the journey into the heart space center - it all began in 4th grade!
- darcyvalverdeyoga
- Oct 21
- 17 min read
October 20, 2025
this blog post is a condensed-version, taken from a transcript of a 26-minute video about the same story. If you’re interested in learning how The Heart Space Center came to be, and more about my background, feel free to read here (pics of the journey included!), or if you prefer listening/watching, you can check the video out at The Heart Space Center's YouTube channel.
For those of you who want the condensed, ready-friendly(ish) version, I welcome you to settle in, and read on to learn how The Heart Space Center came to fruition!
Hey friends, I wanted to share about my path with you today, and how I came to begin The Heart Space Center.
The journey to The Heart Space Center literally starts, from what I remember, in fourth grade! So, we're going all the way back to fourth grade where it all started!
In the fourth grade I knew I loved bringing people together. At the end of my fourth-grade year, my best friend at the time, Mary Kathleen Lang; she and I grew up together as very dear best friends since kindergarten and we were in the same fourth-grade class, and we felt that fourth-grade year had been such a good year that it should be celebrated. Our entire class should celebrate, together, this great year that we all had.
We asked our teacher, Mrs. Ohotto, if we could organize a celebration; a party for the class with pizza, activities, games and all sorts of fun stuff. So, we did! It was the first event, to my memory, that I planned – with my very best friend.
We ordered foot long pizzas, played softball outside – I think we even did potato bag races too, if memory serves. It felt so good to see everybody enjoying the celebration; bringing people together as they were sharing and creating memories.
A couple of Halloween photos of me and the 4th grade (and childhood) Bestie! Mary Kathleen and I spent many a trick-or-treating together! To the left, 👈🏼, we went as a Grandma and Grandpa, and below👇🏼 we re-used our dance costumes from that year, and went as Ice Cream Soda and a Hershey's Kiss - num! 😘
Now we're going to fast forward quite a bit to post-college life! I moved to Washington, DC and became an Event Planner! I started at a woman-owned event consulting company and we worked mostly with nonprofits, so lots of fundraising events, and in DC where it was flashy, fancy, and fun – I loved it! The standard event we’d plan were black tie gala fundraisers.
I worked long hours and at lower pay…it was my first job out of college, in the big city of DC, where I had just moved - I loved it but, you know, you're hustling - you're doing a lot of hustling! It was hard work, and I did burn out in that job pretty quickly – and - it was also so exciting too to see people coming together specifically for these nonprofit causes.
We worked closely with various Board of Directors groups in planning these events, figuring out strategically the right people to bring into the space to not only help raise money but to also increase the awareness about the cause. It was quite something to see all of that passion come together. And, sometimes it was challenging working with so many different personalities – in the most entertaining situations, at times, and at other times, a bit more stressful. That said, it was really beautiful to see all of those people working together for a cause. And then of course seeing everyone coming together at each event; that big, fancy black-tie gala. I got to see everyone coming out, dressed to the nines. Sometimes we would organize live auctions and people would be throwing up paddles left and right with all the money going to something bigger; to benefit a cause to help others. That was always really neat to see.
As much fun as the events were, I burned out fairly quickly because it was a lot of long hours and not the greatest work/life balance, specifically for me in my life at that time. In my early 20’s I didn't have the tools I have now to understand and honor my own boundaries. It became too much. Finding balance wasn't my forte at the time – and even now, I'm still working on it. So, instead of trying to find an equilibrium; a balance that felt right, I just couldn’t do it. I left that job. I still stay in great touch with my bosses; they were my mentors and I love them dearly, and I’m grateful for that experience.
After leaving there I became the in-house Meetings and Events Coordinator, eventually Director of Meetings and Events at the National Alliance to End Homelessness. So, I was still doing event planning but in a very different capacity. I was working for a singular nonprofit. I wasn't planning black tie galas. We had one awards ceremony, but it wasn't a black-tie event, it was a more casual vibe, with a focus to increase awareness and to award people that were doing good work within the field of homelessness.
Within my role at the Alliance, what I found to be really neat was just how, again, you see all these people from all over the country, because I was at the National Alliance to End homelessness so we worked with people doing work on the ground all over in different counties and different states, and they were all so passionate about this cause. Many of those people still work in the field; working to end homelessness. I hear about many of them on NPR when I listen to the news in the morning and they're talking about the field of homelessness. It’s neat to hear their names continue to pop up.
