MEGHAN COLLIER she, her, hers (c-IAYT, Mindful Grieving Facilitator, RYT 500hr, Reiki III, LCSW) is a Yogini, Reiki Master, and Psychotherapist located in Brunswick, ME, where she specializes in working with grief and trauma. She completed her 200hr yoga teacher training with Yoga Muse School of Yoga, her 300hr yoga teacher training with Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy, and her Reiki III with Anne Donnell. Meghan is a 900hr Yoga Therapist (Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy) and is fully certified with the International Association of Yoga Therapists (c-IAYT). Meghan completed her training with Wendy Black Stern and the Center for Somatic Grieving's 200hr Mindful Grieving Yoga Therapist program and is a Mindful Grieving Facilitator. Meghan is also a licensed psychotherapist who graduated with her Masters in Social Work and a Certificate in Applied Arts and Social Justice from the University of New England. Meghan is passionate about supporting people experiencing grief and loss and has engaged with many various trainings on the subject, in addition to her own personal experiences of grief.
My journey with yoga begins like so many others... I began dabbling in yoga in college and created a more consistent practice beginning in 2014. What began as a personal physical and mental health journey turned into a love for yoga and Reiki, and a desire to share the benefits with everyone around me. This took years, but here we are!
In 2016, I began my Master's program in social work and quickly discovered how the body is so often left out of mental health work. So, I got my certification as a yoga teacher with the intention of combining the two. To further my knowledge and desire to support people experiencing grief and loss get in touch with themselves and their bodies, I began my yoga therapy training in the spring of 2020.
I believe that Yoga Therapy and Reiki are such beautiful medicine and that they can truly transform the relationship we have with our body, mind, and spirit, as well as the connections we have with the people around us. I'm passionate about making sure that everyone in every body can experience movement and healing in fully present and intuitive ways.
I am deeply passionate about supporting people experiencing grief and loss create meaning and find acceptance and ease. I have a long list of grief experiences throughout my life in a variety of different ways. It has been through these moments of challenge that I've slowly learned to talk about grief and death and sadness and how to fully embody the experience. Grief is not taboo. Grief needs to be talked about, to be held and seen and heard. I believe one of the most profound ways to engage with grief is by getting into your body and being with the process - and letting it be messy. And I'm here to be with you in that, every step of the way.
My grief story starts not at the very beginning but more recently. In the fall of 2020 I experienced my first miscarriage. This was the first moment in my life that my grief completely swallowed me whole. I had experienced a lot of loss before that, but losing a baby was a different story entirely. I didn't start to heal until I was sitting in a chair getting tattooed (a little honeysuckle flower for my lost little one) and receiving Reiki that I realized how much I had been holding all of my grief in my body and how I hadn't let anyone touch me. I sobbed. And then I was able to pick up the pieces and start to put myself back together. After my second miscarriage about a year later, I moved more quickly through my grief. Not because it was easier, it was just very different. And at that point, I had deeply reconnected with my body and knew what I needed to offer myself to live on - live on, not move on. Almost a year after that, my son was born.
In my life, I've had to say goodbye to many loved ones. I remember ice cream sundaes in hospice with my Nana, talking about dragons and love with my cousin, joking and making plans for wigs with my Aunt and her cancer diagnosis. I remember FaceTime calls with my grandfathers - one during Covid and one when I was very pregnant with my son - unable to be there in person to say I love you. I remember wearing yellow to the funeral of friend who took his own life - yellow to honor his favorite color and his light.
Saying goodbye and holding space for my loves and my losses has been woven into my life from a young age. I'm grateful to my parents for not shutting away grief but instead teaching me that we lean into our love and we grieve together. Because of this, it's how I showed up for myself and it's what I bring to holding space for others. I let grief be loud. Or quiet. Or joyful, scary, messy, devastating... I let grief be whatever it needs to be. I lean in.
