Meet Priyanka Villanassery

 

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Priyanka Villanassery a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Priyanka, so good to have you with us today. We’ve got so much planned, so let’s jump right into it. We live in such a diverse world, and in many ways the world is getting better and more understanding but it’s far from perfect. There are so many times where folks find themselves in rooms or situations where they are the only ones that look like them – that might mean being the only woman of color in the room or the only person who grew up in a certain environment etc. Can you talk to us about how you’ve managed to thrive even in situations where you were the only one in the room?

This is SUCH an important question. I am both an Indian and American pediatric physical therapist in a field that is predominantly white. To put it into context, when I attended physical therapy school at the University of Michigan – Flint, I was the only Indian woman in my class. There were two Asian men and one woman who was half white and half Hispanic. The rest of our graduating class was white.

I have felt unique and different for quite some time now. Growing up as both Indian and American led me to reflect deeply on both parts of my culture throughout my life. There were many times when I felt not quite Indian enough, yet also not quite American enough. This impacted me for years because I struggled to figure out who I really was.

There were instances when people in my life accused me of being “against my own people” because I didn’t agree with certain behaviors common among my Indian peers—such as indirect misogyny against women, gossiping about others in the community, or centering life entirely around food. On the other hand, I often felt the need to mask parts of myself around American peers because we were simply raised differently.

I grew up immersed in Bollywood movies and music. I learned a variety of Indian dance styles, including classical Bharatanatyam, Garba, and Raas—things most American people are not exposed to. I didn’t want to constantly explain myself.

For a while, I internalized the criticisms and struggled to reconcile these cultural differences. But eventually, I realized that there are aspects of all cultures that resonate with me and others that don’t—and that’s okay. I’ve learned to be both effective and successful by intuitively leaning into what makes me uniquely me. By embracing and combining the aspects of each culture that serve my soul, I am better equipped to serve others and contribute to the world.

Learning to appreciate myself, my preferences, and the ways I navigate life—whether they fit a standard or not—has been truly life-changing. It’s not always easy, but the more you lean into loving your unique perspective and deciding that it’s okay to choose what serves you and leave the rest, the easier it becomes to build confidence, trust yourself, and recognize that your success starts with simply existing as your authentic self.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

At The Baby Bliss Collective LLC, I combine my expertise as a pediatric physical therapist with mental health care practices to help aspiring moms, new moms, and their babies build stronger emotional and physical connections—all through the movement of both mind and body. Our mission is to support moms in breaking generational cycles of trauma through movement and emotional regulation techniques, creating a nurturing space for themselves and their families to thrive.

What sets The Baby Bliss Collective apart is our focus on healing both mom and baby together. Over the years, I’ve learned that when a mom feels safe, connected, and loving toward herself, her baby naturally follows suit. Using movement-based strategies, EFT tapping, affirmations, and breathwork, I guide moms to overcome guilt and anxiety while fostering secure attachments with their babies. These methods help women feel confident in themselves as well as help babies cry less, sleep better, meet developmental milestones, and eat more comfortably, all while strengthening the parent-child bond.

I’m excited to offer personalized one-on-one coaching programs, including “Mama Bliss,” where we use Intentional Movement to help those who aspire to raise emotionally open, aware, and expressive children regulate their own emotions. Additionally, “Baby Bliss” teaches parents how to confidently use movement with their babies for better emotional and physical well-being from the very start of their lives. This year, I’m also launching a digital course, “Intentional Movement for Anxiety, Depression, and Postpartum Depression,” designed to help people improve their mental health on their own quickly and easily with simple, effective movements.

