Marcia + Mindfulness
Hi there, my name is Marcia
I am a healthcare professional and mindfulness teacher living in British Columbia, Canada. As a physiotherapist I have been helping people with physical rehabilitation, injury prevention, and health and fitness for over 25 years. I realized early in my career that a person’s mental well-being is fundamentally linked to their physical recovery and vice versa. In healthcare these are so often treated separately. I became curious about the mind + body connection as a way to further support a person’s recovery. So I skeptically began to explore the practice of mindfulness and meditation to see what these teachings and practices were all about.
“It wasn’t until I experienced a major health crisis that mindfulness became a personal life journey for me.”
My Journey….
In 2012, I was living life on autopilot mode, and it felt like I was running on a non-stop treadmill. I was working in a high paced, demanding and stressful job. Working long hours and using weekends to catch up. Meanwhile, I was trying to keep up with all the demands of daily life, and “perfecting” and “people pleasing” to boot! Not only was I trying to keep up with the demands of daily life, but I was never satisfied. I was always trying to get somewhere else and never pausing to truly experience the here and now. Deep down, I knew I needed to change how I was living my life, but the thought of being perceived as weak was too much to bear.
This impacted me so deeply that my body decided to shut down, and I had a physical and mental burnout. My high achieving and ‘perfect life’ came to a screeching halt and I became ill and ended up on disability from work. This was a painful, deeply humbling and vulnerable time in my life, and it was at that moment that the mind + body connection became super real for me.
As a physiotherapist, I wanted to find something to complement medicine to help me find my footing and way forward, because I felt lost. A dear friend, mindfulness teacher and mentor encouraged me to attend one of his mindfulness retreats and I’ve never looked back.
The Impetus for starting Presencia
“Mindfulness has been so profoundly nourishing and healing for me, and it truly changed my life.”
“My intention with Presencia is to share the powerful benefits of mindfulness and the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program (MBSR) so that people experience the resilience to ebb and flow with whatever is here and now, whether it be pain, stress or the joys of life.”
Mindfulness in Practice….
“Marcia’s spirit and compassion welcome you where you are. For me her teachings were the key to unlocking the benefits of mindfulness practice in my life.”
Janet Ames, MD
Biography
Marcia is a registered physiotherapist, mindfulness teacher and founder of Presencia. She lives, works and plays in Vernon, British Columbia within the traditional and unceded territory of the Syilx People of the Okanagan Nation. She graduated from The University of Wales, School of Medicine in 1996 with a Bachelor of Science in Physiotherapy. She has over 25 years of clinical experience as a physiotherapist and has been practicing mindfulness and meditation for over 10 years.
Born in Valparaiso, Chile, her family immigrated to Canada in 1975. The name Presencia (pɾeˈsensja), is the Spanish word for presence honoring her Chilean roots.
Marcia began her journey in mindfulness by attending classes that supported her commitment to practice, and attending silent retreats to deepen her practice. She was fortunate to learn from a number of highly skilled, compassionate and long time practitioners of mindfulness who continue to support her growth and cultivation of the practice.
With the desire to meet a high level of competency as a mindfulness teacher, she went on to pursue her certification in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and completed Level 1 MBSR qualifications in 2021 with the Centre for Mindfulness Canada, North Vancouver in collaboration with the Mindfulness Center, at Brown University School of Public Health, Providence Rhode Island.
Marcia is currently enrolled in Level 2 of the MBSR Teacher Training Pathway with the Mindfulness Center, at Brown University and completing the Trauma Informed Mindfulness Certification with David A. Treleaven.
Marcia lives with her husband Stein and shares her home with her mother Carmen. Nature is her happy place.
