Rachel M. de Simone

Dr. Rachel de Simone, M.Ed., DPT, AHC, E-RYT 500

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Rachel is the owner of Lotus Yoga & Integrative Health. Using an integrative, holistic, and ecological framework, she supports people who want to live vibrant, healthy lives in moving from surviving to thriving by cultivating wellness as a daily practice, aligning the rhythm of life with the rhythm of nature, and addressing root causes, not just symptoms. Find out more about Rachel's practice by visiting www.lotusvt.com.

 

Rachel (she/her) is a Doctor of Physical Therapy who blends together eastern and western approaches to health and healing. Rachel’s 20+ years of studying and practicing yoga on and off the mat helped her to develop clear insight into the relationships between the body, mind, senses, and spirit. She believes that health and wholeness are our natural state, and that with consistent, daily self-care practices we can build balanced, joyful, and purposeful lives. 

 

After practicing in a traditional medical model for several years, Rachel felt like something was missing in the Western approach to healing. Many of her patients had tried all of the traditional avenues, but were still in pain. She started seeing more and more patients with chronic pain, autoimmune issues, and complex health concerns who saw specialist after specialist, but still didn’t have a clear diagnosis or effective treatment plan. Her own experience as a patient with a complex medical history helped her clarify what was missing: Providers have become so specialized, that no one was looking at the big picture or asking why these symptoms were persisting. 

 

Rachel began studying Ayurvedic medicine because she wanted to develop a holistic, integrative approach to health and healing. Ayurveda teaches that the main causes of imbalance and disease are sensory, digestive system, and nervous system overload, being out of sync with nature and the seasonal cycles, and ignoring our instincts and intuitions. In other words, Ayurvedic medicine teaches us how to listen to our inner wisdom, be intentional about what we consume (in terms of nutrition, information, and experiences), and balance our energy so that we do not become depleted. Treatment focuses on tending to the agni, or digestive fire, to maximize the nutritional absorption of the food we eat, and create the optimum conditions for healing.

 

Rachel takes an Ayurvedic approach to physical therapy and yoga. She aims to connect patients with their inner wisdom and to help them uncover their innate potential for transformation and healing. Her approach begins with prevention and early detection of imbalances to address problems before they progress to full blow diseases or injuries. When imbalances advance to injury or illness, she uses an integrative approach to treating the whole person, drawing on Ayurveda, CranioSacral and other manual therapies, breathwork, yoga asana, meditation, postural restoration, physical therapy, pain neuroscience education, daily routines to facilitate energetic balance, herbalism, and nutrition to facilitate the optimal conditions for healing, and to treat the root causes, not just the symptoms.

 

She has successfully supported many patients in their healing journeys who have not had success with prior interventions by listening deeply to patients’ goals and values, getting curious about the why, looking at the big picture, and treating the whole person, including the mind, body, senses, and spirit. She empowers patients to be active partners in their treatment and recovery, and she works hard to support her patients in making sustainable changes for their health and wellness.

 

As a yoga teacher, her teaching evolves from her own practice of yoga on and off the mat. She integrates Ayurvedic, Yogic, and Buddhist wisdom into her teachings to help students boost sattva (harmony and energetic balance). Her classes flow with the rhythms of nature, changing with the energetic shifts of the season, time of day, and place. It is her intention as a teacher to create a vinyasa krama, or a wise progression of movement that integrates breath and mindfulness into a moving meditation. Rachel believes that yoga is a practice of unlearning the habits of our reactive minds, unveiling the illusion of separateness to reveal deep connection, and waking up to our true nature, which is peaceful, loving, and kind. She hopes your practice empowers you to live from the heart, and to begin cultivating peace in the world by cultivating peace with yourself.