Alice Peters Diffely
Alice Peters Diffely is a movement and nervous system educator in Portland, Oregon. Her qualifications include the following:
- • ChiRunning® & ChiWalking® Certified Master Instructor
- • Registered Yoga Teacher (Yoga Alliance RYT 500)
- • TRE® Certified Provider
- • Original Strength® Certified Coach
- It All Started with a Love of Running:
- A Portland native and an avid distance runner ever since she excelled on Lincoln High School's cross country and track teams, Alice competed for Stanford University during her freshman year of college, until she was sidelined by injuries. She continued running for her own enjoyment and as a competitive outlet throughout her 20's. A highlight included a 3:06 marathon finish as a law school student.
- Silver Lining of a Running Injury: A Fascination with Mindful Movement:
- In her 30's, Alice struggled intermittently with Achilles tendonitis and plantar fasciitis. In 2004, she read and began practicing principles from the then-newly released book ChiRunning: A Revolutionary Approach to Effortless, Injury-Free Running. Thrilled to finally put those nagging injuries behind her, Alice trained personally with ChiRunning® & ChiWalking® creator Danny Dreyer in 2007 to become a Certified Instructor. She has been sharing the benefits of the techniques with runners and walkers throughout the Portland Metropolitan Area ever since. The Fascination Grew Through the Study of Yoga & Meditation:
- Having practiced yoga and meditation regularly since the late 1990's, Alice became motivated to deepen those practices as her passion for mindfulness and movement grew through her continued exploration of ChiRunning® & ChiWalking®. In 2011, Alice completed a 200-hour yoga teacher training with Sarahjoy Marsh in Portland. During the pandemic, Alice deepened her study with Sarahjoy and in 2022 upgraded her certification with the Yoga Alliance to the 500-hour level. These studies included training in Yoga Psychology, and in prior years Alice completed Sarahjoy's TIBS (Trauma Informed Brain Sensitive Yoga) Level I and Level II trainings.
- It Broadened Through Training in TRE® & Original Strength® Since 2017, Alice has been a Certified TRE® Provider. Developed by David Berceli, PhD., TRE®, which stands for Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises, is a movement-based approach to down-regulating the nervous system and bringing it back into balance. Alice regularly incorporates TRE® into her own self-care routine to complement her running, walking, yoga, and meditation practices. You may learn more about TRE® by clicking here. In January 2020, Alice added to her qualifications by becoming an Original Strength® Certified Coach. Developed by innovative personal trainers Tim Anderson and Dani Almeyda, Original Strength® helps us to move better and feel better by resetting our musculoskeletal and nervous systems through revisiting movement patterns we organically progressed through during our first year of life (diaphragmatic breathing, head control, rolling, rocking, crawling, and other contralateral and crosslateral movements). The Original Strength® approach dovetails beautifully with Alice's core belief that the way we align and move our bodies is inextricably intertwined with the wellbeing of our nervous systems. Click here to learn move about Original Strength®.