I believe people want to feel at home in their own skin and have fulfilling lives, but they just don't know how to actually do it.
That’s where I come in.
After over twenty years of teaching, coaching, immersing myself in personal practice and geeking out on research, I’ve created a body of work that truly helps people to get out of their own way and to be who they are without the self-doubt, self-criticism and the added stress and anxiety.
Sometimes it seems silly and heartbreaking to me that we don’t just naturally know how to do this. But the more experience I’ve developed, the more I’ve come to appreciate just how many odds are stacked against us really being there for ourselves and being resilient. There are a whole slew of neurobiological, cultural and relational odds that make it hard for us to turn toward ourselves with empathy and to show up as ourselves with confidence and integrity in our work and relationships.
Because of that, the approach to learning how to stay with yourself and experience wellbeing has to be interdisciplinary and address the whole person. My work, then, is a blend of mindfulness, embodiment practices and psychological theories from different therapeutic modalities, all approached through the lens of Polyvagal Theory.
In short, Polyvagal Theory is all about how to consciously work with yourself at the level of your nervous system. And because the nervous system so profoundly influences how we behave and the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and the world around us, I’ve found that the foundation of any growth process is understanding how to work with it in a way that is conscious and embodied.
I consider myself an expert at helping people have their own back and care for, trust in and be who they are not because I’m naturally very good at it myself, but because I used to be so very, very bad at it and now I’m pretty damn decent.
Empathy is my super power. That means I’m awesome at my job because I am really good at sensing the feelings of other people by imagining myself in their situation or their lives. It also means that things like setting boundaries, managing big emotions and knowing how to be true to myself around other people have been hard won because my default setting is to orient myself to other peoples’ needs, comfort and thoughts about me.
Who I am is influenced by the professional experiences I’ve had—everything from teaching yoga, working with adjudicated youth in wilderness therapy programs, being a rock climbing guide and a rites of passage guide and working with thousands of people around the world as a somatic coach and corporate trainer.
Who I am is also influenced by my commitment to my own continual learning and growth, which I’ve sought through over two decades of practicing yoga and meditation and working with therapists and coaches, and a lifetime of reading anything I can get my hands on. Most recently I’ve found the greatest sense of freedom, joy and a connection to something true in myself through a passion for riding motorcycles.
Whoever you are and no matter what you’re searching for personally or professionally, I suspect you’ve figured out by now that getting it isn’t solely a cerebral activity. If it were, you would have already aced it. Because I suspect you’re smart and sensitive and, despite being mostly happy with your life, you have some ways that you continually feel tripped up from the inside out despite years of mindfulness practices or therapy, or both.
The good news is you do have the internal resources you need to be who you are and to have a life and work that feels true to you.
When you’re ready to unlock your access to those resources, I'm here to help.
The official bio
Jay Moon Fields, M.A. is a leading educator, coach and author. Over a half million people have taken her courses featured on LinkedIn Learning, and her book Teaching People Not Poses has sold over ten thousand copies and is used by yoga teacher training programs globally. For over twenty years, she has taught the principles and practices of embodied social and emotional intelligence to individuals and groups from Patagonia, Wieden + Kennedy, Apple, the UN, UC Santa Barbara, and Cottage Hospital. Jay has been a guest on over 30 podcasts and was named one of the top 50 health and wellness bloggers making a difference in the world by Greatist.com. Jay has been a featured speaker at GoPro, Baker Tilly, The Fifteen Seconds Festival and the Omega Institute. She received her BA in Psychosocial Health and Human Movement from the College of William and Mary and her masters in Integral Transformative Education from Prescott College.