This winter, A Safe Space Studio will open its doors in Sunset Park, offering a new refuge for Brooklyn residents. A sister organization to a nonprofit focused on mental health equity, the studio will provide wellness classes at affordable prices.
Founded by duo Teya Knapp and Jasmine Dayze, A Safe Space Studio is open to everyone, but specifically aims to assist those struggling to find community. The founders noted that people of color and low-income residents often face barriers to prioritizing wellness. To address this issue, several classes at the studio are free, with paid options starting at $20. An unlimited monthly membership will cost $100.
“If you’re in survival mode, you’re not thinking about, ‘Oh, I need to breathe, or I need to relax or I need to take a yoga class,’” Dayze said. “So we’re in the business of educating people on balancing the two and intertwining the two.”
“And it’s very well known that people of color, marginalized communities, have always been historically disadvantaged when it comes to having resources for mental health because things are so expensive,” Knapp added.
In addition to the Reiki classes and guided workouts, the studio will host paid, hour-long therapy sessions for couples and individuals. The sessions will be led by certified BIPOC counselors and social workers, and classes may also be bilingual — providing representation for Sunset Park’s large Hispanic population. The studio will also offer membership scholarships for those who qualify, compensating a month’s worth of unlimited studio classes and a guest pass per month.
“The wellness world has become very saturated, being mostly white-led spaces,” Knapp said. “I think that it’s very important that we have culturally relevant wellness experiences, so that people can relate to the people that are providing these offerings. And a lot of these practices come from indigenous communities, so bringing it back to the people also feels really good.”
The studio also plans to hold “Safe Space Saturdays,” weekly happy hours with a unique DJ that emulate the energy of nightlife without the alcohol. Events like these will allow people to integrate wellness and community, Knapp said.
Knapp was inspired to work in wellness during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, when she realized people needed support for their mental health journeys. She created A Safe Space Mentor — the sister nonprofit — in 2021, offering wellness retreats, hiking groups and free therapy. She soon met Dayze, who had been a massage therapist for nearly a decade, and they hit it off instantly. Dayze helped work on the wellness retreats and played a large role in the nonprofit, eventually becoming a co-founder of the physical studio space.
“I notice that a lot of the time, people just want to feel less lonely,” Dayze said. “New York City is full of thousands and millions of people, but we just somehow still feel alone. Or that what we’re going through, no one else is going through. So this community is super important to us for that reason — just to help people feel less lonely.”
Those interested in joining the studio can take advantage of an early bird membership rate of $80 per month for the first 50 members.
