Lori Ruth Kalvert

L. Ruth Kalvert, MA, RYT, LMT, SME is co-facilitator of Yoga for Mental Wellness and the facilitator and creator of Project Paean (see description below). She has been teaching yoga and offering bodywork since 2004. She is currently studying psychotherapy and mental health counseling part-time at SUNY New Paltz, where she has completed her internship.

Ruth began her yoga and bodywork studies through personal and mystical experiences that were deepened through her teacher Sri Dharma Mittra, with whom she became a certified teacher. She then studied Anusara yoga with Ellen Saltonstall and Embodied Yoga with Amy Matthews. Ruth became licensed as a massage therapist through her education at the Swedish Institute, and additionally studied Five Element Shiatsu, CranioSacral Therapy, Reiki, Qi Gong, and Brain Gym.

Ruth is certified as a Somatic Movement Educator (2010) with the School for Body-Mind Centering (BMC) in North Carolina. She finds this modality allows a fluid joining of yoga, bodywork, and mental health skills. It grounds mystical and emotional experience within the physiology and biology of the body. BMC also offers an opportunity to self-modulate through becoming familiar with the different systems of one's body and relearning early developmental patterns. This practice rebuilds the relationship with the mind and body and can support one through mental health challenges.

Ruth joined Yoga for Mental Wellness in 2007 to co-facilitate the program with her teacher, Elizabeth Plapinger. She then developed a self-massage and bodywork component called Project Paean. Project Paean has been pivotal in introducing massage and bodywork to the mental health community at the Fountain House and in cooperation with the National Alliance of Mental Illness at annual wellness fairs in NYC. The process involves empowerment through community building and self-massage with balls, movement, and touch. The Breathing Project is the kind sponsor of Project Paean. This work is supported by the Harriet A. Greenfield Foundation, the Massage Therapy Foundation and private donors.

She can be reached at lfeddy@gmail.com