Work With Marlene

Healing Arts, Education and Community-Centered Experiences

I collaborate with schools, universities, cultural institutions, organizations, artists, businesses, and community groups to create experiences that support connection, reflection, learning, rest, creativity, and care.

My work draws from more than a decade of teaching yoga and meditation, nearly two decades across education and community care, and extensive training in trauma-informed, therapeutic, youth-centered, and choice-based practices.

Through movement, mindfulness, sound meditation, writing, ritual, curriculum, and facilitated conversation, I create thoughtful experiences that respond to the people, purpose, and setting of each partnership.

Based in Boston, I am available for local and national workshops, residencies, retreats, speaking engagements, trainings, consultations, and creative collaborations.

Schools, Youth and Educational Communities

My foundation as an educator deeply informs how I enter learning environments. After thirteen years as an early childhood educator, followed by a decade as a full-time yoga and meditation teacher in a Boston elementary school, I understand that meaningful wellness programming must be developmentally responsive, culturally aware, sustainable, and connected to the life of the community.

I work with preschool, elementary, middle school, high school, and university communities.

Offerings may include:

• Yoga, mindfulness and sound meditation for students
• Multi-week classes and artist or wellness residencies
• Social-emotional learning through movement and reflection
• Affinity and identity-aware wellness spaces
• Programs supporting transitions, stress, grief and community connection
• Faculty and staff professional development
• Parent and caregiver workshops
• Custom curriculum and school-wide wellness programming

Programs can be adapted for individual classrooms, grade levels, student groups, faculty communities, retreats, conferences, and full-school experiences.

Staff, Faculty and Organizational Wellbeing

The wellbeing of staff, faculty, administrators, and organizational leaders directly shapes the environments they help create.

I design experiences that allow adults to pause, regulate, reflect, reconnect with themselves, and consider more sustainable ways of moving through their work. These offerings acknowledge participants as whole people with lived experiences, cultural identities, knowledge, responsibilities, and needs of their own.

Offerings may include:

• Trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness
• Sound meditation and intentional rest
• Staff and faculty wellness workshops
• Retreats and restoration spaces
• Burnout prevention and sustainable care practices
• Programs supporting workplace transition or change
• Affinity and identity-aware wellness spaces
• Customized conference and convening experiences

Sessions may be offered as individual workshops, recurring series, retreats, residencies, or integrated organizational wellness programs.

Curriculum, Training and Consultation

I support schools, educators, wellness practitioners, and organizations in developing programming that is accessible, trauma-informed, culturally aware, choice-centered, and grounded in care.

Drawing from my experience building and teaching yoga and mindfulness curriculum from preschool through sixth grade, working with adolescents, supporting affinity spaces, and facilitating across institutional settings, I help organizations move from broad wellness intentions toward thoughtful and sustainable practice.

This work may include:

• Curriculum development and review
• Preschool through twelfth-grade yoga and mindfulness programming
• Professional development for educators and facilitators
• Trauma-informed and choice-centered teaching practices
• Social-emotional learning integration
• Identity-aware wellness programming
• Program design and implementation support
• Consultation for schools developing new wellness initiatives

Consultation can support a new program, strengthen existing work, or help an organization develop a longer-term approach to wellness and community care.

Residencies, Cultural Programming and Artistic Collaboration

My practice also lives at the intersection of healing arts, education, sound, movement, ritual, writing, plants, place, and community gathering.

I collaborate with artists, museums, galleries, universities, cultural institutions, public spaces, and creative organizations to develop participatory experiences that people can inhabit rather than simply observe.

Collaborative possibilities may include:

• Artist and wellness residencies
• Sound meditation and sound-based installations
• Movement and embodied reflection
• Site-responsive rituals and seasonal ceremonies
• Tea, herbs and sensory experience
• Writing, storytelling and facilitated reflection
• Public wellness programming
• Exhibition and performance accompaniment
• Community altars and participatory installations
• Interdisciplinary workshops and gatherings

I welcome opportunities to contribute to an existing project or to co-create a new experience from its earliest stages.

Community Care and Signature Experiences

Community building has always been at the heart of my work. Before I entered education and wellness, I created and produced live music events that brought artists and communities together. That desire to help people feel welcomed, supported, connected, and able to access what they need continues to shape every experience I create.

My signature and community-centered work includes Yoga for Us, Grief & Praise, Curating Calm, healing circles, sound meditation, intentional rest experiences, and gatherings created around movement, writing, ritual, tea, joy, reflection, and collective care.

These experiences can be presented in their existing form or thoughtfully adapted in collaboration with an organization or community.

How Collaborations Take Shape

Each partnership begins with a conversation about your community, audience, intention, setting, timeframe, accessibility needs, and available resources. From there, I can recommend an existing offering or develop a customized workshop, series, residency, retreat, training, or interdisciplinary experience.

Custom proposals are developed after an initial conversation.

Selected Partners and Collaborators

My work has been trusted by schools, universities, museums, cultural institutions, public agencies, healthcare organizations, businesses, artists, and grassroots communities.

Selected partners and collaborators include:

Harvard University and Harvard Ed Portal

MIT

Purdue University

Hult International Business School

Boston College and Pine Manor Institute

Northeastern University

The Broad Institute

City of Boston

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Mount Auburn Cemetery

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Institute of Contemporary Art Boston

Boston Children’s Museum

The Rose Kennedy Greenway

Weeksville Heritage Center

Street Theory Collective

Spotify

Paramount/Nickelodeon

Love Your Magic

Let’s Create Something Meaningful Together

Whether you are planning a workshop, residency, retreat, school program, community gathering, training, installation, or interdisciplinary collaboration, I would love to learn more about what you are imagining.

I welcome opportunities in Boston and beyond.

Begin by sharing a little about your organization, community, audience, location, desired timeframe, and the experience you hope to create.