Today we’d like to introduce you to Jo Standing.
Hi Jo , can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Jo Standing began on the East Coast making her way through her childhood with the help of the coastal surf, family, and her fire starter spirit. With a WWII veteran father who co-conceived twins at his 68 years of life and a corporate advertising sales executive mother running the show and alongside her sisters and brother she found her way well enough. She cheerled, and before that phase played baseball amongst her male peers after school. She read mystery novels by hiking to the library on her own, ran amuck, bicycled to the beach to catch daybreak, ran barefoot through the forest, and only then put headphones on to get her schoolwork done on time. Socially, she tried to keep up with the ways of her siblings when really she was most happy being an introvert and doing introvert things.
She went on to attend Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York City, followed by studying in Vancouver, Canada in holistic health studies, creative writing at University of British Columbia, negotiation and mediation and collaborative conflict resolution at the Justice Institute of British Columbia. Plus, earned diplomas in Coaching and Counseling from Rhodes College. She returned to the United States briefly before traveling more around the world and starting her own non-profit, The Viva Standing Foundation, centered on research, education, and interviews in light of furthering healthy military transition from service member to civilian.
She took rest to have her body heal from having cancer taken out and found new ways to attune to nature. A year later she offered 18 weeks of free trainings in her Trauma Cooperative Yoga, now Reparative Yoga aka Yoga Soothe, as well as in her self-navigation tool developed called The Identity Association Model. The same year after her major surgery she dedicated to earning herself a degree in Health Sciences with the original school, Goddard College as founded in Vermont. She was the sole recipient of the Priscilla Bachman scholarship and also received a scholarship at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California and with Sounds True training program as in collaboration with NYU.
Jo has authored many books including Conquer Trauma Drama: Get Your Life Back, Conquer Trauma Drama: The Breakthrough Curriculum, Trauma Resolution: Training in Trauma Cooperative Yoga, Yoga Soothe: Your Body as Leader, Unifying You: Wait For No One (as an audiobook at Audible) and more.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Every day is different in the challenges that God brings. Or, as one might say, The Greatest Creator of All. I think try as one might to intervene on another’s life, as I have experienced when investing in my military-focused non-profit, we all have final say over how our lives are impacted. No plan is perfect, and so long as we have another day in the chamber then we may fire off all kinds of newly inspirited and animated ways to have larger conversations. For me, I have chosen to morph into different modes to complement my zeal and zest for my initiatives. I realize some people want to shoot the messenger. Still, when we know our intentions are pure and our meaning is matched with confirmed benefit by the brave ones, wild enough to imagine ways to lead back to oneself, and to “whole” oneself, then all the efforts are worth it. “No regrets,” as Edith Piaf said.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Recently, I have invited a Grade School peer to join the product creation of a new book called Parallels of Me. Billy Barnett also graduated with degrees centered on health and education from Virginia Commonwealth University and The University of Manoa. He found my audiobook, Unifying You, and was bold enough to reach out to say hi and ask about what’s coming next!
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
My mother, Penny, as different as we are (I’m more of a feeler and a “let’s talk it out” person), actually set aside six months nearly twenty years ago to become wonderfully obsessive with me about the very first book I wrote. She met with me by phone every Saturday morning and read every single line of my five hundred pages back to me so that I could gain enough distance to experience the work from a different perspective.
The woman who married my dad before my mom was equally stellar at welcoming me into her life, giving me the opportunity to hear about her and my dad’s life together, since I only got sixteen years with him.
My ex-husband, Alex, long after we parted ways, remained steadfast in helping me care for my four-legged beasts, Pledge and Honor, while also helping me record an entire album of music.
And then there is the bright, sparkly-eyed soul named Elliott Breit, who, alongside his mother, inspired me—and many others—to keep on keeping on in the face of unjust adversity experienced by far too many. Barbara Savage’s Tribal Trust Foundation has done leaps and bounds for humanity just as her work will echo for a long time to come. Meeting her and her son over the years has changed my life forever.
The same goes for every woman who talks about her dreams. You all influence me. And, Ren Jones. He saw a child in need a long time ago and doubled down too many times to count to enforce as much compassion as he might for myself and my path. Thank you, Ren.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.unifyingyou.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ableandkeen
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jostanding
