Areola Area

The Areola was founded in 2005 by DeAnna Batdorff as a grass-roots initiative to provide proper education and empower women around their breast, womb and lymphatic health.  With thousands of women seen and supported this holistic care has provided a backbone to our community.  In 2017, with DeAnna’s blessing,  The Areola made its way to the SWG community.   

The Areola is a passionate group of women committed to the path of  empowering and educating women on holistic breast and womb health. We come from a variety of modalities and backgrounds and hold a deep understanding of Ayurvedic lymphatic massage.  We will be teaching women how to explore, map and understand the terrain of their reproductive systems and learn their symptoms and how to respond with holistic self care techniques.  We will be offering COMPLIMENTARY holistic breast checks and internal pelvic floor care  within the safe container of our wellness yurt throughout the gathering to women who are interested in opening a deeper conversation with their breast and pelvic floor health.  This can be a deeply profound, and often emotional experience as we re-awaken this deeply intuitive aspect of our bodies, and learn, maybe for the first time, how to truly listen to what our bodies are telling us about our health. We offer a compassionate and safe space for women to explore their bodies and move through whatever may arise.

Women who are interested in receiving a breast or pelvic floor session will have the opportunity to enter our raffle Thursday evening after the opening ceremony and winners will be selected  and posted Thursday night.  We will be offering raffle breast and pelvic sessions on Friday, Saturday mornings during the morning class session, and raffle winners will have a chance to sign up for their desired timeslot.  Each woman who is selected from the raffle will receive a complimentary 30 minute breast or  pelvic floor session as well as empowerment and education around their unique self-care needs.We are in deep gratitude to the traditions of Ayurveda and all of our teachers for the deep wisdom of these offerings. May we continue to pass on this knowledge to all women everywhere!  

Beyond the complimentary raffled time slots women are able to book directly and sign up daily with practitioners for afternoon / evening time slots. These are offered at a sliding scale donation $60-100.  The Areola has been supporting the growing Spiritweavers community for 8 years now.  In addition to our hands on breast and pelvic floor offerings we will be offering deep dive workshops from our seasoned practitioners through the Aryuvedic lens empowering women around their breast health & this year welcoming Kate Coletti offering internal pelvic floor sessions as well as teaching Breast, Belly & Bowl.  

We are also excited to share for the first time the class Herbal Care + Bodywork Techniques for Infants & Children by Melina Rodriguez Demakas as well as  From Squirrel to Soup, a class by Abigail Hinds.

Please visit Sun/ Moon Friday Morning / Saturday  Afternoon  schedule for our workshop’s times & description. 

SHERI NELSEN

Sheri Nelsen started supporting women’s healing processes through the art of hairstyling in 1983. Her charismatic personality, good nature and open hearted friendliness creates a safe place for women to release. In 2009 Sheri was guided to study with Deanna Batdorff at the Dhyana Centers Ayurvedic School in Sebastopol. After her training was complete she was on staff at the original Areola area inside the Northern California Herbal Symposium for 8 years. Sheri decided to bring her love for Breast care to the Spirit Weavers Gathering in 2018. Sheri is an experienced guide, passionate about empowering each woman on how to care for their breasts facilitating a deeper understanding and awareness of how their emotions are connected to transformational healing. After supporting The Areola at The Spirit Weavers Gathering for the past 4 years, she is stepping in as hub lead.

Herbal Training: Donna D’Terra of Yerba Women in Willits CA

Jane Bothwell of Dandelion Herbals in Bayside, Eureka

Bodywork Training : Harbin Hot Springs

Coeur d’Alene Massage School

Ayurvedic Breast Practitioner – 8 years on staff at the Women’s Herbal Symposium with Deanna Batdorff at the Areola

