In this conversation, Breathing Deeply Founder and Lead Teacher Brandt Passalacqua speaks with Maeka Wright, IAYT-certified yoga therapist, manual osteopath, and Breathing Deeply graduate, about their new course on transgender embodiment.
Maeka shares why gender diverse people often feel unseen in mainstream yoga spaces, how interoception and yoga nidra can support gender dysphoria, and why embodiment work can be the missing piece even after transition.
For many transgender and gender diverse people, the body can feel like unfamiliar territory. Years of dysphoria, of living in your head to avoid what’s happening below the neck, can create a deep disconnect between the self and physical experience.
That disconnection doesn’t automatically resolve with transition. It often needs its own dedicated work.
Yoga therapy offers something most yoga classes don’t, which is a genuinely safe environment where trans embodiment can happen at your own pace, from the inside out.
Rather than focusing on how the body looks or performs, yoga therapy turns attention inward through practices like interoception and yoga nidra, helping people develop a felt sense of their body as a place of safety rather than discomfort.
Anxiety, chronic stress, and a persistently activated nervous system are common for people who have spent years feeling at odds with their physical form. Yoga therapy addresses these at the root, working through the whole person rather than isolated symptoms.
Maeka’s course on the Breathing Deeply Wellness platform creates a community-led space specifically designed for gender diverse people, where practice can unfold without the pressure of fitting into a mainstream yoga class.
If you feel called to support others through complex physical and mental health challenges, our professional Yoga Therapy Training provides mentorship, clinical thinking skills, and whole-person education.
If you are navigating physical and/or mental health challenges, Breathing Deeply Wellness offers accessible programs rooted in yoga therapy principles to support meaningful change.
Breathing Deeply is a Yoga Therapy and Meditation School co-founded by lead teacher Brandt Passalacqua in 2011. Breathing Deeply offers two levels of certification: Foundations of Yoga Therapy and an IAYT-accredited Advanced Program, offering C-IAYT eligibility.
Other offerings include Breathing Deeply Wellness, a service-driven community of Breathing Deeply Yoga Therapists dedicated to helping the public optimize their physical, mental, and spiritual health, an annual online meditation teacher training certification, and specialized yoga therapy courses. Breathing Deeply is an active and thriving community of meditators and yogis, caregivers, therapists, teachers, medical professionals, parents & children with the same intention—to serve others, lessen suffering, and co-create a new paradigm in wellness.
Brandt talks about common questions applicants have about the Breathing Deeply Yoga Therapy Program. Tune in to get the full program details.