Movement Medicine with Jess

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Movement Medicine with Jess

A place for me to share about movement medicine I am offering with those who want to practice with me For summer 2024, I will be based out of Bar Harbor, Maine.

I created this page to be a central location for me to share various forms of movement medicine that I will offer both virtually and in person in my communities. I am a rock climbing and hiking guide in Acadia National Park and I share meditation, yoga, and dance practices throughout Maine. I work for Acadia Mountain Guides to share rock climbing and I independently share other movement practices

in a variety of locations. I am open for private and small group meditation/yoga/dance practices and I will be offering various classes throughout the summer in different studios near Bar Harbor. I am actively studying herbal medicine, trauma/nervous system science, and movement/anatomy/fitness science to deepen my capacity to understand what my body needs and how I can best support other people in their journey of reconnecting with their own bodies and feeling better. I would love to share my medicine with you. Reach out to me to learn more!

10/29/2025

Okay, Ellenville New York, I’m popping into town for the weekend and have a lil treat to share with you!!!

Come move and groove with me in a spacious studio to a funky, Halloween-themed playlist.

I’m just trying to share some spooky joy while I visit for the weekend and hope y’all will turn out.

There’s a lot of other events happening this weekend in the Square and I hope to offer a physical, mental, and emotional unwind for those who turn up to my practice!

This will be the last event I market as movement medicine with Jess ~ new name/reframe dropping on November 2nd or 3rd 👀

10/17/2025

Guiding in Acadia provides a very unique challenge ~ the ocean and the tides

When the tide is high or the ocean is riled up, some of the climbs are not climbable and some of the climbing locations require creativity and technical solutions to enter and exit!!

On this day in August, the ocean was unusually wild for that part of the season and climbing at Pebble Beach was a bold move. I told this family that I could keep them from getting washed away but that I could not guarantee we wouldn’t get wet, and they were psyched for the quest.

I lowered them into the cliff and we wandered over to the climbs. As the season progressed the ocean crept closer and closer to our little island of dryness. We strategically placed our bags up high and everyone stayed attached to a rope most of the time.

As one of the kids was sneaking in one last climb, a big wave swept in and soaked all of our feet and gave us the “it’s time to leave” signal 🤣

I walked everyone to the safe zone that was dry and protected from the waves while I went and broke down the anchors. Before we climbed out, I short roped the kids up on top of the sea stack so they could watch the ocean from above and feel on top of the world ~ the stoke was high and we got splashed by sea spray.

I climbed them all out a gully and then we sat on the top and watched the waves get wilder and wilder for a few minutes before wrapping up the session!!!

How fun! I love my job!

Had my last day of guiding in Acadia for the season earlier this week but you best bet I’ll be back next summer 😉

and there’s still a few guides around for the rest of this month if you want some late season ocean excitement to spice up your vacation! Call at +1 (207) 288-8186 to book 😈

10/15/2025

Women’s Climbing + Yoga Retreat September 2025

Hahaaaa this was back in September and we’re going to share about it now!

We had a small but mighty crew of women who joined me in Acadia to camp, practice yoga, climb rocks and eat nourishing food with community.

On day one we gathered in the park and did a short movement practice and went to climb at otter cliffs as a crew of 4 and on day two we did yoga by the fire in the morning and then I took and up a multi-pitch on the south bubbles the alpine way ~ climbing up and hiking off!!!

We ate a yummy veggie and chickpea coconut curry on Saturday night + a shakshuka on Sunday morning for breakfast. I made everyone a floral herbal tea on Saturday night and a reishi/chaga/cacao chai on Sunday morning 😋

I love creating multi-day experiences for people where I offer yoga, climbing and food/tea to nourish mind, body and soul!

If you’re a part of the q***r community and are wanting to have a fun experience with me this October, I am offering a yoga + climbing campout in Rumney New Hampshire on October 24-26 and there’s still time to sign up!!! Sign up by October 19th if you need rental gear, October 22nd if you have your own gear. I’d love to have you ~ link in my bio or check my other posts to learn more!

09/24/2025

Get hyped, tell your friends, and mark your calendars for a spooky season LGBTQ+ climbing campout in Rumney a month from today!!!!

The nights and mornings will be chilly, but we will warm ourselves with nourishing food, playful movement and good company 👻

Rumney is an excellent place to climb late season as there are plenty of crags that get full sun exposure to keep you nice and toasty!

Check out the link in my bio, the link in my story, or DM me to learn more and sign up!!!

07/10/2025

Some guiding highlights from this past week!!