Also, at the Alliance, just the opportunity to meet people at the conferences we planned was so refreshing. I was able to see these people who were working tirelessly knowing that there is a solution to fairly house every individual…believing that every person, every human, deserves a right to be housed and to be safe in housing. At those conferences people I had been corresponding with prior to the event, would come over to me with so much gratitude, “Thank you for all your help.”… “I'm so excited to meet you!”… “I'm so grateful for everything that you're doing.” And I would be in awe with this feeling that I'm just coordinating the event; these gracious, kind people were the ones doing the work, on the ground! And it was just this love, this passion to do the work so we can really see this change in the world, to ensure that as many people who want to be housed- because not everyone wants to necessarily be in housing – so for those who do desire it, they have access to fair and safe housing. To see these people working tirelessly and expressing so much gratitude at the same time as they're doing all of this hard work was so refreshing. It was very different from the black-tie galas where you're working with these high-end Board Members - which was also really neat – it’s just night and day different. Everything is just different. There's no better or worse, no right or wrong, just different. And so, each experience was special. I was at the National Alliance to End Homelessness for about seven or eight years.
I left the Alliance when my husband (fiancé at the time) and I decided he would take an expat assignment in Taiwan. So, I said to my boss, "I can totally do this job from Taiwan!" And she just kind of laughed and said something like, "We love you, but you're moving on, and that's okay." I really didn't want to leave that job. I loved it very much.
During my time at the Alliance I became involved with the Association of Meeting Professionals (AMPs), to continue my education within the local DC meetings and events industry, network with industry leaders, and let's be honest, have a great time with industry friends! 👉
I Chaired the public relations committee, sat on the Special Events Committee, joined the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee throughout my involvement with AMPs. When I left DC for Taiwan I had to resign as the incoming Vice President of the AMPs Board which was not easy as I thoroughly enjoyed my involvement with AMPs.
Once in Taiwan, I had quit my job, and with that, I started my own event consulting gig where I was working with event planners around the world doing hotel contracting. I would do the negotiations and contracting with the hotel my clients wanted to host their meeting or event in. So, I was able to utilize my skills within event contract negotiation that I had been practicing throughout my decade or so in the events industry, and work events in that way. I focused on nonprofit groups because that was my background, and where I felt I thrived. I built my own business within this umbrella business that I had been working with as a client before I moved to Taiwan so I was able to work within this umbrella company as an Independent Consultant. I grew my business and it became fairly successful. This lasted through our four-ish years in Taiwan and when we repatriated back to the states, and landed in this dear, beautiful Boise, Idaho, where we are today, I continued this work.
And then, the pandemic hit. The pandemic hit and people stopped having meetings and events. And that childhood dream in fourth grade of bringing people together and the experiences of actually doing that; it was no longer my reality. And I didn't realize until about a year later, when I started practicing weekly Somatic Experiencing® (SE™), that I needed to grieve that loss. I hadn’t realized it was something I needed to grieve, and therefore I hadn’t given myself time to grieve it. It was at the beginning of the pandemic when I found SE, a service I've been offering clients since The Heart Space Center opened (and working with people in this modality even before then.). It is such a profound practice! It was through SE where I realized, “Wow I didn't give myself a chance to grieve that identification I had with being an Event Planner.” I was very much identified with, “I am an event planner”. When that was gone, it felt like, what was left, right? What was I to do? People weren't having meetings and events; they weren’t coming together anymore in physical spaces; it was no longer an option. I tried to get creative here and there and it just stalled out.
During that pandemic-era time, I landed at what has become one of my absolute favorite jobs in the entire world! - I worked part-time at our local independent bookstore, Rediscovered Books. If you haven't been, it is an amazing store. The staff are super passionate about all things books and reading. So, definitely check it out if you haven't been and you’re either passing through, visiting, or living in Boise! They recently moved to a new location, which used to be the location of Eyes of the World (I was so sad when they closed – and so excited to see Rediscovered be the store to take over the space!). If you used to go to Eyes of the World, go to that location and you'll now find Rediscovered Books. It’s a beautiful location for the bookstore, and all of the Booksellers are really knowledgeable, and it's just a really cozy, amazing place to be. So, I landed at Rediscovered Books as a Bookseller during the pandemic and I became overwhelmed by the number of books I didn't realize I wanted to read. You know, all of these different worlds to get lost in; all of these non-fiction books I dove into as well. No book was off limits!
