Libbyrae Troyer, Wellness Guide

Between the golden dome of South Bend and the white sands of South Beach, Libbyrae Troyer has always been fascinated by the rituals and traditions that drive cultures. Even as a child, she noticed the threat of unsustainability — both in a consumer society and in the core beliefs and practices that underpin our individual wellness.

After high school, she attended Indiana University, majoring in sociology and sustainability. Seeing such potential in future generations, she thought she wanted to be a pre-school teacher, but an introduction to yoga resonated so strongly with her on so many levels that it became the focus of her work. After gaining certifications and concentrating her specialization in yoga as a modality of therapy, she looked across the country for an environment where she could thrive. She chose Miami.

“I wanted an adventure, to share my yoga practice, to be by the ocean,” Troyer says. “I took a position as the wellness director for the Standard Spa, taught there and led their well-being programming for locals and guests.”

She also had a private practice, offering yoga, meditation and energy work to a range of clients and as a consultant helping others establish their studios.

The Standard Spa had been well known for decades as a premier wellness destination on Biscayne Bay, but when presented with the opportunity to move to the Faena Hotel, another 5-star property on the Atlantic side of Miami, she took it. There, Troyer directed wellness programming at the hotel’s Tierra Santa Healing House, a 22,000 square-foot sanctuary featuring one of the largest hammams (Turkish baths) on the East Coast.

“Both of these renowned properties offered me the chance to further awaken my own consciousness and refine techniques for restoring well-being in others, and I am so grateful for those experiences,” she says. “But when I brought my beautiful daughter into the world, I knew I needed to return to my natural roots and my family, now living in Nashville.”

Serendipity brought Southall into her plans. She shared her vision, saw a seamless path for integrating it into the plans for the Spa at Southall, and joined the team here in April 2022 as the property’s wellness guide.

“I’ve watched this project for a couple of years now and found Southall to be in alignment with my values, and what I would want for my own family,” she says.

Troyer oversees wellness programming and integrative spa treatments, guiding both guests and staff on experiences that cultivate present-moment awareness, within sacred spaces in the spa and across the property.

“If we could simply be present in the moment, as a society, the result would be a quantum shift,“ she says.

She references yoga, meditation, sound baths, breathwork and forest bathing in the healing woods of Southall as experiences that could create embodied knowing, by simply holding space for feelings to move in and through the body.
“These wellness journeys create context for understandings and expand our tunnels of reality… like the difference between looking at a map versus walking the territory. It’s an honor for me to be a part of that journey.”