Today we’d like to introduce you to Summer Greenlees
Hi Summer, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
In 1994, while pregnant with my first child, I attended a Prenatal Yoga class at “The Yoga House” in Austin, with Shannon Potts. In that first class,
Shannon guided me to tune in within myself, and to witness the light of my soul and the light of my child within, both shining together in this body. It was in that moment that I knew what I wanted to dedicate my life to.
I studied Hatha, Prenatal, and Postpartum yoga with Shannon until she certified me to teach yoga in 1997.
Shannon’s small studio, Rolling Hills Yoga, was a sacred space of community where expecting mothers and moms with babies came for the nourishment of sharing time together, in a sacred and comfortable space, learning about yoga resources for Maternity.
While working with Shannon and her students, I went to massage therapy school, and I became a licensed massage therapist in 1998.
Ever since those days, whenever I learn more about our bodies, health, anatomy etc, as was my experience in massage therapy school, I am constantly pointed back to the wisdom of yoga. I learn more about how and why yoga is beneficial the more I learn about anatomy, physiology, and different healing modalities I have been studying and practicing over the last 30 years.
My services and professional experiences from 1997 until today include; Hatha Yoga and Yoga for the childbearing year, Bodywork including Myofacial release, Shiatsu, Ashiatsu or Deep Feet Therapy, and Maternity Specialties.
I also have 12 years experience as a Birth Doula, supporting moms and families with yoga and massage therapy resources specifically supportive for Mothers.
In addition, I have been a Watsu Practitioner for 15 years. Watsu is Aquatic Bodywork, given in body temperature water. I also enjoy sharing aquatic somatic yoga, breath, and meditation practices in warm therapy pools. I have found these to be so valuable as a Yoga teacher and practitioner, Bodyworker, Doula, and a useful way to explore developmental movement Repatterning, a foundational somatic practice that I apply within my yoga classes and private yoga and massage therapy sessions.
Yoga is the consistent foundation, heart and thread within and throughout all of the work that I do, although it may look like I practice various modalities, they are all inter related and supportive of each other around the consistent holistic principles of Yoga practice and way of living.
The somatic practice of developmental movement Repatterning is a common, interweaving thread which is present within my work. I invoke aquatic somatic awareness on land in my yoga and bodywork sessions, as a common theme and a fascia- centric approach.
Our fascia is fluid and it is a connecting and interconnecting medium of wholeness which is accessible to engage with in yoga and bodywork on land and in water.
Watsu sessions are provided currently in Lockhart and Wimberly, until an Austin Therapy Pool is established.
In May of 2024, I returned to the location in Austin where I had my first job as an LMT in 1998, Nina Day Spa on Burnet road. After over 20 years of developing my career and studies in other locations, the Nina Spa owners created a yoga room at their location for me to have a place to teach small group classes and hold private yoga therapy sessions.
My studio is called Austin Soma Yoga Shala and it is inside the location of Nina Day Spa and Acupuncture.
I am delighted to be able to return home to my roots, re creating the safe and cozy yoga- learning environment that my first teacher so generously and lovingly demonstrated, while offering my services in the location in which my career began, with people that reflect a diverse community and offer rich medicinal and supportive health services with Traditional Chinese Medicine.
As it was in the beginning, I believe that practices that help us connect with our light, are key to experiencing resilience when moving through dark and challenging moments of life. And especially as a mother I understand the importance of focusing on these practices that connect us with the light within, so that we will always be a beacon to our children, so they won’t get lost in the dark. That is my personal motivation, anyways.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I have always been the main financial support for myself and my three children.
Things are not very predictable as an entrepreneur. it’s a very go-with-the-flow, as well as grind-and-do-it-all, way of life. But it is a way of life that is fueled by endless passion and fascination. I am always curious and engaged with my work. I am often in awe as I continue to learn more about health and wellness, about yoga, anatomy, movement, dance, and Aquatic healing modalities.
I am driven by my path. It has me like I’m along for the ride.
My greatest challenges have been regarding administrative tasks required for small business owners and entrepreneurs. As a neurodivergent individual, it is a challenge. I have learned that the necessary accommodation is to ask for help and receive support. Even neurodivergent challenges aside, having to wear all of the hats as a small business owner, is a lot for anyone.
