Our Story

House of Verra began as an abstract vision. A manifestation of a couple decades’ worth of seemingly unrelated paths that I eagerly held onto faith would all make sense one day. For years, I knew deep down that I’d one day want to create a grounding, retreat-like space that held a variety of people along their personal journeys. I just never knew exactly how that would come to be.

As a child, I often created hidden little worlds for myself. Any little nook or backyard patch was fair game for me to magically transform into a space to retreat to where the world felt more quiet. A space just for me. Whether it was a tucked away secret hideout in a little corner or the most of the time empty alleyway behind my home, it didn’t matter as long as I could drop into the world inside my imagination while there. I certainly did not know it then, but I was learning the importance of having a place to exhale, tune in, wonder, and simply be.

As the years went by, that early sensitivity to my environment and intrigue with the workings of our inner worlds deepened into something more intentional. I became fascinated with how space (or lack thereof) impacts energy. Time and time again, in different seasons of my life and in different roles, I witnessed and experienced how space shapes how we feel and how energy is received in the body. Stepping into various roles as a musician, therapist, meditation instructor, creator, and mother, I’ve watched how the nature of external and internal spaces can soften or tighten us, ground or overstimulate us, and shape how safe we feel to simply be. I learned lessons around space, too, while caring for my first dog, Willow, whose sensitivity to her environment mirrored my own and taught me the importance of truly honoring it. In my own journey as a human living alongside anxiety and OCD, I’ve learned how the space around me and the space I cultivate within can either steady me or completely unravel my nervous system.

After weaving together years of personal and professional experience, I came to recognize my undeniable desire to help others reconnect to themselves and those around them by learning to regulate their nervous systems and allowing emotions to move without getting stuck with breath, presence, movement, and authentic expression. I knew one day I'd want to create a space to facilitate just that. To create a space where people could move energy freely and return home to themselves.

I created House of Verra first as a space to support my own well-being and slow return to work. After leaving my work as a therapist to stay home with my daughter, I found myself reevaluating my identity, my passions, and the ways I nourished (or completely depleted) my nervous system. Some days it was difficult to return to that quiet, wise voice within that I once felt so connected to. I longed for a peaceful place to gently step back into seeing clients, but even more so, I longed for a space to move, stretch, breathe, and refill my energetic cup so I could show up as my best self to those around me. What I so longed for was my own adult-sized secret hideout. The kind of space I had always dreamed of.

So, I made it clear my intention to find a space…and the perfect little piece of empty space is what I found. However, from the moment I stepped inside, I was hit with the reminder of that deeper vision of what I wanted to create. I knew this was not meant to be just mine alone. This was my opportunity to offer a space to our community devoted to slowing down, listening deep, expressing authentically, and reconnecting to self and others. Our response to the fast paced, distracted world outside. With so many incredibly gifted practitioners, teachers, and artists in our little corner of world, I could feel in my bones this little tucked away, intimate retreat was asking to be shared.

Now, House of Verra exists as a sanctuary for both myself and others. My little grown-up secret (not so secret) hideout. For yoga instructors, bodyworkers, energy workers, meditation instructors, coaches, creatives, and anyone offering intentional work and longing for an intimate space with little distraction that mirrors that intention. For anyone who has an event or gathering in mind that asks to be held inside a serene and cocoon-like canvas. Whether you come to lead, to gather, to guide, to hold space, to move, to connect without distraction, or to be held for a moment along your human journey, this space is here for you. We are so excited to meet you.

With warmth,

Melissa