Josephine grew up babysitting and began practicing yoga in her home state of Maine when she was 14 – she is now based in NYC!  She completed a year-long 200HR Yoga Teacher Training at Kusum Institute in Maine and has since been teaching privately and in groups in the US and abroad.  Josephine’s at-home Curated Care yoga sessions aim to bring families together in a fun and relaxing way. Who knows, this could be your new favorite family activity! In this practice, the unique creativity and energy of kids is paired with focus and physical engagement that serves everyone in the room! Read our interview with Josephine to learn more about how yoga can benefit you and your kiddos!

Hi Josephine! Where are you from and what brought you to NYC?

I grew up in the lovely, nature-filled state of Maine!  But from the time I was a kid, I was bitten by the bug of NYC!  I went to Emerson College in Boston where I studied Theatre and Health Communication and traveled up to Maine for a year on the weekends doing my Yoga Teacher Certification.  When I finished college, I knew that NYC was the perfect place to explore both the performing and healing arts!  Now I am wonderfully overwhelmed with all there is for me to experience and learn as an artist and Yoga Teacher here in the city, as I am always hungry to soak in as much as I can!

How did you get into yoga? Can you share a childhood story?

I went to my first Yoga class when I was fourteen- so almost ten years ago!  The inspiration to begin is a bit of a sad memory, but it lead me to so much positivity: At that time I was experiencing grief for the first time when a friend and mentor of mine passed away.  She had been a yogi and I thought that perhaps Yoga could be my way to honor her passing.  It then proceeded to become a healing and deeply enjoyable practice that is central in my life and is now one of my favorite ways to share myself with others as a teacher.

You had a Family Yoga Curated Care Experience on the site and completed a dozen bookings. How did they go?

The bookings have been wonderful, and I am so grateful to have several families now working with me every week!  I LOVE this job because every single session is so different because I meet the family where they are at.  I have my plan, but my actor brain also loves to embrace the session as a careful, playful improvisation of imagination!  I love to find the perfect way for each kid to learn Yoga.  For some, it’s working with animals; others superheroes like Star Wars or Moana!  The session is truly tailored to the family on the fly.  And when we work together over time, it continues to deepen as I plan specifically for the family.

For families looking to book you for Family Yoga, what can they expect during the session?

You can expect your entire family to have a playful time with poses and also to have some Yoga history and philosophy thrown in the mix- as well as breathing!  I wrote an 80-page thesis on breath so I can’t help it!  Breath practice is helpful in life on and off the mat, so I always find fun ways to educate about it (for example, breathing like dragons, lions, or making the sound of the ocean).  Kids will learn a few Sanskrit words and likely a bit about compassion for each other and their parents.  You can also expect partner poses with the parents and a period where the parents relax and the kids learn some gentle, compassionate hands-on adjustments they can do on their parents when they’ve had a long day.  I always hope that the session will inform the week for the family.  After all, Yoga is about exercise, but even more so about cultivating practices of self-care and kindness for others.

What do you think is the benefit of hiring a Kid Expert vs a traditional babysitter?

With a Kid Expert, you can be absolutely positive that you are hiring a professional who is passionate about the safety and education of your kids.  I am honored to use my skills as an artist and educator to make child-care consistently engaging and educational.  I even have families who have switched to Kid Experts instead of after-school programs because they know that their kids won’t be coming home and watching TV.  They will be engaged in narrative play, reading stories, music, dance, Yoga, art, science, you name it- all from the comfort of their own home where they won’t be exhausted by the time the parents get home, but hopefully rejuvenated!

What are you most looking forward to in the future?

I am looking forward to embracing my identity as an artist and educator in this big, challenging, beautiful city.  And at this moment, Family Yoga is a big part of that process.  This job is bringing me great joy and it is exciting every day to see kids and parents choose to do a healthy, fun, educational experience together that I have the privilege of curating.  As my calendar fills with more and more weekly families- I will continue to be ever so grateful to be invited in to share my practice!  It is also important to me that this service is available to all families whom it will serve, so I look forward to meeting families where they are at in terms of a comfortable and sustainable investment for continued Yoga practice with me!

Book Josephine for a yoga session here.