About

First things first: My name

Larisa (La-REE-sa); rhymes with Teresa.

Koehn (Kane); as in sugar cane, walking cane, Citizen Kane.

My parents loved the movie Dr. Zhivago and wanted to name me Larisa (pronounced Lara-sa). My grandma, bless her heart, couldn’t figure that one out and resorted to calling me Lala. So, my parents switched it up to LaREEsa, and called me Lara for short.

My grandma, however, continued to call me Lala.

So, anyway, I’m Larisa.

Hi :)

Second, I’m on a mission.

The one thing I’ve learned from a lifetime of migraines and intense emotional stuff is that pain shows me exactly where and how I am out of alignment in my body, in my mind, and in my life.

When I listen to the pain versus push it away or cut myself off from it, it always brings me closer to myself.

Meeting the pain isn’t necessarily easy or pleasant but that sense of returning home to myself…. so totally worth it.

My mission, then, is to help you return home to yourself.

I so love witnessing my clients begin to nurture a relationship with their pain (whatever form their pain may take) based on kindness and gentleness.

Watching my clients walk out of pain and into who they are… wow. It’s awesome.

As we (me, my clients, you reading this) become more aligned within ourselves (as ourselves), we experience more moments of flow and ease in our lives and make more conscious decisions… which leads to my super (not-so-secret) secret mission:

To save the world.

Driving from Portland to the coast is always an emotional experience for me.

I’m excited to be visiting the ocean, to be splashing barefoot along its edges digging my feet into the sand, listening to the crash of the waves. That’s all great.

The difficult part is the drive there… seeing all the hilltops devoid of trees, left barren and abandoned due to clear-cutting.

I think of all the displaced songbirds, deer, squirrels, woodpeckers; the native plants uprooted and destroyed. I wonder how it is possible to destroy such beauty.

What I believe, what keeps me strong when filled with sadness and anger, is this:

The more aligned we are within ourselves, the more conscious our lives become.

We no longer leave trash on the beach. We pay the extra money for things made out of wood that is sustainably harvested – or simply re-use rather than buy new.

We walk more; drive less. We support (with money and time) organizations that are dedicated to sustaining and restoring our remaining natural ecosystems. We find ourselves drawn to work that is aligned with our values and that allow us to nurture and protect our wild, diverse, beautiful planet – whether directly or indirectly.

Aligning my life with my values. It’s a process. :)

I trust that the more I am willing to work with and listen to the patterns of pain and distress in my life, the quicker and more naturally my life will become aligned.

So, that’s the larger, underlying mission – to learn to love myself more so that I can love you more so that we can love each other and this beautiful planet we live on… more.

Credentials

  • I am an Ortho-Bionomy Practitioner. Click here to read about the trainings, mentorships, and other coursework involved in becoming a practitioner of this little known and infinitely profound approach to both interacting with pain and to living life in general.
  • Specialized training in trauma resolution, working with headaches, whiplash, chronic pain, PTSD, injuries sustained in auto accidents, athletic endeavors, etc.
  • Shiva Nata (Dance of Shiva) Instructor. Shiva Nata is the most fun, playful way I know to learn about yourself and to work with your patterns. It’s brain training, balance training, and coordination (both mental and physical) training all rolled into one beautiful, flowing form of standing yoga.As my teacher, Havi Brooks, so eloquently puts it: “It’s like drugs for your brain that make you smart and hot.” (Yay!)
  • Certified as an Instructor of Chinese Internal Martial Arts (TaijiQuan, XinYi, and Qi Gong) and Pilates mat-work.
  • Trained in multiple approaches to self-care – for the body, for the mind, for the emotions.
  • 10+ years experience working with 100s people dealing with chronic pain, emotional distress and difficult life transitions.
  • 25+ years interacting with, learning about, and being with my own pain.