A Letter from Selena
Dear Reader,
I want you to know that your humanity is welcome here. That we're not after perfection but practice. That your "too muchness" is going to be my favorite thing about you. That I believe wholeheartedly in your personal genius.
I know you're thinking "but she doesn't know me!" It doesn't matter if I know you. I know that every single person was born with innate purpose, nobility, and genius that is a gift to the world. And I know that your purpose is the path of your personal unfolding throughout the course of your life.
It is my life's work to help you see your ordinary beauty, to fall in love with your life, and to flourish in your body. And what all of those things mean is unique to you.
I know that life can be incredibly challenging and I want you to know that you don't have to walk the path alone.
I'm so glad you're here.
Love,
Selena
Meet Selena Garefino
Storyteller | Writer | Coach | Yoga & Dance Movement Alchemist
Selena is a renowned Teacher of Yoga and Embodied Movement, a storyteller, writer, integrative hypnotist & coach, and dedicated to delivering transformative experiences that inspire growth, creativity, and inner harmony.
With extensive experience leading global retreats, she masterfully blends cultural exploration with movement, breathwork, and meditation practices, guiding individuals toward clarity, balance, and renewed purpose.
Selena is a comparative mythologist, storyteller, and cultural anthropologist. She sees story as a dialogue with our ancestors and the earth, and as a mirror and a prism of our collective and individual psyche. She uses story to build narrative intelligence in her students and clients.
We are storied beings, living our stories, telling our stories, living out the narratives in our hearts and minds. Selena expertly weaves oral story and self-inquiry into her work and somatic movement classes.
Selena holds an MPH in global health, an MA in sociocultural anthropology, a dual bachelors in sociocultural anthropology and archaeology, and is a PhD candidate in the field of Anthropology. She is a graduate of many movement and coaching certifications. For more information visit her coaching & movement bios.
Selena has been guiding movement for 15 years and has coached and mentored clients for over a decade.
She is a writer, speaker, and host of the Bone & Bloom podcast.
Rupture to Rapture
A personal story
Live the Story You Want to be Told
It is easy to form ideas about people and the state of their lives from the glimpses we catch online. It's easy to say "how could she possibly understand?" when we're faced with coaches and guides that seem to be thriving. I want you to know that the work that I do does not come from fluff.
My own story which you can read snippets of on my substack has been a journey into the underworld and back. I have suffered profound personal losses including a spouse, suffered violence, and navigated being a teenager on her own (I ran away very young).
This isn't a sob story. It's to say that I have been there. That I walk with a little bit of a limp and this too is human. It's to say that I have been hopeless, I have hated myself, I have been steeped in shame, I have wondered if anything would ever be ok again. And I felt unworthy.
I have been through intensive trauma therapy, unraveled my own programming, worked with coaches and spiritual teachers to reclaim my heart, to alchemize my shame, and to transform my wounds into wisdom.
I know after all this time that "healing" doesn't mean getting rid of everything or becoming some idealized human. We will always have material to contend with. My greatest healing came in accepting the totality of myself, facing it directly, and learning to let myself enjoy my life, love my life, to love myself, to decide that I get to have what I want, and that I am in fact WORTHY. And so are you.
It took a long time before coaching was the right step for me. I needed therapy. And that may be you too. But for me there came a point where I had resolved the stuff I came to therapy for and I wanted to know how to really live now. How to unwind the old stories and to become the woman I wanted to be with the life I wanted to live.
Coaching got me that. It gave me the pragmatic but heart-led clarity to take action and the confidence to author something I'm so proud of.
This is what I offer my clients. The step beyond. It's for the women that found themselves back above ground ready for spring's rising. For the women that have some lingering outdated programming keeping them spinning their wheels but they know they have something they want to birth in the world. Even if that thing is simply their fullest self expression.
I want you to know that all of you is welcome with me and that I know that I know what is possible when we have the right tools.
Love,
Selena
Once I really learned these things
I built a life and a relationship with self I love
- I fully accepted my role in my life and my decisions and I forgave myself
- I went to war against my lower self and stopped listening to my inner critic
- I brainwashed myself into believing in myself and my dream
- I stopped treating my body like something that needed to be bent into submission and started listening to what it was saying
- I started getting curious about how my nervous system, beliefs, and theories about the world were shaping my life and I made moves to change them.
MY MISSION
Now, I want to help you fall in love with your life & have your heart's desires one shift at a time
Together we'll uncover the unconscious programming that is keeping you stuck, overcome obstacles, make a heart-centered and clear path forward, and make space for you to deepen into who you really are.
DISCOVER PROGRAMS →GRAB THE MASTERCLASS REPLAY
Portals to Presence
When you join my list you'll receive 5 day access to the replay of Portals to Presence, a master class packed with tools for nervous system care, tending to anxiety, and breathwork for shifting your state.
Offerings
Experience my Storytelling, Programs, Retreats, 1:1 Mentorship, Practices, Somatic Coaching and Movement, Integrative Hypnosis, Podcast, and Writing to transform your inner world and to carry that transformation into every aspect of your life.
Free 5 Day Rest & Renew Yoga Course
Sign up to receive your free course. Own forever and packed with restorative yoga classes, yoga nidra, journal prompts, and more. For 5 days you'll receive an email prompt to explore the course but you can go at your own pace.
