Meet Your Guide

Jen Elden

Jen is a Licensed Massage Therapist, Registered Yoga Teacher, and trained facilitator of Mindful Grieving Yoga Therapy Programs. She trained with Jodi Petlin in 2016-2017 in Shanti’s 200 hour Hatha Yoga Teacher Training. During the stress of Covid times and after losing a friend to cancer, Jen took a deep dive into the Grief Support Network’s 200-hour Mindful Grieving Yoga Therapy Teacher Training. She has continued to study Yoga and Meditation through the years, with teachers such as Dr. Michele Kamboulis (Meditation), Donna Farhi & Leila Stuart (Yoga) , and Dr. Arielle Schwartz (Applied Polyvagal Theory and Yoga for Stress and Trauma Recovery). In addition to her holistic and therapeutic Massage practice with her business, Whitefish Massage Therapy, in 2026, Jen earned an End of Life Doula Certificate from the University of Vermont. With presence and awareness, Jen weaves lessons from her studies into her work with her clients.

Why Apani

The symbolism of Butterfly as a metaphor for transformation feels potent for what we do as we move through life, as we lean into our grief and shadows, go into our internal experience and reemerge with anew form of ourselves. Jen received formal permissions from Blackfeet spiritual leaders in a traditional ceremony to use the Indigenous Blackfeet word for Butterfly, Apanii, to be carried through her offering of grief work and beyond. With sweetgrass and ritual, prayers were sung.  Opening, weeping, breathing into the profound power of the words, the vibration of the native language, intention, and genuine acceptance, she received their gift. She welcomed their invitation to deepen her intention and take a vow with Apanii at Circle Dance in the summer of 2021, an experience that has forever imprinted her soul with its sacred intention and beauty. 10% of all proceeds from her work through Apanii will be donated to Blackfeet Eco Knowledge to contribute to cultural preservation.

Jen is deeply honored and humbled to bring this healing work forward, and is continually evolving with how she shares the teachings according to life and integrating the lessons. She wants to recognize Wendy Stern, Founder of the Awakening through Grief Mindful Yoga Therapy Program and Center for Somatic Grieving, and her vision of being part of changing the way our culture processes grief through her trainings. So many lessons are embedded through each piece of this practice, ultimately cultivating awareness so we can reconnect to the deep wisdom within ourselves which we can reorient to, again and again, throughout our lives.