Parenting and single parenting require a lot of focus and energy, dancing with the balance of this and entrepreneurship presents a hefty challenge. I have learned that the key is community. And I am so grateful to be embedded in such an authentic, diverse, and supportive community at the place of business where I offer my work.
Now that I have an additional helper for my website and newsletters, I expect to continue to gain traction in creating a supportive learning environment for the healing and therapeutic self care practices of yoga and somatic bodywork.
In addition, I now have the support of my adult child living at home and helping with my younger child. It truly takes a village.
The road is getting smoother as I have more support, connections, and experience after 30 years in this profession.
I am grateful for all of the challenges and lessons that have taught me what need to know today.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Austin Soma Yoga Shala is my private yoga therapy and small group class, boutique yoga studio.
The word Shala means home in Sanskrit, it is also used to describe a dedicated space of learning, a yoga shala meaning something like a martial arts dojo, where students study with a teacher and education is the focus.
A studio is typically more of a place of fitness and is centered more around customer service and often times consumerism.
The word Soma is a Vedic word describing an inner elixir of immortality or health and resilience energy that is accessed through deep meditation practices. Soma is also the Vedic name for a plant medicine used by the first shamans in ancient ritual practices.
The word Soma is also used by Thomas Hanna, who created Hanna Somatics. He was the first person to use the word Soma to describe the experience of the body from within.
In my experience, I use the word Soma and Somatics to describe engaging with embodied awareness with an inside out approach.
Somatic yoga from my perspective, means practicing yoga with an inside out approach, building and refining skills that help us to move and breath with organic support and alignment, with stability and ease, from the vantage point of our wholeness.
The unique setting of a small group cohort or private learning environment, with the emphasis of study being to refine our process of inner perception, tend to our bodies with therapeutic movements, and calming and settling the mind with meditation, there is no comparison to the other bodies in the room, there’s no blind allegiance to some irrelevant or idealistic form, each student may need a different inquiry or modification to better fit their needs.
Rather than a cookie cutter approach, the objective is to provide a safe and comfortable environment in which students can engage with their process of self discovery, and together we co create a customized, somatic yoga practice that meets the needs of the individual clients needs and wellness goals.
The small group cohort learning environment, somatic approach, class series’s and workshop offerings provide something that only a small Shala environment can provide. And this is something I think we need more of, especially today; the opportunity to connect with a deep home of spaciousness and freedom within ourselves, and the experience of a safe and supportive community with which we can relax, heal, learn, grow, and thrive, together.
Quality connection can be a rare gem and a relevant medicine in our world today.
Another aspect of my services that sets me apart from others in my profession is my experience as a childbirth professional and Mom of 3.
In 2013 I was awarded “Best Massage Therapist” from the Austin Birth Awards.
Having worked in Prenatal Yoga since my first pregnancy at age 19, and having worked with hundreds of birthing moms from diverse backgrounds and cultures, I have learned a lot from my clients and the doctors, nurses, and midwives who care for them. I feel confident in my ability to be a supportive resource for Women during the childbearing years and beyond.
Another unique specialty that I receive great joy in giving, is Aquatic Bodywork for disabled clients.
Working with wheelchair bound clients in therapy pool settings is so enriching for me, I can hardly believe I get paid to have such a beautiful experience with people in water.
Postural Rehabilitation through Somatic work and developmental movement Repatterning within a therapeutically focused yoga practice is not something you come across every day, it is certainly not a mainstream offering and it is not in line with current trends and fads. But I think this is exactly the kind of business and offering that is appropriate today. It’s time for us to emphasize inner awareness and compassion as being of higher priority than poses and appearances. Less is more.
Less people in the class, less poses to move through, we get to unwind and arrive deeply with ourselves.
In this way we can learn to fill our own cups, and then moving forward in daily life, we are more connected with ourselves, more well resourced to rise with true resilience and equipped with tools with which we can refil our cups on a daily basis and move about in the world well resourced, compassionate and responsible- in service of the greatest good for everyone.
That is the idea, anyway.
I think that some of the things that I am
most proud of include; maintaining consistency as a student with teachers that are profoundly inspiring and uplifting, and I am proud of the fact that I have centered my life in work that nourishes me and engages me.
What I want readers to know is that a personalized somatic yoga practice can be a resource for their resilience and something that they draw from in everyday life for nourishment, healing, and transformation.
