Ashley Sutt is excited that she is now a Certified Nia Blue Belt!   She completed her White Belt training in July of 2009 with Nia creator, Debbie Rosas in Portland, Oregon. Ashley first danced Nia in 2006, and felt an acceptance of her body and a joy of movement unknown to her before.

Since that first experience, Nia has played a vital role in Ashley’s personal journey of self-exploration and transformation. As a professional counselor, she knew that integrating mind, body, spirit and emotion was necessary in order to maintain health and wellness, but she had never found a practice that actually addressed all of those areas simultaneously. Nia does just that!

In describing her Nia journey, Ashley shared the following:
My body AND my soul immediately loved moving in Nia’s unique way. Nia gave me permission to move my body freely and invited me to ask my body how it wanted to move and then recommended that I honor my body’s wisdom. Before Nia, my relationship with my physical body and with exercise was one of power, mistrust, striving and pain. Now, my relationship with my body is one of celebration, acceptance and trust. Nia’s concepts of moving for comfort and joy, with an intention of creating healing, directly challenged my old ideas. I was accustomed to pushing my body beyond pain, running just a few more miles, and striving to change my body. Now, I live in my body with feelings of peace and acceptance. In addition, I feel surprisingly more strength, stamina, and agility than ever before. Practicing Nia provides me with a beautiful way to communicate with and experience my mind, body, spirit and emotions providing me with a fuller, more playful life.

I am grateful to Suzanne for creating such a beautiful space and community of men and women at The Center. I feel blessed by that gift, and I only hope that I can continue to grow more fully into my teaching ability so that I might more fully share the promise of Nia with our community.

email: asutt@planetcomm.net