Hands-On Assisting
Presence · Integrity · Attunement
A 4.5-hour experiential workshop for yoga teachers and students wishing to deepen their understanding of both physical and subtle body alignment through the practice of compassionate hands-on assisting.
This workshop offers a unique approach to hands-on assisting rooted in curiosity and compassionate support as opposed to fixing or correcting. Grounded in the teachings of the pancha vāyus and the 8-limbed path, this offering invites students and teachers alike to utilize intentional touch, grounded presence, and subtle energetic awareness to support alignment, spaciousness, and awakening not only within the bodies of those they touch but also in their own bodies and practice. Through presence, integrity and attunement,, we will explore how assisting can become an extension of the yoga practice itself: a dialogue rooted in trust, compassion, and deep listening.
Throughout the workshop, participants will:
Establish a grounded and embodied foundation for assisting
Explore a “support, not fix” philosophy
Practice clear and effective assists in foundational postures and transitioning flow
Deepen awareness of physical and subtle body alignment
Learn how to support others while caring for their own body and energy
Explore consent, trust, autonomy, and attunement in modern yoga spaces
Together, we create a safe and supportive environment where practitioners can deepen their connection to offering hands-on assists with greater ease, awareness, confidence, and authenticity, allowing each individual’s practice to evolve from the inside out.
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.
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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.