The Sama Mama Mission
Welcome! I’m Stephanie Sandleben (she/her), pelvic floor health and yoga expert.
I am committed to empowering people in all stages of life to restore their bodily and emotional confidence and help them reconnect to their own innate wisdom.
Through teaching and learning, being in dialogue with each other and creating a safe space where all bodies feel welcome, I hope to facilitate a deep collective renewal.
Movement has been part of my life since my mom enrolled me in ballet classes at age three—and I really haven’t stopped moving since.
I was introduced to yoga as a teenager, again by my mom, a Kripalu-inspired yogini, and instantly fell in love with the practice.
In my early twenties, I jumped at my first chance to travel to India with my dad, a Sufi Sheikh. I could barely contain all my excitement going to the birthplace of yoga.
This trip, the first of many to India, was an initiation into a dynamic, multifaceted culture that I immediately felt a deep connection to and eventually sparked my desire to teach yoga.
my story
My love of movement grew into a lifelong passion over the past two decades, taking root in New York City.
I received my first yoga teaching certificate in 2004 with Alison West, a Manhattan yoga pioneer and innovator, and spent more than ten years teaching alignment-based vinyasa at prominent yoga studios in Manhattan and Brooklyn, along with corporate clients like Google, Eileen Fisher, and Credit Suisse. During this immersive time of teaching, I studied with a multitude of gifted teachers—Alison West, Tias and Surya Little, A.G. and Indra Mohan, Schuyler Grant, Alison Sinatra, Joelle Hann, Elena Brower, and Nikki Costello.
The birth of my daughter rearranged me from the inside out and eventually catapulted my family across the country to the Bay Area, where I started the next chapter of my life and career.
My postpartum experience was a fierce initiation into motherhood. I was overwhelmed and baffled at how I could possibly heal from a traumatic birth while taking care of an infant full-time. It seemed impossible. My birth injury sent me on a healing journey that included yoga, pelvic floor physical therapy, Somatic Experiencing™, and meditative compassion practices.
This life-altering experience inspired me to train as a postpartum doula through San Francisco’s Natural Resources, and to become certified in Pelvic Floor Yoga™ Therapy with Leslie Howard in 2014.
Since then, my passion for yoga has expanded to help and empower women in all phases of life in their own pelvic health journeys.
I’m on the teaching staff of the National Institute of Health–funded LILA (Lessening Incontinence through Low Impact Activity) study, conducted by University of California San Francisco, and I’ve been teaching pelvic floor yoga workshops and classes in person and online, since 2015.
My family and I are now based in Northern Arizona, in Prescott where I grew up, back where my story began. Life has come full circle and I’m grateful to have the support of family and friends here as I launch this next exciting phase of my life and career.
Training & Qualifications
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Franklin Method ® Pelvic Floor Fascia Trainer
Led by Eric Franklin
Online | 2021
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Somatic Experiencing™ Courses: Activate Your Inner Jaguar, Mother’s Circle, Jaguar Parenting: Tune into Children
Led by Kimberly Ann Johnson and Ale Duarte
Online | 2018-2020
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Pelvic Floor Yoga™ Teacher Training
Led by Leslie Howard
Oakland, CA | 2014
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Natural Resources
Postpartum Doula Training
San Francisco, CA | 2014
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Svastha Yoga and Ayurveda, Yoga Psychology for Personal Transformation
A.G. and Indra Mohan
Chennai, India | 2011
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Reiki Level One, Two and Masters certification
Padma Gonzalez and Maria Soalise, Usui Shiki Ryoho
New York, New York | 2007-2010
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Prajna Yoga, Sessions I—III for 200 hour teacher training
Tias and Surya Little at Prajna Yoga
Boston, MA and Santa Fe, NM | 2007-2009
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Yoga Union 200 hour teacher certification
Alison West, Amy Matthews and Deborah Wolk
New York, New York | 2004
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