Who We Are

Julie Jansen

I’m Julie (she/her, they/them).  Thank you for taking the time to learn more about me.  I am a meditation practitioner, movement educator, and a certified Forest Therapy Guide.  Since childhood I have found awe, tranquility, and a sense of homecoming in nature and through somatic movement.  The support that I have received from these practices leads me to my current work.  I guide individuals and groups in meditation, movement, and land-based practices to connect people with tools that help them remember their wholeness.  My gentle, trauma-informed guidance empowers individuals to bring presence-based practices into their lives as they encounter the struggles and joys of being human.  I am a life-long learner, teacher, mother, daughter, partner, and white-identified human.  I live and work on land that is the ancestral home the Upper Chinook peoples in what is now Portland, Oregon.

I am grateful to the teachers, education, and trainings that have informed my work.  My life has been shaped by my parents and family members, friends, motherhood, oceans, mountains, and trees.  In terms of my formal training and education, I am a certified Forest Therapy Guide with The Association of Nature and Forest Therapy.  I also hold a Mindfulness Teacher Certification from Inward Bound Mindfulness Education, a Masters of Art in Art Education, and I completed a 200-hour yoga teacher training through the The Yoga Space in Portland, Oregon. My offerings bring presence-based practices to adults, college students, teachers, children, businesses, and institutions. 

Currently I teach meditation and movement at Portland State University along with facilitating Earthbody Presence offerings.

Morgan Pace Bolton

Hello fellow human, I’m Morgan (she/her). 

I live and steward life on the unceded land of the Northern Kalapuya People, now federally recognized within the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, also known as the Willamette Valley, Portland, OR. My life embodies roles as Mother, partner, daughter, friend, facilitator, earth tender, and spiritual being. I’m a lover of soil, stars, and everything in between, especially the untouchable world of feeling and mystery. Being in relationship with nature's rhythms, including the cycles of my own body, fascinates me and brings meaning and magic to my life. 

My role as co-facilitator of Earthbody Presence gives me great joy as it allows me to be accountable to my values. This looks like regular sitting practice, observation of the natural world, expanding my knowledge and perspectives, and collaborating with my dear friend, Julie. I’m honored to invite people into community and connection through circle and presence, while exploring ourselves as Nature.  

My path to this work began a decade ago with a strong felt sense that I needed to re-parent myself in order to be the kind of parent and guide to others, that is part of my calling. Mindfulness, two 200-hr yoga teacher trainings, and getting still in the early pandemic gave me the tools I needed to peel away the layers of dominant culture, white supremacy, identity, and nervous system dysregulation that were limiting me. My work with plants, implementing and tending a Food Forest, along with my after school program; Mindful Garden Club, keep me grounded, creative, and connected to my long-goal desires to create the kind of world I want my children to grow up in.

I’d like to use this humble platform to share support for Chinook Nation and their fight to re-gain federal recognition. Follow the link to learn, support, and donate.