In “As Is: A Memoir on Therapeutic the Previous By way of Yoga,” Rachel chronicles her personal transformation. She shares how she was pressured to confront her personal inherited and private beliefs about herself and her household, and discover her approach past a heavy legacy and into her personal life. It’s a candid, heartfelt true story with some shocking twists, together with the household disaster that shattered her world view. As Rachel searches for therapeutic and self-discovery, she finds sanctuary and inspiration within the apply of yoga, and comes to grasp the highly effective connection between thoughts and physique. Set in Montreal, San Diego, and Israel, it is a riveting story of a profound self-awakening.

I lately had the possibility to speak about to Rachel about her shifting e-book, her inventive journey, and the way her personal revelations led to her highly effective, progressive remedy: 

Interview Questions:

1. Your father went from being a revered Orthodox rabbi to being arrested—are you able to describe that pivotal second and the way it shattered your understanding of your loved ones, your religion, and your self?

I keep in mind the second as a sort of implosion. Every little thing I believed I may belief—my father’s integrity, my household’s status, my religion—collapsed in a single day. It wasn’t simply his arrest that broke me; it was realizing how a lot of my life had been constructed on appearances and denial. The world I grew up in taught me to suppress doubt, to obey, to look good. When that phantasm shattered, so did my sense of self. It pressured me to begin over, to query all the things: What’s reality? What’s love? What’s religion with out concern? That rupture turned the start of my awakening, though it felt like full destroy on the time.

2. You write about how trauma turns into embedded within the physique and may keep hidden for many years. How did you uncover the concern and self-doubt that have been saved in your individual physique, and what was the method of releasing them?

I found it slowly, by ache—actually. My again ache and herniated disc at age 30 was my trainer earlier than I ever understood the idea of embodied trauma. Each spasm, each contraction held a narrative I hadn’t but advised myself. By way of yoga and later Hakomi remedy, I started to pay attention as an alternative of override. My physique spoke within the language of rigidity, exhaustion, and collapse, revealing concern, guilt, and grief that had been saved for years. The method of launch wasn’t dramatic; it was tender and deliberate—breath by breath, pose by pose, studying to remain current with sensations I as soon as averted. Over time, the physique softened, and with it, the center opened. Therapeutic got here not from “fixing” my ache, however from befriending it.

3. Transferring from a strict Orthodox upbringing to embracing yoga and a extra compassionate religious path is a profound transformation. What have been the toughest beliefs to shed, and what did you uncover about your self within the course of?

The toughest perception to shed was that love should be earned—that I needed to be good, obedient, or self-sacrificing to deserve belonging. That message had formed my religion, my relationships, even the way in which I practiced yoga at first. Letting it go required dismantling your complete structure of concern that had stored me secure. What I found as a substitute was one thing astonishingly easy: I’m already entire. The divine isn’t exterior of us, judging or rewarding; it’s inside us, quietly ready for us to pay attention. True spirituality, I discovered, isn’t about management—it’s about presence, honesty, and compassion for our personal humanity.

4. You’ve developed a specialised remedy combining yoga, Hakomi, and bodily remedy that helps individuals with scoliosis and power again ache. How did your individual expertise with scoliosis and broken discs lead you to this strategy, and what makes it efficient the place different remedies fall quick?

My very own scoliosis and disc accidents have been the best catalysts for my skilled evolution. Conventional bodily remedy taught me anatomy and biomechanics, nevertheless it couldn’t clarify why my ache at all times returned. Yoga launched the mind-body connection, and Hakomi gave me the lacking piece—the emotional roots of bodily holding patterns. My strategy works as a result of it honors the individual as an built-in system: construction, sensation, and story. After we uncover the unconscious beliefs driving rigidity—like concern, management, or disgrace—the physique begins to reorganize naturally. It’s not nearly alignment of the backbone; it’s about alignment of the self.  However one can not exist with out the opposite.

5. Are you able to clarify the connection between concern, nervousness, and bodily ache within the physique? How does addressing emotional trauma truly change what’s occurring bodily in circumstances like scoliosis or power again points?

Worry and nervousness activate the nervous system—muscle tissues tighten, breath shortens, and the physique prepares for hazard. When this turns into power, these patterns imprint into posture and motion. In scoliosis or again ache, you possibly can actually see concern’s signature within the physique: holding one facet, collapsing the opposite, guarding the center. After we tackle emotional trauma, the physique’s risk response begins to settle. The nervous system learns security once more. By way of consciousness, contact, and breath, we invite the physique to really feel what was as soon as insufferable. That’s when actual change occurs from the inside out—when the physique remembers what ease seems like, and the soul begins to belief life once more.

6. For readers who’re carrying painful childhood legacies or household trauma, what would you say are the primary steps towards therapeutic? What does it imply to simply accept ourselves “as is” whereas additionally pursuing transformation?

Therapeutic begins with honesty—with the braveness to cease operating from your individual story. Step one is to show towards your ache moderately than away from it, to witness it with compassion as an alternative of judgment. As is doesn’t imply resignation; it means standing precisely the place you might be, with out disgrace, and assembly your self with kindness. True transformation grows out of that acceptance—it can not come earlier than it. Change not often occurs suddenly; it unfolds slowly, by endurance, consistency, and the willingness to start once more. Even once you fall again into outdated patterns, you’re nonetheless on the trail. Accepting your self isn’t about giving up—it’s about taking duty to your personal therapeutic, one sincere second at a time.

To be taught extra, go to Rachel Krentzman at Happy Back Yoga.