About Jessica

“Our bodies are wise beyond measure. When we give ourselves permission to soften into this wisdom, healing at the deepest level is available to us.”

Welcome to my website! For my official biography, please check out the information below. And for those of you looking for a more informal introduction, please allow me to share a little bit about myself…

I go by the pronouns she/her and live on a beautiful stretch of land inhabited originally by the Nehalem and Clatsop nation on the Northern Oregon coast in the United States. Living close to nature is a large part of what sustains me!

I grew up inhabiting a highly sensitive body compounded by exposure to early adversity and childhood trauma. So, I truly understand the impact of stress and trauma from the inside out.

My background is in bodywork, and I have been working with people for more than 25 years as a guide and mentor promoting health and wellness. I have also been working personally with the practices I teach for most of my life.

My body and its neuro-sensitivity has been the greatest teacher I have known. And my lived experience is the foundation that informs my work with others. So when I “teach,” I am coming from the perspective of being right there in the thick of life, navigating stress and overwhelm side by side with all of you.

I believe that healing is both a personal and collective endeavor. My work as a Wellness Mentor focuses on teaching individuals how to connect with the innate intelligence of the body and how to partner with the body to grow their capacity for navigating the challenges of life. Whether that is the grind of everyday, modern living, the burden of negotiating systemic oppression + trauma, or the overwhelm of recovering from toxic stress.

I also believe that cultivating a nervous system-informed lens is a necessary and vital component of each individual’s healing journey. When we understand how our nervous systems work, when we can track and monitor the underlying physiology driving our behaviors and experiences in life, when we can be in creative dialogue with our body’s innate responses, and when we can learn to apply simple, self-care practices that support us in navigating the impacts of stress while cultivating greater resilience, we have greater access to the core attributes many of us wish to embody: compassion, empathy, equanimity, adaptability, integrity. And those attributes are essential for promoting wellness at both an individual and community-wide level.

I welcome working with all individuals and recognize the particular challenge and hardship for folks who have experienced marginalization for any reason, but especially due to the color of their skin, their gender identity, their body size and mobility, their nervous system sensitivity, their country of origin, and their sexual orientation. To this end, I engage in ongoing work to address my own privilege and unconscious biases so that my practice, my approach, and the programs I offer remain truly trauma-informed in an embodied way.

Living from a nervous system-informed perspective and following the wisdom of my own body, I find myself moving in new and unexpected directions! Having survived the loss of my long-time mate (in 2021) and the alchemy of allowing grief to re-constellate me, I am now re-discovering myself as an artist, illustrator and greeting card designer. In June, 2022, I launched The Chrysalis Imagery, a space of incubation for inspired imagery. The Chrysalis Imagery offerings include a unique line of greeting cards that normalizes and speaks authentically to the grace and grit of everyday life. From navigating adversity, to loss and grief, and simple expressions of love and appreciation, these messages touch the heart of human experiences.

Official Biography:

Since 1998, Jessica Schaffer, Nervous System Health Educator, has been guiding people towards a more authentic relationship with their bodies and their overall health. Jessica maintained a successful private practice in Portland, Oregon for 20 years where she offered support for individuals seeking personal growth and transformation. She now offers educational and wellness programs that teach people about nervous system regulation and resilience. She is passionate about introducing people to the concept of stress physiology and helping them cultivate tools to better manage and regulate their nervous system responses to stress and trauma. In addition, she runs a professional training program for practitioners who want to incorporate the Nervous System RESET approach into their clinical practices.

A graduate of The Oregon School of Massage, Jessica holds a license in Massage Therapy. In addition, she is recognized as a Master Teacher in the Usui Shiki Ryoho lineage of Reiki and has been teaching since 2002. From 2014-2017, she was a Certification Trainer and representative of TRE ® (Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises ®) where she honed her understanding of working with the body’s natural recovery response of tremor release. Ultimately, her unique methodology of working with the body and its natural recovery response lead her to the creation and curation of the Nervous System RESET approach which was launched in 2017.

With over two decades of professional experience, Jessica’s deeply intuitive skills and her ability to understand the body both anatomically and energetically, provide a powerful foundation for guiding others into a profound experience of body awareness and neural regulation.

Jessica celebrates the inherent wisdom that lies inside each of us and believes that our individual paths of healing lead us back to this wholeness. She recognizes that healing is best facilitated by creating a safe environment where each person can be witnessed and held respectfully in their authentic experience. Her work and teaching are infused with a genuine sense of empathy, compassion and integrity. And she feels honored to support others on their unique paths of personal growth and empowerment.

Most recently, having lived through the loss of her long-time mate (in 2021) and the alchemy of allowing grief to re-constellate her, Jessica is now re-discovering herself as an artist, illustrator and greeting card designer. In June, 2022, she launched The Chrysalis Imagery, a space of incubation for inspired imagery. The Chrysalis Imagery offerings include a unique line of greeting cards that normalizes and speaks authentically to the grace and grit of everyday life. From navigating adversity, to loss and grief, and simple expressions of love and appreciation, these messages touch the heart of human experiences.