They can be an active, co participant in their learning journey, they can explore options that are customized for them, Students don’t have to look any certain way to do yoga “right” and they certainly do not need to be flexible.
What I am most proud of brand wise is my unique training and skill set.
I have the great fortune of having been able to study with three teachers for well over 15 – 20 years who are international master teachers.
Donna Farhi is a strong teacher for me. Her work began influencing me in the late 90s when I began teaching, and my first teacher with whom I apprenticed with to learn to teach yoga and I would add Donna’s articles from the Yoga Journal to our reference pages that we kept about yoga asana practice.
I am proud that my yoga instructor training is so strongly influenced by Donna. I have twice completed her teacher training programs and I have been honored to be asked to be Donna’s assistant on numerous occasions while she is in the US on teaching tour.
I’m also proud to be a student of Amrita Choudhury, International Master Teacher of Nrityoga, the Yoga of Dance, Mudra Vigan, Energy anatomy, and the ancient, sacred healing arts of India.
I brought Amrita to Texas to be a presenter at the Texas Yoga Retreat in October of 2024, and organized several events and workshops for her to teach while she was here in Austin.
I feel it is important to promote and support representation and diversity in Yoga by learning from and publicizing Indian yoga teachers who share teachings that are compassionate and holistic.
The practice of Nrityoga is transmitted from the last sacred temple dancers in India and incorporates every part of the body and each aspect of our whole being. It is a profoundly healing and transformative practice, and also vibrant and full of joy. There is nothing else like it.
I am engaged in study with Amrita and hope to be able to share Nrityoga with Austin after maybe another year or two’s time.
I have been continuing my studies regularly in Watsu and Aquatic Bodywork with Ahara Vatter for around 15 years. Ahara is one of the first generation, original teachers of Watsu and has extensive experience and training with the founders of Watsu and Healing Dance. Ahara teaches international and visits Austin on teaching tours often.
By far, my “Yoga Renewal ” somatic Yoga Fundamentals class series, and my Watsu services, are the two offerings that I have that are the most beneficial and hold immense value and potential as transformative, healing, and restorative modalities.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
In order to have a personal yoga practice that is nourishing, we must cultivate the ability to sense and feel within, to listen to the body and respond accordingly, engaging with our interoceptive nervous system.
As a bodyworker who works with the fascia, listening is the language of the fascia- in order for the fascia to become engaged and move towards flow when it is stuck or in a more solid state of its viscous nature, listening through touch is required. Our fascia is a sensory organ so I say we can listen with and listen to our fascia.
Once the open field of listening and presence is established, flow can return.
It usually reruns of its own, natural wisdom, this requires that we “do” less, so as not to get in the way.. and once surrender of will and initiative have dissolved into the field of total presence and listening- the natural wisdom of the body begins to flow- when this, deep, uninhibited opportunity arises for the fascia, it will move and if we can remain present listeners and follow the natural movement of our fascia, we can follow a thread of moving into optimal flow which is optimal wellness for fascia.
So the art of listening is a required skill in my work.
As a teacher, I have to listen to the students and if I want be an effective teacher. I cannot presume or assume what someone’s internal state is.
Consistency has been a quality that has helped me. I have consistently stayed with the care of health and holistic well being of my body, and healthy lifestyle as the central tenant and priority of my personal and professional life.
That doesn’t mean perfection by any means, it just means I am glad I have not wavered in placing this emphasis as the primary importance and imperative in my world. I continue to return this central premise as a life long theme and I am grateful for that.
Pricing:
- Small Group yoga classes, 25.00 for 75 min. Classes. Maximum students per class – 4
- 100.00 private yoga class – 75 min
- Watsu 150.00 per 1 hr. session- subject to change based on pool location.
- Body Conscious Childbirth Prep Workshop for Expecting couples. 250.00-2.5 hr workshop
- Yoga Renewal Series of classes- between 300-800.00 based on different series plans and customizations
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.summergreenlees.com
- Instagram: @summergreenlees
- Facebook: Summer Greenlees
- LinkedIn: Summer Greenlees
- Youtube: @summergreenlees
- Yelp: https://yelp.to/Y_zV5OwrO2
- Other: https://linktr.ee/summergreenlees?utm_source=linktree_admin_share
Image Credits
Photography for 3 headshots- credit to my friend Jenny Sladek for her help.
The model in one of the images is April Winsbury, my Massage Therapy office mate.