I really enjoyed working there, and I was there for maybe eight or nine months when a local company in Boise, that I had applied to in my plethora of companies I applied to when I was kind of at a standstill; when my business went under from the pandemic, reached out to me and said they had a sales position opening with their strategic accounts and that they wanted to interview me. Long story short, I ended up interviewing through quite a rigorous interview process, was offered the job, and took it.
I was in that sales position at that company for about a year and a half, doing sales for the first time outside of the bookstore (and, let’s be honest, since parttime gigs in college and high school!). This was a corporate company, so this was a corporate sales gig. I was on a team that did really well. Our team won a trip as one of the top sales performers within the company, to Costa Rica. But then of course, the pandemic swept back up; there was another uptick and so they ended up bringing us to Scottsdale, Arizona instead. Not quite Costa Rica but it was a lovely way to take some time away. My husband joined me, and it was nice.
There was nothing wrong with the company, and my colleagues were great, but I realized that some of the accounts I was assigned to were completely misaligned ethically with my values. I even asked my boss, “Are there some accounts I can just move to the side because they don't really align with what I believe in?” And he kind of laughed like, “No, these are your accounts and you need to get in the door.” And I didn’t want to offer these businesses tools to be more efficient because I didn’t believe in what they're doing. Everything about it felt wrong to me. And so, that’s when I realized, maybe I need to get back into the nonprofit sector. Maybe it’s event planning, maybe something else. This was towards the end of the pandemic, as things were kind of opening back up and feeling back to “normal” (whatever that is, right?).
So, then I landed at another nonprofit. I was the Area Director of the state of Idaho for a mental health nonprofit. I was there for about a year and a half or two years. Over time, things there didn’t feel in alignment. As I left that job, within months my entire team had left, so I was one of many people that it wasn't feeling right for...seeing so many leave at once was validating; maybe (likely?) it wasn't me.
So what was next?
At that point I decided I wanted to create safe space-holding for people, kind of in that way of wanting to simply bring people together. That was the whole passion from fourth grade - bringing people together. When I went to college, I initially wanted to go for psychology but within the cultural beliefs I had grown up with, I didn't believe that, even though I wanted that, I didn't believe I could do it. I wasn't smart enough, and I wasn't “this” enough or “that” enough. I was the bubbly Event Planner person, so psychology, even though it interested me, I didn’t feel I could do it, so I didn't take that route. But, years later, through my practice of SE, and through all that I learned through my 300 hour yoga teacher training program, I realized I wanted to share this amazing healing modality of SE with other people as it had completely rewired my nervous system in a profound way! Similar to working with people in therapy, as I had wanted to do with a psychology degree, but different in that it’s a body-based approach. After practicing weekly SE for 12-18 months, during the pandemic, people who hadn't seen me during the pandemic saw me post-pandemic and would ask, "What? Who are you? What have you been doing?” SE – that was it! Of course this was along with other practices like yoga, my breathwork practice, my chanting practice - all of the things. But the one very constant (and newer!) practice throughout that time for me, was weekly SE.
I applied to the training to become a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), and I decided I was going to open The Heart Space Center so that I could be someone to hold safe space for people looking for that; for folks who want to dive deeper, within.
So, it's not event planning, but it is working with people so they may connect to their deepest Self; to find that connection within through these different modalities. And that is a gift that I feel like I receive from the clients I work with; to witness them, over time, to see these shifts, connection and release and all the beauty that comes with these modalities. It takes time, patience and dedication - and it's not easy. So, each person I work with, I commend them for showing up over and over again and for doing this work.
I also love hosting events in the community where I enjoy putting that Event Planner “hat” back on because I love hosting events. I love bringing people together. One of my favorite parts as an Event Planner was the production of the event, being a part in the creative process; working with the florist and deciding what colors to use, and working with the designer on the invitations and the save the dates – and now I get to do all of that on my own, which I thoroughly enjoy! It’s marketing-specific, but it's within that where I can continue tapping into my creativity. And then, when I bring people together, if you've come to one of my “simple” Somatic Breathwork Ceremonies, it actually becomes a little less simple (from an event perspective). I try to scale it back every time, but I just get really excited when it’s all coming together – I want to bring all the pretty things - the flowers! - and I want to build a beautiful altar for people to receive the energy from whatever is at that altar space; so it may infuse into their practice and they can receive all of that potent energy from the various deities that may be on that specific altar; infusing love, protection, abundance…whatever it might be.
