I help elders and their families navigate aging with dignity, acceptance, healthy habits and joy
What does it mean to provide our aging loved ones truly loving care?
It’s a given that we attend to their daily needs for support, dressing, bathing, eating, etc. Yet truly engaging their hearts, minds and bodies (even for those with advanced dementia or degenerative disease) is something altogether different…
I call myself an elder companion and a healthy aging doula. The role I play incorporates becoming a friend, part therapist, part trainer to the elder and I specialize in accompanying each person on their journey toward the end of life. My training in movement, balance, strength training, agility, cognitive engagement and deeply personal approach all enable me to discover and bring attention to what makes your loved one light up and allows me to uncover moments of comfort and joy even under the most difficult of circumstances.
I am passionate about this work and love supporting families and elders through profound physical, cognitive and emotional loss towards a place of acceptance for WHAT IS versus what WAS.
Connect with me!
I look forward to customizing a plan for your elder that meets your needs and theirs.
It takes a village!
How I Can Help
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Companionship & Conversation
My unique gift is in the quality of connection that I build with my elders. All conversations focus on making them feel seen, revered and heard. It’s in this space that we invite the “letting go” as they face the decline of their aging body and mind.
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Mobility & Fitness
Aging is difficult both physically and mentally, yet movement can have a positive impact on both. I work with seniors of all mobility levels - chair/bed bound and active - to build functional strength, better balance and a sense of achievement in creative ways.
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Customized Solutions
Especially for those experiencing degenerative diseases, flexibility in my approach is crucial to ensure my elder is motivated to show up for themselves. On difficult days, this can look like facilitating phone calls with old friends, singing with dance moves to incorporate a way to stretch or attending a doctor’s appointment together.
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Family Support
Those juggling their own lives and grieving the loss of the person they once knew need support too. I help bridge care via family meetings to offer discretionary insights into the senior’s wellbeing and offer ways to support them with more compassion. When appropriate I attend medical appointments as a trusted confidante.
About Katina
Katina’s background in dance, Pilates and yoga stretches over 25 years and she brings her passion and enthusiasm for movement to every class that she teaches. She has held the title of Master Teacher Trainer at a renowned barre studio in the Bay Area for the past 17 years and has mentored hundreds of studio owners and teachers across the United States, Canada, Mexico, and France.
Her passion, teaching style and beliefs in the effects that functional movement has on rehabilitating her students from injuries comes first-hand after she suffered a compression fracture in her spine in 1994 that left her in a prosthesis for 3 months. She attributes most of the core strength, healing and overall postural awareness she has today to her immersion in corrective exercise and is passionate in her quest to uplift individuals as they meet their own bodies exactly where and whatever rhythm they are in.