Hands-On Assisting
Presence · Integrity · Attunement
A 4.5-hour experiential workshop for yoga students and teachers exploring compassionate, effective hands-on assisting through the lens of breath, presence, and subtle body awareness.
Rooted in the teachings of the pancha vāyus and the 8-limbed path, this workshop offers a unique approach to assisting that supports alignment, trust, nervous system awareness, and authentic embodiment—without fixing or forcing.
Participants will explore:
grounded, effective assists
physical + energetic alignment
consent and attunement
supporting flow and transitions with confidence and compassion
Together, we will cultivate a safe and supportive space for deeper connection, awareness, and evolution within the practice of yoga.
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INSTRUCTORS: Danielle Vaden Barr & Ellen Strzalkowski
DATE: Sunday, June 14th
TIME: 12:00 pm -4:30 pm
LOCATION: 3603 Portola Drive – Dance Studio
COST: Sliding Scale $88-$98-$108
Ellen and Danielle bring a combined 25+ years of teaching and assisting experience and bow deeply in gratitude to their teachers, Janet Stone and Jody Greene, whose mentorship helped shape this work as a living and evolving practice rooted in humility, compassion, and service.
Facilitator Bios:
Danielle Vaden Barr
“Pushpa” Danielle Barr is a longtime yoga and meditation teacher (500 E-RYT, RPYT) known for blending clear, grounded alignment with breath-led flow and a touch of soulful magic. Her classes are steady, heartfelt, and designed to help students feel at home in their bodies, stronger, softer, and more present from the inside out.
A devoted student of yoga and meditation, Danielle weaves in ancient teachings, simple philosophy, and chanting in a way that feels natural, uplifting, and approachable. She teaches to the whole human on both physical and subtle levels, helping students unwind habitual tension, refine alignment, and move with more clarity and curiosity.
Danielle is also a passionate lifelong learner. Her heart lives in study, always deepening her understanding of the body, breath, subtle energy, herbalism, Montessori principles, and the yogic wisdom she cherishes, along with whatever else feels alive. She brings this evolving curiosity into every class, always learning, always refining, always growing alongside her students.
Outside the studio, Danielle is an AMI Montessori educator, an evolving herbalist, a mother, and a lover of tea, cooking, music, nature, and life in the redwoods. Her teaching is warm, intuitive, playful, and always rooted in presence.
Expect thoughtful sequencing, functional alignment, breathwork, and space to land. A beautiful balance of effort and ease.
Expect to feel supported.
Expect to feel good.Pushpa also leads women’s circles, retreats, workshops, and community gatherings that inspire deeper connection, clarity, and gratitude for this beautiful, wild life.
Ellen Strzalkowski is a 500-hr certified yoga teacher, a student of Life, devotee of the Sacred, and steward of the wild world. She has been walking what her root teachers call "the path of assisting" for over twelve years: a devoted, embodied practice of “karma yoga,” sharing the teachings of yoga through skillful, compassionate space-holding and hands-on support. Alongside over fifteen years of personal practice in yoga and meditation, she has spent more than a decade in supporting her primary teacher, Janet Stone, in transmitting the teachings of yoga in Janet’s classes, trainings, and retreats, as well as through mentoring students on their yoga teacher training journeys.
Ellen found her way back to a yoga practice after a health crisis caused her to step away from her chosen career in law. Her healing journey took her first from the more physical practice of yoga asana deep into its spiritual heart, as well as into the heart of its sister traditions in zen and tantric buddhism exploring both the subtle body energetics of practice as well as the earthy rubber-meets-the-road realities of showing up in relationship, community, and to the many facets of human experience. And through it all, her assisting practice has remained a through-thread and template for how to live into and express the teachings.
For Ellen, the practice of assisting is less about offering “adjustments” to students moving through yoga postures, it is a profound orientation to the heart of the practice of yoga itself, to a life lived with presence, compassion, discernment, and embodied wisdom. This understanding infuses her approach to assisting, which she experiences not merely as a series of techniques to be learned, but as a living practice to be inhabited. She brings a deeply grounded, heartful presence, skillful touch, joy, and curiosity to every encounter, meeting each person where they are and creating a safe space for transformation. There is nothing that delights her so much as getting to share this practice with others and witness them awaken to the power of healing, supportive, aligned touch, to the place where the distinction between “giver” “receiver” and gift dissolves into Oneness.
When she is not traveling to San Francisco or Big Sur to practice with and support her teacher, she stewards close to five acres of wild oak woodland in the Santa Cruz Mountains. She is also known for the devotional altars she creates for many of the events she supports, weaving her love of the sacred into every space she inhabits.