Mixchel Tupko 

I am a long-time student of the Yogas, outer, inner and secret. I have practiced for many years within traditional (mostly) female-led tantric lineages and this life path fundamentally informs my way of working, guiding and perceiving the world.  I spend significant time in personal retreat and teach the path of yogic meditation in small group settings as well as one to one mentoring. I am also an accomplished Thai Bodywork practitioner and teacher, and have lived and studied in Thailand, as well as having studied Yoga therapy in India and spent much time in meditation and on pilgrimage there in the yogic motherland.

Over time, increasing subtlety and sensitivity to energy led me to the practice of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy. I studied in England at the Karuna Institute with Franklyn Sills, one of the founders of the Biodynamic Craniosacral work , and a team of amazing women teachers, headed by Tanya Desfontaines of 5^th World Cranio, which weaves shamanic practice with the depths of the Biodyamnic understanding. It was here at the Karuna Institute that I first met the practice of Focusing as a way to introduce verbal interaction with clients while they are held in the space of stillness and potency in a craniosacral session…and to help them stay in contact with the felt sense in the soma while using language.

I have also studied shamanic work and earth-based spiritual path for many years, most formally and recently with my mentor in the Womb Shamanism path at Song of Sophia, a plant-taught, womb-wise lineage of attunement to the light of nature. My work is connected to and honoring of this embodied life lived on the earth, within the cycles of the natural world of which we are an intrinsic part, with full acknowledgement of the living web of Life we ARE.

I also hold an MFA in Sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where I explored collaborative movement and performance with other humans. Movement and embodiment are center points of my practice, sessions and guidance.

I come to Focusing in the context of all of these explorations and lineages. Focusing brings the Ground  -- a ground of tenderness, presence, accompaniment and compassion that I find serves to deepen all of my other practices. Focusing is a very accessible basis for the body, mind, spirit and soul work I offer in session and group classes in the other lineages and traditions mentioned above. I am currently working towards my certification as Focusing Trainer in the Learning Community under the loving guidance of Sandy Jahmi Burg.