Where the mat meets the market

In a barn on Maple Avenue in Great Barrington, Kathy Reisfeld merges two unlikely worlds: wealth management and yoga, teaching clients and students alike how stability — financial and emotional — comes from practice.

Her life sits at an intersection many assume can’t exist: high finance and yoga. One world is often reduced to greed, the other to “woo-woo” stretching. Yet in conversation, she makes both feel grounded, less like opposites and more like two languages describing the same human need for stability.

On one floor of her barn are yoga mats and the steady rhythm of breath. On the other are computer screens, market charts and conversations about retirement plans and portfolio diversification. For Reisfeld, founder of Berkshire Wealth Group in Great Barrington, these are two sides of a single practice.

“At the end of the day, you’re just dealing with people,” she said. “Whether we’re talking about financial stability or mental stability, it’s kind of all the same thing.”

Reisfeld has spent nearly 30 years in finance, building a client-centered advisory practice that eventually led her to go independent. But her relationship with money began long before her career.

When her mother became ill during Reisfeld’s childhood, finances tightened. It wasn’t poverty, she said, but it was constrained enough to teach her how money — or its lack — can dictate the terms of one’s life. That lesson took on a deeper meaning as she watched her mother remain in a difficult marriage without full financial independence. “Money represented autonomy,” she said. “Freedom.”

In college, Reisfeld initially majored in physics, drawn to systems and structure. But an economics class shifted her direction. Markets, she realized, were systems too — not only mathematical, but deeply human.

After graduating, she landed an internship with a financial adviser and gradually discovered a profession that combined curiosity, problem-solving and relationship-building.

“The more I learned, the more I kind of wanted to get involved,” she said.

Over time, she realized she wasn’t interested in chasing predictions; she was interested in guiding people through uncertainty.

Over nearly three decades, she has watched the industry evolve. It has moved, she believes, from selling products to offering advice — a shift toward aligning compensation with clients’ best interests.

She’s candid about the stereotypes that cling to finance: that it’s driven by greed and full of money-hungry people. Those people exist, she said, but they aren’t the majority.

“It’s kind of like the few bad apples ruining it for everyone.”

At its best, she believes, the work is quieter and more meaningful than its reputation suggests.

Kathy Reisfeld practicing yoga.Elena Spellman

Yoga entered her life in 2001, when she was living in New York City and training as a marathon runner.

“I was, like, very anti-yoga,” she admitted with a laugh.

But once she tried it, something shifted. A workshop with Nancy Gilgoff, the first American woman to travel to India to study Ashtanga yoga, “blew my mind open,” she said, revealing yoga as something far larger than poses or stretching.

What began as a physical complement to her running became a doorway into something deeper.

“Ashtanga means eight limbs,” Reisfeld explained. “The physical practice is just the entry point.”

The overlap she sees between yoga and investing is patience. Both practices demand discipline through fluctuation — the ups and downs, the good days and bad days, and the willingness to keep showing up.

In yoga philosophy, she points to the stilling of the mind. In investing, that becomes tuning out the noise — the headlines that spike fear or euphoria, the endless predictions that feel authoritative and rarely land cleanly.

After almost three decades in a traditionally male-dominated industry, Reisfeld has learned to move comfortably in rooms where she was often one of the few women present.

Asked what it was like starting out as a woman in finance, she smiled.

“The lines for the restroom were shorter.”

The humor reflects her temperament. She began her career at 21, and mentorship was not always easy to find. But finance, like yoga, rewards consistency. Ultimately, she built her business through steady growth.

For Reisfeld, yoga is fundamentally about integration. Money is no exception. It shapes how we live, the choices we make and the freedoms we have. Ignoring it doesn’t make it disappear. It only makes it harder.

Now rooted in the Berkshires, advising clients and teaching yoga classes from the same barn, Reisfeld’s work feels less like two careers and more like one philosophy.

When asked what she hopes people feel after spending time with her — whether reviewing a portfolio or finishing a yoga session — her answer is immediate.

“More confident,” she said. “Less stressed. More optimistic about their future.”

For more information or to book an appointment, visit berkshirewealthgroup.com

Kathy Reisfeld, Branch Owner

250 Maple Ave, Great Barrington, MA 01230

845-263-3996

Securities offered through Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. Member FINRA/SIPC.

Berkshire Wealth Group is not a registered broker/dealer and is independent of Raymond James Financial Services, Inc.

Investment advisory services offered through Raymond James Financial Services Advisors, Inc.

Elena Spellman is a Client Service Associate at Berkshire Wealth Group