About
Samantha Leonard
brings warm-hearted wisdom and humility to her work, believing the answers you seek are inside you.
She has always felt a deep call to honor the role suffering plays as a catalyst to personal metamorphosis.
She seeks to be a facilitating witness to patterns of movement, thought, feeling, and behavior that can both prevent and create physical pain and emotional suffering at conscious and unconscious roots.
Samantha aims to empower people from 6 to 99 to trust their inner wisdom, allow new layers of self-compassion to emerge, and achieve positive transformations in their careers, relationships, and overall lives.
Experience and Education
Samantha is a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, a Noom Certified Health Coach, and founder of Davidson Yoga Therapy and Health Coaching.
She has held complimentary healthcare positions at The Blanchard Institute, Atrium Hospital, Levine Cancer Institute, Sanger Heart Clinic, and Davidson College. She has presented for Fortune 500 companies and major Universities, both public and professional audiences, on this thing called yoga therapy and what it can do when it is unpeeled, revealed, and adapted to meet the needs and the abilities of the person doing it.
She leverages her three decades of yoga therapy, and health coaching experience with the following therapeutic models:
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Jungian Psychology
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Interfaith Perspectives
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Spiritual Technologies
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Trauma Healing
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Polyvagal Somatics
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Compassionate Inquiry
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Pain Reprocessing Therapy
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The Neurosequential Model
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Internal Family Systems
All this is to say, there are many doorways to use on the path to healing and self-discovery, and Samantha’s breadth of experience allows for vast creativity on which approach is right for you!
About Yoga Therapy
You may be thinking "Yoga? I'm not flexible or athletic. I can't do those poses because (insert reason).
This is because, for the most part, a small, athletic variety of yoga has been popularized in studios and gyms. And frankly, it's just not that accessible to the majority of the population.
Nor, is it therapeutic for most conditions! The fast pace and sequencing of poses can create stress in the joints, in the more vulnerable portions of the spine - and the individual who is taking the class may inevitably feel like they just aren't "good at yoga".
To anyone with such notions about what yoga is, I will quote my teacher, Gary Kraftsow:
"Yoga therapy isn't about getting to know postures. It's about getting to know yourself."
MOVEMENT
Yoga therapy movement might not look like anything you would do in a yoga class... It's more like having a conversation. The body holds tremendous wisdom and we can learn to hear its special language through gentle, inquisitive movement and breathing practices. Informed by physical therapy, somatics, polyvagal theory, trauma science, and yogic spiritual technologies, there are MANY evidence-based body paths to choose from.
PRANAYAMA
Breathing techniques are more than simple hacks for calming the mind during stressful moments. These hacks are great, but it's like taking an aspirin for a bacterial infection. "Box breathing", the aspirin, may take the edge off your suffering, but wouldn't you rather take an antibiotic to get to the root of the issue? At DYT you will experience a change in the patterns of breathing you have developed over years of living in a pressure cooker of stress.
CONVERSATION
My role as your therapist is to be a facilitating witness, observing patterns, connecting dots, and asking questions. This top-down (brain-to-body) therapy is an essential element to completing the therapeutic circuit with the bottom-up (body-to-brain) approaches of movement and breath. I leverage my 30+ years of Yoga Therapist training with years of study in the fields of Health Coaching, Compassionate Inquiry, and for children - the Neurosequential Model.
FAITH
Mindfulness, faith, and philosophy. My breadth of experience includes interfaith studies, extensive mindfulness training, Jungian psychology, and Pain Reprocessing Therapy. What's important here is you. What is meaningful to you? What is familiar to you? What makes sense in your life right now? Every element of yoga therapy is chosen to be the exact right fit for you and your goals.
Conditions Benefitted
Yoga therapy is effective at managing and even eliminating health conditions because it is a multidimensional practice working on a multi-dimensional being.
A well-designed practice can alleviate low back pain, manage anxiety, give you focus, energize you for your day, and put you in touch with your higher Self - all at the same time.
Click the links below to read testimonials from satisfied clients!
Structural Conditions
General Low Back Pain, Back Pain with Bulging Discs,
Knee Surgery Pre/Post Operation,
Neck Pain, Post Spinal Fusion Surgery,
Mental/Emotional
Anxiety, Kids 6-11, Teens, Depression, Complex Trauma, Grief, ADD/ADHD,
Physiological
Ankylosing Spondylitis, Autoimmune Conditions,
Cancer, Cardiac Health, Chronic Pain, COPD,
Fatigue, IBS/IBD, Insomnia, Fibromyalgia, Leukemia,
Menopause, Headaches/Migraines,
Parkinson's, Traumatic Illness
DYT has been a featured presenter for
About Pain
Reprocessing Therapy
If you’ve been living with chronic pain for years, Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) offers a cutting-edge approach that could help you manage—or even eliminate—your pain in as little as 60 days.
PRT is grounded in the principles of neuroplasticity, the brain’s remarkable ability to rewire itself, adapt, and change throughout your life.
WORKS QUICKLY
98% of patients report relief of symptoms within just a few sessions.
EFFECTIVE
Nearly all patients report relief of symptoms and 2/3 (66%) of those report full or almost full resolution of pain symptoms.
LONG LASTING
Patients who complete the Pain Reprocessing Therapy program report full or nearly full relief of symptoms 1 year post treatment.
80% of chronic pain cases worldwide are linked to neuroplastic pain
Recent studies have shown that chronic back pain, neck pain, fibromyalgia symptoms, repetitive strain injury, headaches, and other forms of chronic pain are often not the result of structural causes, but of psychophysiologic processes that can be reversed.
This is known as neuroplastic pain.
In a randomized clinical trial, 66% of participants were pain-free or nearly pain-free after 4 weeks of Pain Reprocessing Therapy.
Furthermore, this same group remained pain-free through the 1-year follow-up.
These amazing patient-reported results were backed by before and after functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) which revealed observable changes in brain reactivity.
About Safe & Sound Protocol
The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) is an evidence-based listening therapy designed to reduce sound sensitivities and improve auditory processing, behavioral state regulation, and social engagement behaviors through filtered music.
As a practical application of Polyvagal Theory, the SSP acts as a non-invasive, acoustic vagal nerve stimulator, helping to retune the nervous system to better support connection, collaboration and resilience.
The SSP involves listening to specially filtered music through headphones alongside a provider in person or remotely.
Suitable for children and adults, the SSP has demonstrated benefits for individuals with trauma, anxiety, sensory processing differences and more.
Simple
A 5-hour auditory intervention developed and patented by Dr. Stephen Porges, author of the Polyvagal Theory
Effective
Designed to reduce sound sensitivity, and improve auditory processing and behavioral state regulation.
Balancing
Activates the client’s social engagement system, helping to accelerate and enhance therapeutic outcomes
Strengthening
Supports physiological state regulation, allowing for greater resilience.
Polyvagal Theory
The Science of Feeling Safe
Developed by world-renowned researcher and Unyte’s Chief Scientific Advisor, Dr. Stephen Porges, Polyvagal Theory focuses on what is happening in the body and the nervous system, and explains how our sense of safety, danger or life-threat can impact our behavior. Understanding Polyvagal Theory gives us a scientific framework that can be applied through physiological, or “bottom-up” therapies, to help change and improve how we feel, think and connect with others.
