Jackie Garbe wants you to know that yoga doesn’t require a pricey drop-in fee, a fancy mat, or even getting out of bed. “You can do yoga lying in your bed without even really moving,” the Ridgewood-based teacher told the Queens Gazette in a Local Express profile by Nicollette Barsamian published July 1. “Or just focus on getting in some really good belly breaths, since that’s one of the most important aspects of the physical practice anyway.”
Garbe teaches trauma-informed and Meridian-based yoga rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and she offers free and donation-based NADA ear acupuncture, a five-point protocol used to support addiction recovery and ease withdrawal symptoms. The through-line of her work is access. She said she prioritizes bringing these practices to the people least resourced to pay for care, through free and sliding-scale classes and clinics across the city.
NADA acupuncture has local roots. The protocol was developed in the Bronx in the 1970s to support people in addiction recovery, Garbe said, which is part of why offering it now carries weight for her. “NADA has deep roots in New York,” she said. “So it feels really good to be able to offer it now.”
For Bushwick readers, this is not a far-off Queens story. Garbe said she teaches her weekly yoga classes at Baby Cobra Yoga in Bushwick, which she chose specifically because it runs on a donation basis. “I only teach weekly yoga classes at Baby Cobra Yoga because it’s donation based and I align with that ethos,” she said. She also pointed to Common Good Acupuncture in Bushwick, which she said offers sliding-scale acupuncture along with monthly free ear acupuncture clinics.
Much of her acupuncture work happens through the Ridgewood Care Clinic, a pop-up run by Queens-based teacher and community organizer Zachary Lynn that sets up at Ridgewood Commons and offers free and donation-based ear acupuncture, cupping, and bodywork. Garbe described it as “a very safe, welcoming, and trauma-informed space,” and said she gives ear acupuncture at the clinics herself. Her most recently promoted clinic, on July 12, has already passed; the clinics run as a recurring pop-up open to anyone.
Garbe did not arrive at yoga through the wellness-influencer pipeline. She has lived in New York for eight years and in Queens for two, studied genocide and human rights at Columbia, and worked in the nonprofit sector before moving toward teaching. She resists the idea that she does yoga “full time” at all. “I don’t consider myself to be in yoga full-time because I’ve always had other work, and try to approach yoga as a way to be of service,” she said. She added that she believes healing and caretaking work “should be government subsidized so way more people can teach and offer care full-time, in a sustainable way.”
Her framework is that healing spreads outward. “It’s one thing to heal ourselves and our individual traumas and feel better, and it’s a whole new thing when you help other people heal,” she said. “It creates a ripple effect, and I believe the act of helping others is intrinsically healing.”
Garbe credits her teacher, Dr. Rose Erin Vaughan, who has taught yoga and acupressure in New York for years and runs trainings through the Science of Self yoga school, online and in person. Garbe said the school runs sessions in New York City and upstate year-round for people who want to deepen a practice, learn acupressure, or teach.
Asked about her favorite spots in the borough, Garbe named Ridgewood Commons for its community programming, Good Neighbors Market in Ridgewood for local groceries, Daya Yoga in Ridgewood for its teachers, and Nowadays, which she praised for cultivating “a genuine safe space.” “Music and dance are an important liberation and embodiment practices,” she said.
Her advice for anyone thinking about starting is to drop the pressure. “There’s no right or wrong way to do it,” she said. “Find something that gets you into your body, and makes you feel good, and try to stick to it.” She frames the habit as devotion rather than discipline: “you’re doing this because you want to do something nice for yourself.” And if you miss a day, she said, don’t be hard on yourself, just return to it when you can.
Garbe lists her classes and clinics at jackiegarbe.com and posts on Instagram as jackiegarbe.
Featured image: Bushwick Daily image
