as Divine Beings but biology, circumstance, culture and chance have required us to hide under the physically destructive armor of invulnerability.
-Emily
Healing requires Joy
That’s why the work we do is fun. Healing is not all heavy, it’s not all quiet. Sometimes it has wings, uproarious laughter, and dance parties. To heal, you need to live.
Emily also has a very cute rescue cat named Nala, aka Mama Kitties.
Expertise & Certifications
500-hour RYT yoga instructor
YIN yoga teacher and teacher-trainer
Usui/Holy Fire® III Karuna® Reiki Master Teacher
Certified Lead Trainer of Trauma-Responsive Innovations for Mind/Body (TIMBo)
Lead (TIMBo) trainings to bring trauma-resolution to communities in Haiti, Kenya and Rwanda
Program Director of the Mandela Yoga Project
Education & Background
Emily has a B.A. in Applied Psychology from University of Illinois-Chicago.
She studied extensively with Lama Migmar Tseten, Buddhist Chaplain of Harvard University while studying towards her Master’s program in Government from Harvard.
Listening to the Body and Discerning Its Wisdom Is Where Healing and Peace Lie.
Transforming Trauma and Rising Whole
“In our sessions, you’ll co-create an individualized path and timeline to overall wellness, allowing you to maintain a sense of agency in your own healing.”
Emily is passionate about accompanying individuals on their journey to wellness. She creates a safe and sacred space in which clients feel secure as they move through the process of going into the body, finding resolution and building resilience.
She gently supports you into shifting behavioral patterns that lead to energetic blockages, allowing the healing process to continue outside your session and off the mat.