Introducing Georgia, PYP’s new Facilitator Mentor!

Georgia (they/them) has been facilitating yoga for marginalized and system-impacted communities since 2016. Having personal experience being unhoused, incarcerated and recovering from substance abuse, they bring unique compassion and understanding to their work. They have served folks in adult county jails, juvenile detention centers, group homes for youth, and drug rehabilitation facilities.

What is Georgia’s role at Prison Yoga Project?

As Facilitator Mentor, Georgia is a resource to all active facilitators, offering 1:1 mentoring sessions:

• Space for facilitators to process events that may have arisen while facilitating inside
• Discuss establishing genuine and professional boundaries with participants and staff
• Navigate situations with participants, correctional officers and facilities
• Honest reflection
• Any questions that may arise

How do you see yoga and mindfulness practices supporting liberation and healing within the context of incarceration?

Having been impacted by life events and different systemic cultural institutions, I have found personal liberation through yoga. Incarceration and judicial systems impose limits and barriers, both physical and physiological. Bob Marley’s redemption song says “none but ourselves can free our mind”. Mindfulness practices can offer freedom as we travel in the bodily and mental realms. Yoga and mindfulness practices allow us to release traumas of our past, which are not only emotional but imprinted in our physical structure, muscles, and cells. As Bessel Van Der Kolk states so succinctly, “ the body keeps the score”. With steady and gentle awareness liberation is possible.

What are some of your hobbies or activities that help you recharge and stay grounded?

Being based in New Hampshire, my favorite activity is getting out in nature. Recharging and grounding is essential in this work, and for me, hiking is a balm, and soothes me back to self. I love spending time with friends, making meals, and hitting up local hippy dances on the weekends. I have also been attending Silent Meditation retreats since 2005.

Schedule a 1:1 session with Georgia here!