Demystifying Breathwork: Connecting with Our most Natural Tool for Wellbeing

Livia is a psychotherapist, social worker, yoga therapist, Somatic Experiencing practitioner, and spiritual activist. She is the founder of the Yoga-Informed Model and is an advocate of the mind + body paradigm shift. She implemented one of the first yoga therapy programs for mental health treatment in a nationally renowned residential treatment center. There she developed a clinical residency program to train the next generation of psychotherapists to weave yoga into their treatment of complex mental health and trauma. She is passionate about best practices and the integration of neurobiology, somatics, yoga and psychotherapy for the healing of addiction, eating and mood disorders and the often underlying acute and chronic traumatization. Livia’s psychotherapeutic experience includes training in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Change Therapy (ACT), DBT- Prolonged Exposure (DBT-PE), Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy (ERP), anti-oppressive psychodynamic psychotherapy.


Livia’s engagement with yoga and meditation began with a two-year residency at the Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy where in 1999 she was initiated into the tradition of the Himalayan Masters. She has completed over a decade of advanced and therapeutic yoga certifications along with becoming a Reiki Master in 1998. She has been deeply influenced by the mindfulness training that she has received from Vietnamese Zen Monk, Thich Nhat Hanh.

Today she works to educate healthcare organizations, conducts research and presents nationally on the benefits of yoga for mental health and trauma awareness to reduce systemic burnout. She partners to implement therapeutic programs, training and protocols that utilizes the Yoga-Informed model and community-based, accessible Somatic Experiencing. She has enjoyed several clinical leadership roles in inpatient settings, most recently as Director of Trauma-Informed Care at a national treatment center - always with her hope to serve clients while supporting the system’s greater capacity for sustainable wellbeing.