How My Mission Came To Be

The last 6 years have been a crazy adventure and I owe a lot of it to shuffling and what it has brought into my life. In the beginning of this journey I was a personal trainer looking to bring a concept that promoted freedom of expression and wellness integrated but I wasn’t sure how. Without thinking too much into it, I spent my first two years of shuffling just letting lose. I had no intention of improving my technique, my only motive was connecting deeper with my freedom, becoming more courageous and letting go of fear. This is how I confronted my anxieties and feelings of unworthiness.

While I continued growing as a shuffler, the demand for this movement medicine began to grow around me. This inspired me to dive deeper into it’s technique and the therapeutic benefits of not only freestyle shuffling but also the culture of filming and posting. The way we deal with our struggles with movement, face our demons through our captions, and share it with the world to then connect with some amazing individuals on the same path is something to talk about and I am here for it. While all this was coming together, I also enrolled in the Expressive Art Therapy program at Lesley University in order to gain more professional skills to support people on their journey. This is also a reflection of my work in that field.

Observing the shuffle community the last 5 years has led me to conclusions about the transformational influence it has on people.

The very first conclusion is that shuffling is accessible to people of all ages and can be danced to any kind of music genre. It is nearly limitless. It is also a fantastic tool for growth and spiritual movement. I have seen people who have never danced before transform completely, gain confidence, motivation and find a safe space where they can be truly free without judgement. I want more people to experience this and this is why I made it my mission to spread this knowledge to all walks of life.

Then we have the active shuffle community online. A lot of us struggle with both anxiety and depression. Anxiety about not being good enough and depression often showing up as a lack of motivation which is stopping some of the most talented people out there from posting content. It is no surprise we all gravitate towards shuffling. Shuffling is an amazing tool to heal! We all know this but do we talk about it enough?

Although shuffling has blown up because of it’s online presence, social media can take a toll on the process of raw expression. It is no wonder many shufflers experience an utter feeling of worthlessness when they don’t get the reaction they expect for their content. This is why Shuffle Therapy is here to remind all of us why we do this. It isn’t for the reaction, it is for the release. It is for wellness!

While some people dance and post to grow their following, the rest of us have the right to do it for expression and connection! We don’t need an extravagant reason to shuffle and post. This is a therapeutic practice and we must see it for what it is. Experiencing mental illness doesn’t make us weak. It makes us human. Specially after all we have been through the last two years. This is why it is important to put ourselves as #1, not the number of followers, not our expectation of impressing our idols and not our expectation of being good enough for anyone. Just for us, for our health, for our heart. This is what shuffle therapy is all about. Raw expression for everyone !