The Energetics of Backbending and Acupressure to Support It with Jackie Garbe and Nina Petrillo (guest teacher)

Join Nina Petrillo and Jackie Garbe for an immersive workshop designed to deepen your awareness and experience of backbending postures. This practice bridges physical anatomy with the lens of meridians, based in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), for a holistic approach to understanding your body in backbends.

Through this practice, you can expect to deepen your understanding of each system, while building body awareness, strength, and flexibility. You’ll learn how to skillfully enter, sustain, and deepen backbending postures, while recognizing tension patterns in your body, and how to resolve them through acupressure points and proper breathing.

While this practice focuses on backbending, engaging with acupressure points and meridians also benefits emotional and physical wellbeing. Acupressure helps release physical and emotional tension patterns in your body, regulate the nervous system and deepen emotional and internal awareness. Learn to heal yourself and others!

What to expect:

1. Backbend-focused asana practice (90 min)

2. Lecture exploring physical anatomy, Chinese meridians, breath, and acupressure points (90 min)

3. Partnered acupressure session to integrate and apply what you’ve learned (90 min)

4. Closing meditation (15 min)

This workshop is for any practitioner looking to refine their technique, deepen body awareness, and help others with greater clarity and intention.

Please buy a ticket in advance. We can not guarantee space for walk-in attendees without a ticket. We appreciate your contribution to support the studio and our sharing of these healing practices. We have a few free scholarship spots available, if finances are a barrier to attendance. You can email jackie.garbe@gmail.com to reserve.

About the Instructors:

Nina Petrillo is an acupuncturist and yoga teacher with a 360 degree approach to seeing the human body. She integrates physical anatomy, myofascial meridians and Chinese meridians into useful guidance that deepens and refines a Hatha yoga practice. She has been fortunate to study with many masterful yoga teachers, and her own experience has greatly shaped her passion to help others reach optimal health and peace of body-mind. nina-petrillo.com

Jackie Garbe has trained in and taught a variety of lineages, including Meridian yoga, Ashtanga, vinyasa, hatha, and Katonah. She specializes in a gentle, breath-focused, trauma-informed Meridian yoga curriculum, designed to guide students into deeper states of awareness, embodiment, and nervous system regulation. This practice utilizes the Meridian system based in TCM to tap into the innate healing potential that exists within each of us. jackiegarbe.com

*Please note: all participants will be asked to sign an acupressure waiver prior to attending the event.