Back in April, we spoke with Amy LePage of Emerge Yoga. She talked to us about how her business was handling the COVID-19 crisis. We caught up with seven months later to get an update.

KC: A lot has changed since we first spoke back in April. What has the evolution been like of how Emerge operates during the last seven months?

Amy: Emerge has continued to offer live Zoom group classes and individual sessions. There’s a chance now for folks who live outside of the Central Vermont area to participate in this new format. Emerge is again seeing private clients in person one day a week. 

KC: What precautions are you taking to keep clients, yourself and the community safe?

Amy: My group classes and some private client sessions are all online, live via Zoom. This allows folks to safely partake in class from the comfort of their own home. When I do see clients privately, I give them the choice of in person or via Zoom. If we meet in person all recommended precautions, and more, are followed: Masks, Covid symptom questionnaire and Covid contact tracing form, temperature taken, thorough – thorough – thorough cleaning and disinfecting, HEPA air filter, one practitioner in the office with their clients at a time to keep traffic flow low. 

KC: What are your fears entering into the winter season?

Amy: Well, deeper isolation is a concern I hold for folks, along with longer hours of darkness and the potential for a lot less movement opportunities – and how chronic stress, tension, anxiety impacts people’s health and wellbeing. In turn, how that impacts families and communities. 
Personally, I do hold fear around the question of if my business can sustain itself. I’m thinking creatively about how to rebuild. I’ll be launching Your Birth Journey soon which provides classes and coaching for birthers and their support person for: preparing to conceive, pregnancy and birth preparation/education, postpartum and adjusting to parenthood.  

I’ll also be offering Movement for Life coaching – with a focus on why movement matters and education that enables folks to be proactive about and take ownership of their own health and wellbeing through functional movement, understanding stress responses in the body’s nervous system and mindful movement that unwinds deeply held patterns that restrict moving, breathing and being free in one’s body. 

KC: How can people support Emerge right now? 

Sign up for a live Zoom class. If you have worked with me before and found it helpful – tell others through Front Porch Forum, word of mouth, social media. Gift individual sessions, either live or via Zoom, to family and friends in or outside of Vermont.  

Learn more about Emerge with Amy LePage.