Wellness Discovered...
Stacy Wooster developed an awareness of health and wellness at a very young age. She discovered her love of food and nutrition early on, as her mother has been a dietitian since before she was born, and she inquired into movement and focused concentration as a competitive swimmer for eleven years. Through swimming, she developed an embodied experience of human anatomy and kinesiology, as well as how the body moves through water, something that humans explore in the womb. These experiences in the pool launched the early development of her breath and meditation practice. .
She worked as an organic gardener and restaurant staff while going to college, beginning to pay closer attention to the plants and her environment. She was lucky enough to experiment with herbs and edible flowers that grow in the Texas landscape, sparking an interest in bioregionalism or the life that thrives in a particular area and climate. Once she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 2001, she decided to dive head first into a career as a health and wellness practitioner. She enrolled in her local massage therapy school, as did another student who was pregnant. She began to work extensively with this woman during her pregnancy and Stacy’s relationship with pregnancy began.
From massage school, Stacy began working cooperatively with medical and health professionals, as she pursued employment at a medical center in Corpus Christi, focusing on pre- and post-operative patients. She provided massage as a means to help prevent surgery or to recover from it and also acted in the realm of rehabilitation through exercises, including leading aquatic therapy classes and individual sessions. From there, she began to explore spa therapies, realizing how much fun was to be had here, as well the health benefits of hydrotherapy applications.
Massage Therapy Led Directly to Yoga...
When Stacy found yoga, she first saw her practice as a way to support and complement her regular exercise routine. Over time, she realized that the depth of yoga could provide lifelong exploration and benefits beyond the physical practice. She was inspired to become a yoga instructor during her first pregnancy in 2005, enrolling in Yoga Yoga’s Hatha Teacher Training Program when her daughter was only 10 weeks old, because her yoga practice helped provide her with a way to move and adapt to her growing body and child, emotional stability, and the necessary focus, concentration and strength to birth a baby into the world. She has been able to use her yoga training in every aspect of motherhood, from being guided by the breath, to patience, to staying calm in the face of a mounting challenge. She attributes much of her successful labors to diligent yoga practice, consistent self-care through nutrition, massage and acupuncture, and the loving prenatal care of her midwife.
As a Hatha yoga instructor, Stacy begins each class with a centering and full-body warmup. The class continues with a specific focus or theme for the duration of the physical postures and ends with a restoration period, guided visualization and relaxation. These elements, combined with breathwork and meditation, take her students on a journey that can help them shift their bodies and perspectives for a more enjoyable existence.
In her prenatal classes, she assists students in understanding their changing bodies, guides them through the physical, emotional & spiritual transformations of pregnancy, and offers the space to connect with their pre-born children. She often remains in the studio after class, discussing potential ways that could help a student through an issue or simply listening to a student’s story. In addition, she has mentored several yoga teachers on prenatal anatomy and physiological changes; common ailments during pregnancy; helpful postures, techniques and adaptations; and specific contraindications.
Her most influential yoga teachers have been Donna Farhi and Amrita Choudhury; she has also studied and taken classes with Dr. Robert Svoboda, Mehtab, Mark Uridel, Christina Sell, Doug Swenson, Nischala Joy Devi, Srivatsa Ramaswami, Heather Kier, Dr. Richard Miller and many other wonderful yogis. She holds particular admiration for Ina May Gaskin and Michel Odent for their inspirational work with pregnancy, birth, and early postpartum and for their presentation of birth as a natural life process.
When the breath wanders the mind also is unsteady. But when the breath is calmed the mind too will be still, and the yogi achieves long life. Therefore, one should learn to control the breath. —Hatha Yoga Pradipika
Also a Birth and Postpartum Doula...
Also a birth and postpartum doula, Stacy began attending births in 2007 at the request of friends, family and clients. Her experience with birth ranges from homebirth to natural hospital birth to medicated hospital birth to planned caesarean. She is training with Childbirth International’s Doula Program and participates in their world wide birthing discussion group. She holds certification in Bodywork for the Childbearing Year with Kate Jordan since 2007 and assisted as a precept for this same training in 2009. She also completed the Prenatal/ Postnatal Yoga Teacher Training Program with OmMama, hosted by Leslie Lytle. In love with pregnancy, birth and postpartum, she hosts regular Birthing with Massage and Yoga workshops and Blissful Babies Infant Massage classes. She furthered her interest in women’s health through her certification in Yoga for Breast Cancer Recovery & Beyond and assists her friend and colleague, Tiffany Schreiner, with the Breast Cancer Survivor yoga group in Georgetown.
She completed the Bodyworker's Herbal Preparations Intensive, a spa and hydrotherapy training, in 2010 which renewed her interest in plants and the herb world. The following year, she enrolled and completed the six month, 200 plus hour, herbal studies program with the Wildflower School of Botanical Medicine in Austin. The program provided an in depth study on the foundations of herbal medicine, world traditions and medical systems, bioregionalism, botany and plant identification in the wild, herbal remedies and preparations, and clinical skills for working with individual clients. During that time, she apprenticed and worked in a fully-stocked apothecary with Nicole Telkes, founder, lead teacher of the school and national herbalist speaker, as well as Stephanie Berry, a doula, midwife-in-training and guest teacher for the school. She furthered this education and her clinical skills with Will Morris’s intensive on Eastern Diagnostics for Western Herbalists. Stacy has completed over 1000 hours of training in the complementary health field, including massage, yoga, and herbalism.
Stacy has been featured in the media several times, including an appearance on Corpus Christi’s Kiii’s morning health segment discussing the benefits of infant massage and postnatal yoga (2008), an interview as a yoga instructor by K-eye Austin news with a portion of her class filmed and documented (2009), and as featured yoga instructor in an article by the Williamson County Sun about bringing yoga programs to the area (2009). She has published several articles as well. The first two were award-winning articles in creative writing and writing about literature 1999. She also co-authored three articles on utilizing massage during labor, the bonding and secure attachment created through infant massage, and the benefits of prenatal yoga for Austin Pregnancy Magazine in the spring and summer of 2010.
A mother of two, Stacy enjoys spending time with family and friends and preparing gluten free delights. She can often be found working and meditating in her organic garden or in her apothecary creating herbal remedies and products. She lives and offices in Round Rock, Texas, and enthusiastically pursues her passion and purpose through family-centered life and by bringing wellness and healing to those who seek her services.
