What could life look like if you were able to truly feel — and feel safe with — what’s happening in your body? Not “how are you feeling?” in the abstract sense, but the reflective practice of noticing physical sensations, recognizing what emotions feel like in your chest, or gut, or throat, and tapping into that information help inform your day to day, or overall path?

It’s a fundamental skill that can underlie everything — from health and well-being, to relationships, work, setting boundaries, navigating stress, and more.

And according to Joanne Hudspith, a certified Yoga Therapist, Embodiment Coach, and author based in Hamilton, Ontario, it’s a skill that can change everything.

As an anatomy and physiology enthusiast who leads with curiosity and loves connecting the dots between patterns, Joanne has learned through her experience that with many changes people want or discomforts they have, there are often internal blocks that can keep us stuck or overwhelmed. Throughout her integrated approach, she helps clients work to unlock both physical and emotional barriers, often discovering that addressing one can naturally help support the other.

With that, Joanne’s approach focuses on guiding that your nervous system is not your enemy or something to be conquered, but rather something to work with.

Whether engaging with her personalized coaching, group classes, or self-paced course and workbook, Joanne’s approach is guiding and supportive, recognizing that no one else lives in your body or has your life experiences.

“You are the best expert on yourself,” she shares. “I help you to connect with your inner wisdom so you can identify what’s really important to you, and create your unique path to the life you love.”

// Embodiment Coaching

As a coach with a specialization in nervous system support, Joanne doesn’t offer suggestions or advice, but instead walks with you, helping you see what’s around you in new ways. She asks questions that help you think about yourself differently, supporting you as you learn about assumptions, interpretations, and limiting beliefs that may be getting in your way.

Through embodiment coaching, Joanne helps you create clarity about your values, skills, and what you really want in life, trust that you know what’s best for you, safety as you shift the boundaries of your comfort zone, power to transform obstacles into opportunities, confidence to make choices about each step on your path, and motivation to take each step with joy and curiosity.

Joanne offers various coaching packages to meet you where you are, including an in-depth and practical companion to her book and course, The Power of the Pause.

// Mindful Movement Classes

Whether you’re dealing with chronic discomfort, recovering from surgery or injury, or simply want to improve your relationship with movement, Joanne’s classes teach you how to listen to your body in a new way and work with your nervous system to safely improve mobility, stability, and pain.

Each session offers a variety of live online classes per week via Zoom, as well as access to hundreds of recorded classes available for those who prefer to practice on their own schedule. Instead of teaching a right or wrong way of doing an exercise, Joanne invites you to listen to your body and be curious about the choices you can make to fine-tune each movement according to what you’re hearing, so you can achieve your fitness goals in the way that’s most effective, comfortable, and restorative to you.

For those needing more individualized support, Joanne also offers private 1:1 Zoom sessions through Yoga Therapy. If you’ve had a recent injury or surgery and are feeling stuck and frustrated, these sessions can help you create a specific action plan to relieve pain, increase mobility, and improve stability. You’ll receive homework after each session to carry on between classes, including personalized movements to practice on your own as you heal and make the shift from rehab to fitness.

// The Power of the Pause

Joanne is the author and creator of The Power of the Pause: A Course & Workbook Towards Greater Mind-Body Connection and Improved Resilience.

Guiding readers through understanding the nervous system, how the stress reaction works, and why eliminating stress isn’t a sustainable long-term strategy, this 10-week interactive course and workbook includes questions for reflection, guided meditation, and exercises accessed via QR codes to help you get out of your head and into your body.

Rather than rules to follow, the book offers principles you can use to guide you in any situation as you improve your mind-body connection, learn to see yourself clearly, and most importantly, learn to love what you see in return.

You can see our full review in the Tools section.