What I bring and share varies from offering to offering, and season to season. So, in this way, within The Heart Space Center, I really, really, truly enjoy being able to bring people together for a two-hour Somatic Breathwork Ceremony (for example) where we're not just connecting with our deepest Selves - which we are!- it’s also great opportunity to see the other folks in the room who are showing up for themselves, and then giving everyone time to share, together. It’s within these containers that we may notice we're not alone. We're all one. We all want the same things: love, happiness, joy. That’s at the core, that's what we all want, to come back home to that essence, to that deep knowing inside that when we get there, we're really truly connecting with the Heart Space Center. This has been my experience.
There's also my yoga teacher training experience! In 2010 I fell in love with yoga. In 2017, I did a 3-week 200-hour yoga teacher training immersion in Goa, India. I knew I would want to go back to India to do my 300-hour teacher training one day. Then, after moving to Boise, I found the dear space of Sage Yoga and Wellness, owned by my dear teacher and friend Marissa Radha Weppner, who I didn't know at the time. I’d see advertisements for the teacher training program at Sage, and I’d see the different teachers and offerings that were going to be included in the teacher training and I thought I might actually want to do my 300-hour teacher training here in Boise. That felt weird! I never thought I'd want to do that. But, the robustness of the curriculum and all of the content offered within the program was exactly up my alley; yoga psychology, Bhakti yoga, yoga nidra, and then there was this nine-month course I added as part of the program, called, The Alchemy of Self-Realization. That separate course within the training was nine months of deep diving – and that's where I learned about SE. So, I did my 300-hour teacher training with my dear teacher Marisa Radha Weppner and that was a life-changing, beautiful experience that led me to the SE.
So, as I was discovering SE and moving more deeply into the practice of Somatic Breathwork, and my yoga practice in general, I eventually decided, as the breath had been such a potent part of my practice and my healing, to do a Trauma-Informed Breath Coach certification. I did that certification through The Whole Health Project in 2024. So that was my most recent certification, and I will be graduating from Somatic Experiencing International, from Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing certification, in February of 2026. I've been working with people for the last couple of years in SE at discounted rates, and I will be graduating very soon with more tools in my toolbox to share not only with myself but with The Heart Space Center Explorers I'm working with, too.
So there you have it; a condensed, reader-friendly(ish) “about me” and how I chose to open The Heart Space Center. It was through my love of bringing people together, dating all the way back to fourth grade. And then the love I found in 2010 when I started practicing hot yoga – which eventually in time, turned into a deeper yoga. Yoga is to unite. I began feeling all parts of myself coming together through this beautiful practice.
If you’re still reading this, thank you for your interest. This is a really long recap of a really long video share of this same story! And if you know me, you know I'm not concise.
I would love an opportunity to work with you if we're not working together yet, and if any of this work interests you and you're ready to dive deeper and have that safe space held for you. It is such an honor to be with each person that I sit with in these modalities whether it's yoga asana movement practice, SE, Somatic Breathwork…there are so many great healing modalities out there and I would be honored to work with you if you feel the call, and if energetically The Heart Space Center feels right for you. I'd love to meet you and discuss how we might work together.
I also have some really great events coming up this Fall, 2025. Many are donation-based and some are sliding scale so just pay what you can within a sliding scale. I like to make things as accessible as possible for folks. So, please check out what's coming up (regardless of when you’re reading this – there’s always something new on the horizon!).
I also have a new program I'm launching soon - specifically for yoga teachers! And I have a really exciting - passport required - event coming in the future that I'm working on; I'm excited to officially announce that soon. So, keep your eyes open and keep your ears open for more on that passport-required event to come, and on the yoga teacher program coming soon as well.
Thank you so much for tuning in here, and for your interest in me, my background, and The Heart Space Center. I hope that we connect one on one very soon.
With Love,
-D’Arcy
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