Meet Jessica Freedman

Jul 21, 2020

jessica freedman posing with family for photo

Meet Jessica Freedman, the Director of Family Programming at Bella Prana Yoga Studio, and learn how she will be committed to supporting you and your family.

Dear Bella Prana Families,

Since we believe that serving you is personal, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. I am a mother, wife, friend, educator and yogi. I am a Florida native and I graduated from the University of Tampa. I was pre-med in college with all the intentions of going to veterinary school after I graduated. After graduation, my plans changed and summer of 2004 I went to work as an educator for the Busch Gardens Zoo. It was an amazing time in my life when I got to work with some amazing folks and animals teaching the world about conservation and biological education. I performed in live shows with Jack Hannah, developed curriculum for zoo education programs for children of all ages, traveled around central Florida giving lectures to thousands of men, women and children. It was a dream job and one I always recall with fond memories. 

While I was working at the zoo, a friend introduced me to “real” yoga at a yoga studio. My interactions with yoga prior to this had been in a gym setting and while ok- there was something missing from the basic exercise practice. I found that in the sacred space of the studio. It was in the studio space that I fell in love with the wonder of the energetic breath work, healing meditations and intelligent sequencing delivered by seasoned yogis.

Thus, began my love affair with yoga. I dived right in and became a certified teacher in 2006. I was encouraged to take a prenatal yoga teacher training at this time, so I did! Way before I became a mother I was guiding women during one of the most amazing times of their lives in a way I knew to be deeply significant and meaningful.

In 2011,  I became a mother for the first time and again in 2013. My children are my greatest accomplishment in this life and I am extremely proud of the cool and compassionate people they are.

I met Roni and Tina in 2010 and I became of part of the Bella Prana teaching family from the start. I loved teaching at the very first Bella space on MacDill Ave. In early 2011, I took over the Prenatal Yoga class and taught it during my entire pregnancy with my son, Mason. After Mason was born, our family moved out West to Arizona where my husband attended naturopathic medical school and I did my graduate work in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Our daughter came along as a pleasant but very unexpected surprise in 2012 and I stepped away from grad school to fully support my husband and be solely dedicated to raising our children.

When we moved back to Tampa in 2015, I began to develop curriculum for an online yoga facilitating platform and went on to create the prenatal yoga teacher training program, “Prenatal Yoga and Beyond”, shortly after that. In 2018, I partnered with Bella Prana to launch the very first prenatal yoga teacher training in the Spring of 2019. We graduated 5 trainees that year and went on to hold another successful training even during a global pandemic.

I have had the pleasure of working at Bella Prana teaching pre/postnatal yoga workshops and helping out with the Baby & Me, Family Yoga and Kids classes whenever I am needed. I love our Bella Prana Mamas and Families so much, and in March of 2020 I was offered the position of the Director of Family Programming with the duty of uplifting and supporting our your children, families, and our beautiful Bella Prana Mama group.

I, along with Joyce McNally the Director of Events and Kids Programming, will be working diligently to support our Bella Prana families during this unprecedented time in history. None of us have ever lived through a pandemic and I am impressed and amazed at how we are adapting. The practice of our yoga off the mat is being put to use every day as we navigate these new waters and learn how to raise children, stay connected and nurture our relationships in new, physically distanced ways.

One of the top priorities is keeping you CONNECTED. Below are some of the ways Bella Prana is committed to supporting you and your family, and I will be your direct contact if there is anything we can do to serve you better.

Mama Meet Up Groups

Meetups will be hosted by myself, Clare Seng, and Lisa Wilson and a handful of local Tampa Bay mothers and professionals with expertise in varying child/family fields. These individuals have a vast network of people to help support you at all stages of family development, from preconception to pregnancy, birth, new baby/parent support and on.

When: We will have 10 Virtual Bella Prana Mama Meetups every second and fourth Friday of the month at 2:00pm.

Cost: We are keeping the price at $5 a meetup. 

How:  To join a Mama Meet-Up group you will go directly to our virtual studio which you can find on our home page.

  • Create an account if you don’t already have one, then you will automatically go to your Products page.
  • Scroll down to the Mama Meet-Up group that you want to join and click View Product.
  • Then click the green Buy button and follow the prompts to pay.
  • Once the day and time comes for your meet-up, come back to the virtual studio and click on that event.
  • You will be sent directly to a page with a green Join Session button – That’s it!

*Please be sure you have Zoom downloaded on your computer in advance. If you login early the button may still be grey, just reload the page until it goes green to show it is live.

Classes for Families

We currently offer Prenatal Yoga, Baby & Me and Family Yoga weekly at Bella Prana, see our schedule here.

We also hold special event workshops such as Comfort Measures for expecting families, Prenatal Power Yoga, Postnatal, Core and Pelvic Floor and more. 

We will uphold strict cleaning and safety protocols to keep you and your family practicing comfortably in the studio. This includes masks off your mat, hospital grade HEPA filters in every studio, sterilization between all classes, no touch sign in and much more. Learn more about all of our safety protocols here.

Practice from Home

The Bella Prana virtual studio has an array of kids yoga, family yoga, and prenatal yoga classes as well as classes from Beginners to Power Yoga. With over 150 classes to choose from there is always a class that can fit your families schedule. We are also live-streaming 15 classes a week so you can be launched right into the studio space with us.

How: Go to www.bellaprana.com, click the virtual studio, and purchase either a single day, week or month unlimited pass. That’s it! You will see the option to filter by teacher, amount of time you  have or style of class.

We are working on adding prenatal and postnatal yoga classes/workshops to our virtual studio as well, so stay tuned!

It is our calling and our pleasure to hold space for your whole Self and your whole family while we face these challenges together. Bella Prana wants to be a haven for you and your loved ones during this time. Please join us for a class, workshop or meet up and we can’t wait to see you!

In Peace and Kindness,

Jessica Freedman

See Jessica as the Featured Mom Boss by mommyspottampa.com