We recently connected with Brooke Alexander and have shared our conversation below.
Brooke, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
It is my greatest purpose in life to support others as they access truth from the inside out, recognizing that this body-based wisdom allows us to truly be present and alive in every heartbeat, fully inhabiting our bodies instead of merely existing in them.
Personally, I know what it feels like for my body to be an empty, cold home and I know what it feels like for my body to be a temple of warm hues. For much of my life, I ran from the truths of my body—the overwhelm of what it takes to truly love her. I doubted my capacity to accept all of her scars, to embrace the moments when I abandoned her, and to confront the times when my body did not feel like my own.
Yoga, in particular, first ignited my path of reinhabiting my body as the central space from which I experience life. I have a background of 15+ years in practicing and teaching yoga. As a wide-eyed college graduate, I completed my first 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training and continued on to graduate from a 300-Hour Yoga Teacher Training in Yoga Psychology. Throughout the years, I’ve invested 1000+ hours in Trauma-Informed Training, focusing on yoga for addiction, anxiety, depression, and disordered eating. Additionally, I completed a year-long graduate-level program, Compassionate Inquiry, with Dr. Gabor Mate, delving into powerful therapeutic approaches for healing trauma and understanding mental and physical illness.
A value of mine is to reside in humble devotion to the lifelong journey of being a student. My call towards the work I do in the world arises from a heart-centered, embodied desire for every human to experience, firsthand, the profound sensation of feeling truly at home within their own body.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Professionally, I lead yoga, mindfulness, and trauma education groups for teens and adult clients in Intensive Outpatient Programs. I also work as a Yoga Teacher Trainer and, along with my co-teacher, have created the curriculum for and led our Trauma-Informed 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training globally over twenty times. This work keeps me humble and curious, as we are constantly navigating different cultures, backgrounds, and traumas coexisting in the same room. In every training, we address topics like Fatphobia, Yoga for All Bodies, and Yoga as Social Justice.
Over the last decade, I have also worked in other therapeutic capacities, including at houseless shelters and on psychedelic harm reduction teams. I draw inspiration from spaces, experiences, and conversations that illuminate the fullness and complexity of our shared humanity. I wholeheartedly believe that with psycho-education, somatic awareness, and a healthy support system, trauma can be transformed into meaningful growth and serve as a bridge for authentic connection. In all of my life experiences, I have yet to encounter anything else in this world that makes me come more alive than this work!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
-Curiosity: In the words of Mother Teresa, “The problem with the world is that we draw our family circle too small.” Service work calls for extending care into the world that reaches far beyond our inner circles. It challenges us to cultivate expansive curiosity, zooming out beyond our individual human experience. -Love: Choose and cultivate love: a love that is radical, inclusive, and honest. Working in therapeutic settings, I frequently find myself alongside individuals as they navigate through their darkest and most confusing moments. Without love permeating the room, hope diminishes. To be a part of someone’s evolution, we must meet them exactly where they are, without the need to fix or alter anything about their experience.
-Self Contemplation: We can only meet others in the same depth that we have met ourselves. Without a comprehensive understanding of our own positionality in societal and systemic contexts, our capacity for service in this world will be limited. It is imperative to be relentless and honest with ourselves, acknowledging the nuances of our stories and histories.
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
This might sound strange haha but one of the most impactful thing’s my parents did for me was their choice to get a divorce!
I sat in my first therapy office as a first-grader when my parents told me and my brothers they were separating. My 7-year-old self didn’t exactly understand what it all meant—divorce, split time, step-parents—yet I experienced warmth and ease even amidst news I couldn’t yet make sense of. Being introduced to therapy at such a young age deeply impacted the unfolding of my entire life to come.
Fast forward to middle school and our ‘Divorced Parents Therapy Group.’ This time, I sat among other antsy 12-year-olds, pulled out of class for an hour each week. It became a refuge—a sanctuary of confidentiality where honesty was welcome. In high school, I was a part of ‘Girl’s Group’—group therapy for teenage women. Our weekly conversations provided a sense of belonging for the parts of ourselves that we felt the most alone with. We fostered a sense of togetherness in a chapter of life where we were conditioned to be pinned against one another. In college, I landed myself in one-on-one therapy sessions. I shared about my eating disorder for the first time and found language to make sense of my internal landscape.
Today, I look into the eyes of my therapist and there is a sense of easeful access to my heart. Christie Tate, author of Group, says that “People don’t need a cure; they need a witness.” I can’t imagine a more impactful act than bringing me to my first therapy session. Therapy continues to be absolutely essential to my overall well-being and my ability to be in service in a sustainable way,
Contact Info:
- Website: https://brookebloomalexander.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bloom.with.me/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brooke.alexander.creates/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brookeale/
