About Malissa

Malissa Larson (She/Her)

I’m here to support people as they meet their challenges with everything they’ve got.

Being human presents us with so many opportunities to experiment with how we relate to our thoughts, emotions, and experience of being alive.

Thankfully, we have some tools that humans have been using for thousands of years to assist us in our quest.

I’ve been guiding people in their practice of yoga since 2006. After founding and directing Ashtanga Yoga Buffalo from 2014 to 2021, I now teach private lessons for students wishing to strengthen their yoga practice.

In 2020, a psychotherapist colleague asked me to start teaching his clients how to meditate as a compliment to their mental health work. I’ve since expanded that work to make it available to anyone.

Since 2014, I’ve attended to more than one hundred births in Western New York and across the country virtually. As a DONA certified doula, I’m committed to lifelong learning and their standards and ethics. I’m currently working towards my Registered Nurse degree and certification as a Lactation Consultant. Currently, I’m a trained placenta encapsulation specialist and offer encapsulation services to clients and non clients. I serve at hospitals and birthing centers including: The Birthing Center of Buffalo, John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital, Mercy Hospital of Buffalo, FIKA Midwifery, Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital, Sisters of Charity Hospital, and the TWIG birthing facility that’s connected with Rochester General Hospital. I’m a Certified Doula through the Doulas of North America CD(DONA) and, among other trainings, I have been trained in Neonatal Resuscitation by Karen Strange, which prepared me to perform NRP in case of rapid birth.  I am COVID-19 Vaccinated.