Lots of base managing Otter Cliffs lately ~ alone and guiding a bigger crew with 😎

Got to do the spicy climb out of Yellow Wall ~ not a lot of gear on that thing but such an amazing climb 🤣

And another Story of O romp!!! I love multi pitch guiding ~ so fun

If any of this looks awesome to you, give a call and book a session!!!! If you want to climb with me specifically, send me a DM to coordinate with my availability 😝

05/23/2025

Recently published a simple yoga practice for any folks who need a little gentle movement inspiration! Link to it in my bio!

20 minutes, very beginner friendly, very “bad at yoga” person friendly 😜

I’ve totally dropped the ball on the subscription website where folks can request certain yoga practices ~ I am working on my habit of booming a lot at once and then falling into the abyss and disappearing. Looking to find a new habit of consistently, sustainably posting my thoughts and sharing practices for folks to follow along to. Hard when you live life on the go, but I must find a way! I want to share so bad, despite how my occasional radio silence seems.

Hoping once I settle into my summer home and routine I’ll be able to build a habit of creating content each week!

When I go through a hard time or don’t feel well I feel ashamed to present that version of myself here and I think I need to work on dismantling that to show up in all forms and share my process for moving through challenging times.

If you want me to keep sharing more practices short and long please tell me ~ I need encouragement ~ there is a part of my brain that is really afraid of being in videos/uncomfortable with the desire I have to share online and honestly I’ll take all the accountability buddies I can get!

Thanks for being here, hope you enjoy the mellow yoga practice, stay tuned for more throughout the season 😘👆🏼👉🏼

05/09/2025

So excited to offer a q***r centered retreat this June!
A sign up page where payment can be made is coming soon, for now, please RSVP here and share with your friends!
Signing up with friends gets you a discount so collect your favorite people and come for an adventure! 😄

05/08/2025

Rock Guide Course Part 2

We got a comedic amount of snow mid week!!!

Had a rock rescue drill extravaganza in the pavilion at the campground on the day the snow fell. It was so cold but we brought a lot of snacks and kept ourselves busy with learning and practice drills all day!

The following day we went out and hiked to the top of the Nears to practice guiding lowers and rappels, with some short pitching practice to approach the slippery edge of the cliff.

The rest of the week was *a lot* of climbing to make up for the funky weather we got for the first half of the course!

Wet snow melt kept us on easy terrain at first and on the sunny day we started dancing up routes at the movement standard! Temps got cold again for our last multi pitch day but the stoke was still high. It felt really good to put all of the skills we learned earlier in the week into action and practice on real routes!

On the snow melt day, I took a pretty big whip off of a soggy climb. I had a funny feeling about getting on the route but went for it on the basis that it was easy for me to climb the week before, when it was dry. This fall brought up conversations around course pressure and the dynamics of expectations and how it can impact judgement and why it is important to stay grounded in your intuition.

So what this means for me now as a guide is that I am able to guide people on simple multi-pitch terrain!! In Acadia it expands my options to second tier climbs at south wall and topping out the bubbles!! Super stoked to be creative with the adventures I bring clients on this season.

04/07/2025

I’ve been in the Gunks this week prepping for my rock guide course that starts tomorrow!

For those who don’t know, the rock guide course is the first tier of education you receive through the AMGA to begin expanding your scope of practice to multi-pitch terrain. Multi pitch terrain is when you climb up one route and then bring your belayer up to you and climb up another pitch of the route above that.

I have been a single pitch guide for 4 years now, this will be my 5th season in Acadia, and I am really excited to branch out and add to my skill set!

Taking this course is really big for me as I quite frankly never imagined myself getting comfortable enough leading trad to be able to uphold the movement standard for courses like this.

Taking it in the Gunks is especially saucy because the climbing here is spectacularly steep and one could describe steep climbing as my weakest movement due to a lot of fear around how my body feels in space while I climb at those angles.

Luckily, I am the type of person that loves to go towards my fear instead of away from it (for better or for worse) and through a lot of meditation, patience, and practice I have managed to cool my head quite a bit and get to a point where I have actually been having fun out here pushing my comfort zone!

Not everything has gone perfect: I have had a few routes where I had to nervous yell or panic down climb to recollect myself before moving through cruxes. Those moments were just as special as the onsites (climbing the route first try, with no previous knowledge) because they allow the opportunity to experience fear, calm down the fear, and then go back up to do the thing.

One of the things I love most about climbing is the mental resiliency it helps you gain through constantly going through the fear and courage cycles and coming out the other side able to teach your nervous system it is okay to do scary things and we in fact feel quite fantastic after managing fear and doing something hard.

PSA: Getting good at down climbing is an excellent skill to practice if you don’t want to take huge trad whips AND the Gunks are beautiful, come climb here 😍

Address

Bar Harbor, ME
04609

Website

https://linktr.ee/jessbeneski

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