A New Way Forward: Wellfulness

During childhood, I was diagnosed with three autoimmune diseases. In the midst of these three diagnoses, I chose to practice resilience through yoga, meditation, and nutritious meals. In return, this has motivated me to pursue a career that can help me provide the knowledge and tools for others to thrive. I obtained my 200hr RYT and my intention in teaching yoga is to provide a safe space for people to practice self love and self care. My classes incorporate the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh (and others alike), the philosophy of yoga, and the neuroscience that coincides with the practice of yoga.”

Anne Martin is an inspiring, intuitive Yoga teacher specializing in alignment-based Vinyasa flow. An advocate of exploration and safety, she fosters a balance between challenge and self-care while guiding students through thoughtful sequences honoring yoga’s foundations of steadiness and ease. Approachable and empathic, Anne motivates and affirms beginners while consistently raising the bar for experienced students. Her decades-long communications career informs her clear cueing, skilled demonstrating and attentive listening. She earned her E-RYT 500 certification from Yoga Tree San Francisco.

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Dr. Stephens is an Airforce brat and lifelong dancer. She has been a practicing sports chiropractor in the Bay Area since 2010. She’s spent her entire career in interdisciplinary settings, from private clinics to hospitals. Lindsay has assisted in surgeries and outpatient procedures, and logged hundreds of hours in orthopedic, neurology, pain management, radiology, and OB/GYN departments. After a deep healing experience with a patient, Lindsay recognized the need for a more compassionate integrative healthcare clinic. In August of 2016, she brought her dream to life and opened Motus Wellfulness Clinic. Lindsay's level of care is based on truly seeing and hearing her patients; she takes the time to actually listen and understand them, never making assumptions. She approaches pain with a deeper wisdom, recognizing both that physical injury can often have mental or emotional roots and that true healing cannot happen until these roots are addressed. She enjoys working with patients at every stage of care, always with the mission of educating and empowering patients to affect long-term changes in their lives.

Joanna, a Bay Area native, has been the Operations Manager at Motus since its inception. Before Motus, she spent years working as a medical assistant and admin. During that time, she was fortunate to wear many hats and gained diverse experience in the physical medicine aspect of healthcare. She began her journey in 2009 and has assisted chiropractors, orthopedic doctors, and pain management specialists. She has experience in every aspect of physical rehab care as well as the corresponding inner workings of insurance billing and healthcare administration. She’s assisted in procedures like PRP (platelet rich plasma injection therapy), prolotherapy, bio puncture, drawing blood, and more.

After working for years in a large clinic and seeing the constant frustrations with billing and admin issues, Joanna joined the Motus team. Her aim was to help create a better experience for patients–wanting to not only eliminate systemic inefficiencies but to create a unique, more effective system. Her focus has always been on advocating for patients, enabling them to concentrate on their care and recovery while she addressed billing and insurance concerns. Her approach is always about optimizing convenience and fostering open communication.

Christie has been an athlete all her life. However, discovering Ashtanga Yoga at the age of 21 was the catalyst that sparked her studies in movement and her path toward self-discovery. Christie has practiced yoga since 2006 and has been a full-time teacher since 2015. In that time, she has been a faculty member for 22 yoga teacher trainings and led countless workshops. Since 2016, Christie has trained with some of the best strength and bodybuilding coaches in San Francisco. To develop more niche skills, she also trained with a Cirque du Soleil performer, a circus contortionist, and a well-known handstand coach. The combination of these trainings have heavily influenced and shaped her straight-forward, technical, and methodical approach in movement. Training with her will build your overall strength, flexibility, and body awareness while bringing you to a deeply grounded and peaceful state of mind. Christie no longer considers herself “just a yoga teacher,” but rather a professional coach, movement specialist, and hand-balancer.

Ever since Sal began his massage therapy practice in 2000, one of the most consistent pieces of feedback that his clients give is how profound his work is—and how unique. It is the kind of bodywork you can only receive from someone who not only deeply cares about his clients’ wellbeing but also knows what it is to go through extreme health challenges and integral healing. Sal’s clients consistently praise his capacity to help them achieve relief from ailments and body pains that have gone unaddressed for years. For him, bodywork is about getting to the root of what’s causing disease, and sometimes that means having to look more closely at movement patterns and other daily practices.

In addition to more than two decades of practice in massage therapy, Sal has also been in the fitness arena since 2001. Before he was picking up barbells, he was putting on weighted vests and making up WODs (*workout of the day*) with other fitness enthusiasts. For Sal, fitness and massage therapy have always gone hand in hand; and together, these two pillars of wellbeing enable him to continue to serve his clients year after year as they cultivate their capacity to live their best lives. (Being able to lift all the things comes in handy with his two little boys as well!)

MASSAGE HISTORY:

Sal first studied the traditional practices of Swedish and Deep Tissue Massage. From there he dove into the Eastern philosophies of Shiatsu, Acupressure, Thai, and Reiki. He furthered his education in the studies of Trauma Somatic Experiencing, Polarity, Myofascial, Craniosacral, Trigger Point Therapy, Clinical Deep Tissue, Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization and Movement Therapy Technique. 

Aaron always had an interest in movement and the body. At the age of 10, he began training in martial arts; he’s continued his passion by teaching and training others. Through this discipline, Aaron learned about the vital impact of body mechanics on effective, efficient, and safe movement. He expanded his knowledge through the study of kinesiology at SFSU, and shortly after, he enrolled at The National Holistic Institute (NHI) to study massage and neuromuscular therapy. The aim? To combine his passions of massage and fitness. He also concurrently became a certified personal trainer (CPT) through the National Association of Sports Medicine (NASM). His expert approach to bodywork blends all of his knowledge and experience in kinesiology, martial arts, personal training, and massage therapy.