New Beginnings Writing Group

ONLINE with Susan Ford, C-IAYT, RYT-500

$1-15 sliding scale

Please register in advance; a Zoom link will be emailed 1 hour before the session, or join Zoom directly via your Momence dashboard.

Meets twice a month on 2nd and 4th Friday | Ongoing
In these times of great change we will explore a path toward meeting ourselves where we are to give voice to all that matters! As we live with interruptions and chaos, we can deepen into the roots of our creativity, encouraging the river of expression to flow. Beginners and seasoned writers are welcome, as we explore various forms of writing: poetry, prose, short stories, memoir, among others. Through writing exercises using everyday life, place, family, images, poetry of others, while using pranayama, meditation and the guidance of the Sutras we will build a body of work. Participants are encouraged to go at their own pace.
Tools we will Practice:

• The Art of Paying Attention
• Acceptance
• Play
• Writing from the Heart

Together we will combine self-care with our writing and discover what a writing practice means to us and how it may take shape.


Susan Ford, C-IAYT, RYT-500, began teaching in 2011 and has been an assistant trainer for the Basic Yoga Teacher Training at Integral Yoga Institute San Francisco (IYISF) since 2012. She specializes in gentle yoga and yoga therapy working with people with disabilities, cancer, heart disease, arthritis, aging, bone health, anxiety, depression and asthma. Her focus is to help students to meet their bodies where they are by introducing and incorporating Therapeutic Yoga, Raja Yoga, Hatha Yoga, pranayama and meditation. Susan has been a writer of poetry, short stories and plays most of her adult life and has been repeatedly featured in storytelling events in Northern California. She has led writer groups, tutored many in writing, and regularly hosts poetry reading Satsangs at IYISF.

New Beginnings Writing Group

ONLINE with Susan Ford, C-IAYT, RYT-500
$1-15 sliding scale

Please register in advance; a Zoom link will be emailed 1 hour before the session, or join Zoom directly via your Momence dashboard.

Meets twice a month on 2nd and 4th Friday | Ongoing

In these times of great change we will explore a path toward meeting ourselves where we are to give voice to all that matters! As we live with interruptions and chaos, we can deepen into the roots of our creativity, encouraging the river of expression to flow. Beginners and seasoned writers are welcome, as we explore various forms of writing: poetry, prose, short stories, memoir, among others. Through writing exercises using everyday life, place, family, images, poetry of others, while using pranayama, meditation and the guidance of the Sutras we will build a body of work. Participants are encouraged to go at their own pace.
Tools we will Practice:

  • The Art of Paying Attention
  • Acceptance
  • Play
  • Writing from the Heart

Together we will combine self-care with our writing and discover what a writing practice means to us and how it may take shape.


Susan Ford, C-IAYT, RYT-500, began teaching in 2011 and has been an assistant trainer for the Basic Yoga Teacher Training at Integral Yoga Institute San Francisco (IYISF) since 2012. She specializes in gentle yoga and yoga therapy working with people with disabilities, cancer, heart disease, arthritis, aging, bone health, anxiety, depression and asthma. Her focus is to help students to meet their bodies where they are by introducing and incorporating Therapeutic Yoga, Raja Yoga, Hatha Yoga, pranayama and meditation. Susan has been a writer of poetry, short stories and plays most of her adult life and has been repeatedly featured in storytelling events in Northern California. She has led writer groups, tutored many in writing, and regularly hosts poetry reading Satsangs at IYISF.

TRE® (Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises) Intro Workshop

ONLINE with Maria Alfaro

$55 | $50 Early bird, exp. 7/12

Please register in advance: a Zoom link will be emailed 1 hour before the session, or join Zoom directly via your Momence dashboard.

TRE is a simple, gentle and profound technique that facilitates the lengthening and relaxation of the psoas muscle and the release of physical and emotional tension and stress. The TRE exercises mildly tire the legs, triggering an involuntary shaking and trembling response, which begins in the legs and often spreads throughout the body. This natural response is the nervous system’s way of discharging long-held tension and unconscious body contraction, caused by everyday stress and traumatic life experiences, in order to restore the body to wholeness.

TRE was developed by Dr. David Berceli, a bio-energetic therapist and social worker, who used it successfully worldwide working with soldiers, firefighters, police officers and survivors of war, natural disasters and other traumatic circumstances to help alleviate the many symptoms of post-traumatic stress. TRE is taught in over 75 countries worldwide.

Originally developed for sufferers of trauma, over the past few decades, TRE is becoming an increasingly popular way to also deal with the stressors of everyday life.

Reported benefits include:

• decrease anxiety
• release chronic tension
• discharge emotional and physical trauma
• increase energy and flexibility
• improve sleep and mood
• decrease of aches, pains and symptoms of fibromyalgia and sciatica

This workshop is suitable for all ages and fitness levels as the exercises can be modified to accommodate any body’s need. Maria offers a weekly online refresher class that workshop participants can attend by donation. This online session will not be recorded.

CEU certificate available upon request from the teacher for psychotherapists and massage therapists.

Please read a downloadable pdf with important preparation instructions about your Online TRE® session. It will be sent to you with an enrollment confirmation email. This document contains information about how to set up your camera and mat and checklist of needed items.

For more information about TRE please visit www.TREcalifornia.com


Maria is a native Italian living in Santa Cruz, California. She has over 30 years of yoga experience and a background in Chinese martial arts and massage.
As a senior TRE® Certification Trainer, since 2004, she has taught thousands of people in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. She assisted Dr. Berceli, TRE’s founder, in numerous trainings in the US, South Africa, Brazil and Japan and led hundreds of public workshops and over hundred certification trainings worldwide.

Maria is also the co-creator of Neurogenic Yoga™, the sister method of TRE.

Maria facilitates workshops and trainings globally. She creates a supportive environment that makes people feel safe as she leads her classes with compassion and a sense of humor.

New Beginnings Writing Group

ONLINE with Susan Ford, C-IAYT, RYT-500
$1-15 sliding scale

Please register in advance; a Zoom link will be emailed 1 hour before the session, or join Zoom directly via your Momence dashboard.

Meets twice a month on 2nd and 4th Friday | Ongoing

In these times of great change we will explore a path toward meeting ourselves where we are to give voice to all that matters! As we live with interruptions and chaos, we can deepen into the roots of our creativity, encouraging the river of expression to flow. Beginners and seasoned writers are welcome, as we explore various forms of writing: poetry, prose, short stories, memoir, among others. Through writing exercises using everyday life, place, family, images, poetry of others, while using pranayama, meditation and the guidance of the Sutras we will build a body of work. Participants are encouraged to go at their own pace.
Tools we will Practice:

  • The Art of Paying Attention
  • Acceptance
  • Play
  • Writing from the Heart

Together we will combine self-care with our writing and discover what a writing practice means to us and how it may take shape.


Susan Ford, C-IAYT, RYT-500, began teaching in 2011 and has been an assistant trainer for the Basic Yoga Teacher Training at Integral Yoga Institute San Francisco (IYISF) since 2012. She specializes in gentle yoga and yoga therapy working with people with disabilities, cancer, heart disease, arthritis, aging, bone health, anxiety, depression and asthma. Her focus is to help students to meet their bodies where they are by introducing and incorporating Therapeutic Yoga, Raja Yoga, Hatha Yoga, pranayama and meditation. Susan has been a writer of poetry, short stories and plays most of her adult life and has been repeatedly featured in storytelling events in Northern California. She has led writer groups, tutored many in writing, and regularly hosts poetry reading Satsangs at IYISF.

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