Len Lear
When potential customers walk into Jennifer’s Leaf Health & Wellness Studio, which opened June 7 at 8135 Germantown Ave., they’ll naturally assume the super-healthy owner and certified yoga instructor who greets them is named Jennifer. But she’s not. She’s Desiree Pressley, and she prefers to be called Pressley. So why the name Jennifer’s Leaf?
“Jennifer was a passionate and kind-hearted friend of mine,” Presley said. “When I was 20 and she was 17, a kerosene stove exploded in her South Philadelphia home. The staircase caught fire and everyone in the house died except for her mother. I promised myself I would find a way to keep her legacy alive, and I did. And ‘Leaf’ means rebirth. Jennifer lives on.”
Though few would know it now, Presley was disabled by illness when she was younger. “I suffered physically and mentally for years,” says Presley, a West Philadelphia native who has lived in Wyndmoor for the past six years with her husband and son. “I was disabled with lupus when I was younger, and I also had Evans syndrome, a rare autoimmune disease with avascular necrosis (death of bone tissue due to lack of blood supply) and bone loss. I was in so much pain. I had surgery and had both hips replaced. I couldn’t bend down to touch my knees or put on socks.”
Presley’s husband, Mikhail Arslanian, encouraged her to take yoga classes. She took the class, but hated it because it was physical exercise without any mind-body connection or spiritual component. “Yoga wasn’t popular when I was growing up in West Philadelphia,” she says. “I saw pictures of people doing yoga, and nobody looked like me.”
Overbrook High School graduates Edinboro UniversityShe completed her studies on a full scholarship at Edinboro University near Erie, Pennsylvania, where she currently holds a Bachelor’s degree in Forensic Accounting with a minor in Criminal Justice, as well as an MBA from Gwynedd Mercy University.
She has worked for local nonprofits providing accounting and consulting services. “I thought about going into theater. I did a lot of dancing and singing and started doing Black Voices in college, but I got really nervous on stage and couldn’t get the words out.”
However, Presley overcame her stage fright and performed in a two-person band with her husband. coolie, I’ve been playing guitar and drums for 10 years in local cafes, markets, private parties and restaurants. The coolies.
“We met through music,” she says. “He was in a band and I joined through a friend. He was always telling me not to hang out with him because he liked to party, but he still does.”
Arslanian was born in California but moved here with his mother as a child. He and Presley both write songs and perform only original material, including soul, R&B, hip hop and rock. Their son, Brandon, 17, is 6’2″ tall and the leading scorer on the basketball team and will be a senior at Springfield Township High School.
Presley returned to yoga in 2018 and was certified to teach at the renowned Kripalu Yoga & Health Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts in 2023. The center’s founder, 91-year-old Amrit Desai, was a pioneer of yoga in the West, teaching yoga sessions at the Unitarian Society of Germantown in the 1960s. Presley teaches Gentle Yoga, Chair Yoga and Kripalu Yoga.
“As soon as I got here, I knew this was the perfect place,” says Presley (the space was formerly home to SL8 Hair Lounge). “I chose this place because it was First Friday and there were so many beautiful people on the street. I love suncatchers, midriff shirts and scarves, so I sell those too. My neighbor, Laura Demi, makes pottery, paintings, yoga mats and more. I also have handmade macramé tops, colorful t-shirts and soft mats.”
Presley said her mother told her doctors years ago that she might not live past 40, but now she’s 41 and in great health. “Yoga should be for everyone, especially people with disabilities,” Presley said. “I believe anyone can do anything if they put their mind to it. I dreamed of this place and here it is.”
For more information, call 267-966-7916 or visit jennifersleaf.com or instagram.com/jennifersleaf/.
