founder and visionary

Meet

Michelle Young, MA

I'm a mom, a high priestess, a coach, a mentor, and a soul midwife. I am a woman devoted to being all of who I am.

I am also an entrepreneur, a writer, a life and leadership coach, a yogi, and a woman gatherer. For twenty years I have been leading and serving women in the deepest of ways. My most important education came from owning and running a women's yoga and healing center for ten years in California. It was there I had a front row seat to who we are as modern awakening women. I had the honor of witnessing all of our pain, and fear, and worry, along with what we are longing for and missing in our lives. I understand who we are and what we need. My soul's purpose is to bring us together in sacred community so we can heal and rise as the powerful radiant women I know we are.

I have learned that...

Women need each other.

After earning a Master's Degree, studying the Divine Feminine for decades, sitting at the feet of the most amazing spiritual teachers, feminine leaders, and entrepreneurs, after leading hundreds of circles and thousands of powerful women in sacred community,  I have learned that what women want and what women need is simple. We need each other.

The world is at a turning point. We are feeling the call to step into our truth and our full expression. We are ready to break patterns, speak our voice, take up space, start over, and bring our gifts to the world. The way we find the courage to do this is with and through each other. 

my why...

I am here to become my fullest self for my daughter.

I lost my own mother to breast cancer at a young age. My feminine lineage is one of over-giving and self-sacrifice. When my mom passed away, I vowed to find another way to live, one where I am at the center of my own life. One where I break ancient patterns, and light a new path for my daughter. I believe this hurting world needs us women to heal our ancient wounds and remember the Divine Feminine within us, so that our children do not carry these ancient patterns forward. We don't need anymore generations of women living from depletion and sacrifice. I am here to help end this. We heal our ancient wounds through each other.

THE PRACTICE WAS BORN FROM THE WISDOM GAINED FROM HEALING MY OWN WOUNDS, MY EXTENSIVE EDUCATION AND spiritual TRAINING, AND MY EXPERIENCE AS A BUSINESS OWNER.

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My Education and Professional Experience

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formal education:

I have a BA from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Even at 18 years old I had a passion for understanding women. I majored in Women, Culture, and Development.

After college I went on to earn an MA in Holistic Health Education with an emphasis in life and wellness coaching. Since my mother's cancer diagnosis, I have wanted to understand health from a more natural perspective.

I have studied women's health, spirituality, and leadership. 

spiritual training:

I have sat at the feet of amazing spiritual teachers, professors, yogis, and gurus. I started out as a Bikram yoga teacher, studying with Dharma Mittra, Jane Austin, and Mark Horner. I went on to form my own style of yoga that is rooted in the feminine. I have studied feminine spirituality for over a decade and I have been initiated into the 13-Moon Mystery school and priestess lineage where I am currently on the path to becoming an Ordained Focalizer. I am a lifelong seeker, always working with a mentor and teacher. Spirituality, to me, is learning to listen to my deepest truth and wisdom and to find the courage to honor what's real.

I've been studying yoga and spirituality for more than 20 years. 

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business experience:

It was the manifestation of my Master's thesis, and a true integral healing center for women. We had services for the body, for the mind, for the heart, and for the part of us that yearns to connect and be supported. It was magical, transformative, and I am forever grateful to the women that walked through those doors. It's where The Practice was born, and where I had the honor of witnessing thousands of women on their own healing journeys, which deepened my understanding of who we are collectively.

I owned a women's healing center in the San Francisco Bay Area for almost a decade.

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experience leading women:

As a manager and a business owner, as a women's yoga teacher, as a support group facilitator, and as the leader of The Practice. I have led retreats around the country and taught feminine leadership and spiritual trainings. I am now leading inside Priestess Presence alongside my mentor Elayne Kalila Doughty. My circles are a combination of Divine Feminine Ceremony, group support, and sacred community connection. Leading women in this way fills my heart. It is my gift and true purpose.

I've led and supported thousands of women over the last 20 years. 

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in this community we are...

Awakened women seeking sacred feminine community, real connection, and a more authentic life.

We are mothers, grandmothers, leaders, visionaries, care-takers, married, divorced, healers, space holders, and community gatherers. We are the full range of Woman. We have experienced life, been brought to our knees, felt death, grief, and the deepest love. We are strong, resilient, and fierce. We are every color, every shape, every size, and every expression. The thing that unites us is the desire for sacred, authentic, feminine community and to live a life outside of patriarchal rules.

The Practice is...

devotion to yourself

It's carving out time and space for your needs and desires.

leading from your truth

It's the deepest honoring of what is real and true in your heart.

sacred feminine sisterhood

It's healing and rising through the magical connection of sacred community.

it is time...

to gather as the powerful women that we are. To remember our truth and to pave a new path forward.

I am here

We are needed in a new way.

to speak our voice and use our gifts to change the world.

Vignettes of a Woman

Sanctuary Sunday

A free weekly gathering for women leaders to connect and step into their truth.

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Why I closed my business.

This is a story of how I made a drastic life to change finally put my own needs first.


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Join us for Sanctuary Sunday.

If you are local to Portland, Oregon, join us for Sanctuary Sunday offered once a month in our beautiful space.