Hayley Alaina Shannon (she/her) is a devotee of the wisdom of the body and the mystery of the soul. She facilitates embodiment experiences for adults to re-awaken their authentic nature. She is passionate about re-membering our wholeness and having a creative and empowered time doing it!

Hayley was raised in a culture of avoidance. When depression and anxiety gripped her at a young age, it seemed like escapism was the only route. Thankfully, she had the medicine of dance and nature which could always bring her back to herself.

Studying modern dance at Michigan State University opened her perception of “dance” to include an ancient method for communal empowerment and healing. She began to come home to her body through studying somatics.

Hayley migrated to Seattle to dance professionally and teach with non-profits like Creative Dance Center, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Spectrum Dance Theater and Path With Art. Her focus was on inclusion and accessibility, believing dance is a birthright that every body deserves access to. She was honored to work with The Three Yells Performance Company for five years, under the artistic direction of Singaporean artist Veronica Lee-Baik, who melds butoh and modern dance.

She longed for deeper healing and did not resonate with talk therapy. So in 2016, Hayley raised the funds to travel to Greece to study dance/movement therapy, breathwork and contemporary dance and social justice. She was able to truly confront her embodied trauma for the first time and left feeling incredibly empowered.

Once back in Seattle, she began choreographing works inspired by her healing journey and founded Dance Healing to support adults to connect with their authentic nature. While movement was her “home” language, she noticed blockage in her voice and longed for a more expansive toolset.

In 2018 she moved to northern California to study somatic expressive arts therapy with the legendary Anna Halprin and her daughter Daria Halprin at Tamalpa Institute. Here, she awoke the power of ritual, voice, poetry and drawing within her and found new layers of homecoming to her body and soul.

In 2020 Hayley moved to an island in the Salish Sea to live more intimately with the land. She officially launched her business, Embody Soul LLC, in 2022 and is currently expanding her work with online trainings, retreats and creative collaborations. She is a continuous student of the heart, land and breath.

Hayley is thankful to her amazing community and partner who keep her life grounded and rich in so many ways.

Other teachers that influence her work include: breathwork with Tai Hubbard, embodied consciousness meditation with Sono Hashisaki, and sounding with Dohee Lee.