RAE RODRIGUEZ

Rae was born in the Mojave Desert and is currently residing in West Sonoma County. She is a mother, bodyworker, herbalist, Ayurvedic wellness counselor, and artist. Her path towards Ayurveda and the healing arts began during her first yoga teacher training in 2009. After completing YTT 200hr through Western Yoga College she traveled to Oregon to complete an Herbaculture Internship Program at The Herb Pharm, a rigorous and intensive immersion into herbalism and the cultivation of medicinal plants. This is where she was introduced to Ayurvedic plant medicine which led her to relocate to Sebastopol to deepen her studies. She has studied Ayurveda with her teacher, DeAnna Batdorff, through The dhyana Center now known as dhyana Essentials for the last eleven years. While at the dhyana Center, she held many roles, including working as a practitioner in the Treatment center and managing the Medicine Making department. Rae is now immersed in her motherhood journey and her part-time private practice in Sebastopol specializing in prenatal/postpartum bodywork and lymphatic care. As a practitioner, she is passionate about supporting others through integrative bodywork as well as living in devotion and service to the innate healing abilities that we each possess. Her completed studies include The Dhyana Center’s Ayurvedic Clinical Program, Ayurvedic Bodywork Techniques, Ayurvedic Subtle Bodywork Therapies, Ayurvedic Diagnostic Tools, Aromatherapy Intensive, Herb Pharm Herbaculture Internship 2011, Northern California Women’s Herbal Symposium Areola Clinic Practitioner for eight years, Spirit Weavers Areola Clinic Practitioner for four years, Evolutionary Herbalism’s Vitalist Herbal Practitioner program, Introduction to Ayurveda and Self Assessment and Traditional Medicinal Preparations with Dr. Liladhar Gupta at Dhanvantari Dham in Vrindavan, India, National Holistic Institute (900 hr) Massage Therapy Program, Western Yoga College YTT 200hr, RCC Christie Hall YTT 200hr, IrieYoga YTT 200hr, Zen Hospice Mindful Caregiving, Advanced Prenatal Massage at Institute for Integrative Healthcare, and Holistic Pelvic Care™ Practitioner program with Tami Kent.

Teaching Sun Session – ” Breast Health & The Lymphatic System” & “Herbal Baby & Infant Care”

raemelinabodywork.com

IG @raemelina

ABIGAIL HINDS

Abigail is a wisdom keeper of feminine healing lineages that nourish the life-giving powers of the womb, heart and soul. Her offerings support women to embody the wild roots of their fertility and open to the wellspring of their feminine magic. She specializes in therapeutic breast massage, supporting the lymph rivers to flow freely and the breasts to receive the nourishment they need. She also offers womb healing in collaboration with the whales, including internal pelvic massage and spiritual bathing. As a weaver and artist Abigail creates medicinal animal medicine adornments and woven jewelry. She is a song carrier, animal communicator and ambassador of the unseen realms of spirit. She incorporates animal medicine, sound healing, plant & flower medicine, and somatic embodiment into all of her offerings.

Teaching Sun Session WOMB WEAVING “ foundational womb health & reclamation &  “ SQUIRREL to SOUP step by step process of turning a dead squirrel into a nourishing soup.

Teaching Moon Session “ BREAST LOVE “ lymphatic health and our breasts & “ SQUIRREL to SOUP step by step process of turning a dead squirrel into a nourishing soup.

Website: whalewombweaving.com

IG: @whalewombweaving

KATE COLETTI

Kate has been a dedicated student and practitioner of manual healing modalities since 2001, a prenatal yoga teacher & birth educator since 2005, and began catching babies as a Licensed Midwife in California in 2007.

Her advanced training includes Holistic Pelvic Care™ with Tami Kent, Pelvic Rehabilitation with Herman & Wallace, Visceral Manipulation with Barral Institute, Craniosacral Therapy with Hugh Milne, and Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy with Rosita Arvigo.Today, she has a full-time healing practice that helps women restore pelvic health through gentle intravaginal manual therapy that effectively relieves pelvic symptoms while clairvoyantly tapping into the well of wisdom that resides in every woman’s root.

Kate’s private practice is based in Sonoma, CA, though she loves to take her workshops and healing offerings to women’s gatherings and retreat settings around the world.Teaching Breast, Belly & Bowl (Moon Session)

www.katecoletti.com

@wildwomanwellness