At The Baby Bliss Collective, we are passionate about empowering women who care deeply for themselves and their little ones, using movement to enhance both mom and baby’s mental health, and fostering generational healing. We believe every family can create a joyful, nurturing environment—no matter their past.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. It’s important to be okay with curating your inner circle, not only to feel ridiculously supported but also to challenge your thinking and brainstorm with you. Many people believe that you are the average of the five people you surround yourself with. While I generally think that’s true, I also believe we have autonomy. We can stay true to ourselves no matter who is around us. However, it’s SO much easier when you actively minimize the voices that make you feel the need to doubt yourself and maximize those that speak worthiness, love, and expansion into you. Instead of spending time trying to convince anyone of how you function, focus on surrounding yourself with people who make it feel easy to feel love and support wholeheartedly and who actively want to help amplify the person you already are. And remember, you get to be that person for others too.

2. Make sure you do a practice that allows you to actually relax at some point every single day. As a fellow anxious girlie who has spent years honing in on how to manage it, you NEED a practice that tells your muscles to relax and your mind to take yourself less seriously. I am all for exercise (I’m a PT, I’ll always tell you to move haha) However, while exercise does release chemicals that make you feel fulfilled and happy, it is also form of stress on the body that helps those muscles grow. If you can add on a practice of movement for pure relaxation such as walks, saunas, breathwork, meditating, stretching, yoga – your nervous system is going to thank you throughout your life because you are helping your mind and body truly lessen stress in a very stressful world.

3. You will never be done, there is never a point where you’ve made it because there are too may wonderful things to be and do in this world. When you deeply feel into that and believe it for yourself, you finally get to enjoy yourself, love how you think about life, have fun with your daily processes to live life, and see how there’s really no need to judge anyone or anything because it’s just life and we all get to learn and grow in our own way.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

Me. When I think about all the people in my life, the places I’ve gone, and the things I’ve done, at the end of the day, it was always me and my perspective that got me through any challenges.

I appreciate my parents for doing the best they could with their circumstances. They immigrated from India, with my dad not really knowing how to speak English (which I truly realized in my early 20s because I could understand his broken English, but none of my friends who didn’t grow up in immigrant households could), and my mom, who did everything for us while working long hours as a nurse. They have a typical Indian relationship, which was arranged after they knew each other for about a week. They didn’t have clear and safe communication to repair disagreements, and I never saw hugging, touching, or kissing between them—let alone saying “I love you” to one another. They’re not unique in that; this type of relationship is somewhat normalized in my culture, and when you hear of parents who don’t have that dynamic, you think, “Oh my gosh, how strange and also AMAZING!!” I’m very aware that their struggles and the things they overcame made it so that I can speak openly and freely about everything I’m talking about in this interview, and for that, I’ll be forever grateful.

At the same time, I actively chose to look for the most nourishing relationships because I thought that if I didn’t prioritize myself and my needs, I could end up in spaces and around people who would hurt me rather than nourish and help me grow. I’m just not willing to put myself in that position.

And that was all me. I observed and reflected on their relationship and the relationships of many aunties and uncles around me, then decided that I deserve more and better, even if I’ve never actually seen that exist before.

I could have easily not given it a second thought and gone along with the standards that were normalized and set for me in both my household and the brown community. But I didn’t. I decided to trust that what I felt and thought were very real and very important.

And for that, I’m SO proud of myself because now I’ve attracted so much abundance. I’m in the most supportive and loving relationship. We both actively sought out couples therapy together to understand ourselves and become closer. His mom found us a Brown therapist because she wanted me to feel emotionally open and safe. I let go of many friendships where we no longer served each other and brought in some of the most wonderfully supportive women into my life. I’ve lessened feelings of guilt over the actions I’ve chosen to take in my life because I deeply understand that everything is a learning process, and we’re allowed to let our old selves go to make space for our aligned selves. I’ve created a business that fosters generational healing for anyone who seeks it in their lives, and have changed both mothers’ and children’s lives so that they know how to help their own mental health as a result.

I also want to remind you, the reader of this article, that you are the one who has taken yourself through the obstacles and challenges in your life and made it so that you always overcame them.

So here’s to us and our ability to overcome challenges and always find success!

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Lisa Cornelius

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