Yoga studio makes a home in NYM

By Tucker Henderson

Reporter

Stressors and trauma are ever-present in today’s modern age of technology and societal expectations of always moving and always working, much to the detriment of individual health. As a result, holistic wellness providers such as Bobbi Jo Hamilton of New York Mills, are becoming more utilized as time goes on.

Hamilton owns and operates Northwoods Velvaere Studio, (rhymes with “Bel-Air”) a somatic mental health therapy and holistic wellness service business that also offers yoga and other opportunities for mental health.

“I came up with that name because I wanted to incorporate my heritage,” said Hamilton. “My great grandparents all came from Germany, Denmark, Norway, so over in that area and I picked Velvaere because that is a Scandinavian word for mental health, which incorporates the holistic well-being, so our mind, body, soul, and that healing and I really liked that. It really resonated with me.”

Hamilton’s journey into the mental health world goes back to her Bachelor’s degree work in Human Resources when she realized that she was not right for that line of work. She switched to Social Work and ended up attending Bemidji State University online for her degree.

“I knew I wanted to do mental health, and I wanted to work with kids,” she said. “So I got done with that and I worked as a Guardian ad Litem in Wadena County in the courts system. So I’ve seen a lot of mental health for kids, for their parents, even on professionals for burnout.”

Hamilton then went on the complete her Master’s degree through St. Mary’s University in Minneapolis, Minn. From there, she took a job working as a therapist in the Mahnomen School on the White Earth Reservation working with students from age 10-18.

“It’s a lot different working on the reservation,” she said. “They are all for their people and helping them get the help that they need—whether it be mental health, chemical dependency, whatever it may be—but I realized that talk therapy wasn’t resonating with me and it wasn’t really resonating with them as well.

“It’s not that it wasn’t working, I made progress with some of the kids,” she continued. “They are very nature-based, spiritual, and a lot more of what I always felt I needed to be more about and then my supervisor told me about the polyvagal theory, which is learning all about the nervous system, so I learned more about that.”

Learning about how the nervous system affects the rest of your body was a turning point for Hamilton and she slowly transitioned over to part-time private practice and eventually full-time private practice, which is what led to her business’s creation.

“I got into somatic healing and learning more about that,” she said. “Moving through my own personal experience with the somatic work is why I decided to incorporate more and more of it with my clients and I did a nine-month training in Colorado through the Somatic Nature Institute and it was very eye-opening to just have more of that training.”

She explained that the somatic healing has to do with the natural order of the body and its relationship with the changing of the seasons. Along with helping her personally, she has also seen the effects it has had on her clients, including neurodivergent clients. Hamilton works exclusively with women, however she has maintained a few school-age clients.

“I shifted from kids to only women, it was a lot working with kids,” she laughed. “I have a few under 18 clients that I work with, but it’s kind of hard with Telehealth for the kids. I wanted to really have a business that encompassed all of it together—yoga, somatics, breath work, therapy—so now I teach yoga at the Cultural Center on Wednesdays and Fridays, we’ll start that back up in February.

“I’m also a somatic mental health therapist, so I work a lot more with body-based versus brain-based type therapy,” she continued. “So I incorporate talk therapy with the somatic therapy—helping people get more into their body, letting the feelings that come up work through your nervous system—so we do a lot of sitting in silence, letting clients feel through those emotions.”

As a yoga instructor, Hamilton finds an importance in listening to one’s body and slowing down. She said that living in a society that is so busy, people tend to push through their feelings and push them down, so she wants her clients to be able to slow down and listen to how their body moves.

“You don’t have to be perfect, you don’t have to keep up with everybody else, and it’s okay to make adjustments that works with your body,” she said. “I want people to come together, even if you feel that you are the odd person out, don’t be nervous, just come and meet people and it really does create your own village.”

Hamilton said that one of her favorite parts of her time in private practice has been her own personal growth. Describing herself as a “wallflower” to begin with, she realized that through her own mental health journey, she has been able to put herself out there as an instructor and therapist.

“I’m working through a lot within my own traumas, that inner child work that I do,” she said. “So doing somatic work and seeing the growth and progress in my clients, even when they don’t recognize it, is so rewarding. I treat my clients like they are human beings—I show them compassion, I’m their cheerleader—I recognize when they are doing things that they didn’t think they were doing.”

“I think that’s where I’ve been shifting more to, is trying to establish more of that community for people, because I feel like we are disconnected as a society and community is not there like it used to be.”

Through the expansion of her services, Hamilton hopes that she is able to spread more awareness for mental health to all communities, especially rural communities such as NY Mills. With more ideas in the works for further opportunities and holistic and therapeutic offerings, Hamilton’s practice continues to grow and help people within the community.

Northwoods Velvaere Studio accepts private pay, as well as insurance. Learn more about services, payment options, and events in the local area by calling Hamilton at (218) 539-1683, by email at bobbijo@northwoodsvelvaerestudio.com or visiting her Facebook and Instagram pages by searching the studio’s name.