Find a Practitioner
Find a gs Practitioner
The gs Practitioners Network (gsPN) is an organized network of politicized somatic coaches, therapists, and healing practitioners who have built somatic competence through gs programs. Below is a list of gs practitioners who work with organizers, member leaders, and others in social and environmental justice movements who are seeking this kind of healing and support either one-on-one or in healing groups.
From end of 2023 & early 2024, several of these practitioners offered hundreds of limited, free one-on-one appointments for organizers, movement leaders, therapeutic practitioners with shared Anti-Zionist politics committed to a free Palestine.
Many gsPN practitioners work with clients on a sliding scale (some at low or no cost), which is an important part of our collective commitment to making this work accessible to poor and working-class people and people of color. There are also gsPN practitioners who work with clients over video (Skype or Zoom), which helps us collectively support movements across geography.
Find a practitioner
Sliding Scale & Video Access
Many gsPN practitioners work with clients on a sliding scale (some at low or no cost), which is an important part of our collective commitment to making this work accessible to poor and working class people and people of color. There are also gsPN practitioners who work with clients over video (Skype or Zoom), which helps us collectively support movements across regions.
How to Choose & Work With a Practitioner
Members of the gs Practitioners Network (gsPN) have all trained in gs’ methodology including the Somatics, Trauma and Resilience and Embodied Leadership work. They have all seen practice clients as a part of their development, and get supervision from more experienced practitioners. Many gsPNers also have other training and experience – some as therapists and social workers, some as organizers and movement leaders, and more.
gs somatic work includes: somatic awareness, somatic opening, and somatic practices. Somatics explores and supports resilience, helps to develop new embodied options and choices and also addresses individual and collective trauma healing, as needed. A key part of the approach is hands on somatic bodywork. Somatic bodywork includes touch, breath patterns, and conversation. Your practitioner will also likely ask you to take on daily somatic practices as part of the transformation process. All of this work will be grounded in what we call your “declaration.” That is—what is important to you, your vision, your commitment and longings.
All of gs somatics is held in a politicized context, and with an intersectional analysis. While your practitioner may not have worked in your movement sector or issue area, they are familiar with the pressures of organizing, movement building, movement dynamics, and more.
In choosing a practitioner, take some time to consider what you want to get out of the work.
- What is important in your growth and healing now?
- What do you want to be different 6 months from now? A year from now?
Next, talk to 2-3 practitioners. If you can, do this over video so you can see each other. Talk with them about what you want and how they work. Here are some questions you can ask:
- How do you work? Do you include somatic bodywork? How does a typical session go?
- What would we focus on in our first 3 sessions?
- Given what I have shared about what I want, what do you feel you could help me with?
- How do you think I can change and grow in 10 sessions with you? In 20?
- Anything else that is important for you to consider like: working over video, overlapping communities, no/low fee, confidentiality, etc.
If you don’t have access to a gs practitioner in you area you can see someone over video. You can also talk with your practitioner about seeing someone locally for somatic bodywork, or another type of bodywork as needed.
We ask you to use the somatic process guided by a gs practitioner fully for yourself. Please do not, in turn, teach others the somatic practices you are learning. While many of the practices are simple- they also have depth. We want to make sure to take care of people, and use the work accountably. If you are interested in more training, please contact us.
gsPN Directory
Find a practitioner below!
Sort by profile | Sort by name | Sort by category | Sort by location |
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Danielle Feris |
Philadelphia , PA |
View Bio
Danielle has been a community organizer since 1999, including with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and Hand in Hand: The Domestic Employers Network, a core partner of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Danielle has been a gs student since 2012, and in Teacher Training since 2016. |
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Dona Hirschfield-White |
Bay Area: San Francisco , CA |
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Dona is a queer, white, immigrant Licensed Clinical Social Worker & Trauma-Recovery coach practicing politicized liberation therapy with individuals & relationships. She specializes in resourcing outsiders, immigrants, LGBTQI folk, social justice activists/artists, & other resilient survivors. Phone: 415-633-6091
Website: No Email: dhirschfieldwhite@gmail.com Remote Clients: Yes
Languages :English
Role at gs: practitioner
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Lisa Thomas-Adeyemo |
Bay Area , CA |
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Southern born, Queer, Black, Bay Area based somatic healer, awakener, bodyworker, ritualist, & song weaver. Skillful focus in healing from the impacts of racialized trauma, gender oppression, & sexual violence. Her practice is inspired by gs methodology, Ayurveda, and Earth-based Wisdom Traditions. Phone:510-502-5322
Website: not yet…maybe coming soon
Email:shamanasomatics@gmail.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: strategy body, teacher, practitioner, Former staff & former strategy body member
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Phillippe Citrine |
Asheville , NC/zoom |
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Somaticist for Nonbinary + Trans visionaries
Supervision and practice development support for trans and queer therapists and practitioners
websites: Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: practitioner
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Amanda Ream |
Bay Area: Oakland , CA |
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Ream is a GS practitioner, meditation teacher and labor organizer alongside domestic workers, bringing twenty years of movement building experience to their practice. They sit on the leadership board of the East Bay Meditation Center and is a graduate of Spirit Rock’s Dedicated Practitoner Program. Phone: 718-288-1304
Website:
Email:amandaream2009@gmail.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: teacher, practitioner
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Anjuli Sherin |
El Cerrito , CA and Global |
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Anjuli is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, hypnotherapist and somatic coach providing individual & group therapy, specializing in trauma recovery, emotional regulation, resilience-building and cultivating joy. She is also a trainer/teacher and offers consultation for clinician and coaches interested in somatics, internal family systems, group work, and energy psychology. Since 2005 her practice has been working primarily with Immigrant, South Asian, Middle Eastern, POC, Muslim & LGBTQI populations. Joyous Resilience her award winning book offers an intersectional guide for clients and practitioners interested in cultivating resilience and individual and collective trauma healing that centers BIPOC experiences. Phone: 5102771789 Website: www.anjulisherinmft. Remote Clients: Yes Languages: English, Hindi, Urdu Book: Joyous Resilience (An intersectional path to building resilience and joy) https://www. Free Tools: 9 Resilience meditations at: https://www. Role at gs: somatic therapist, consultation, private practice |
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Vanissar Z Tarakali |
Bay Area: Sebastopol , CA |
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Dr. Vanissar Tarakali, PhD, gs practitioner for 10 years. I support the resilience of activists, healers & educators, especially those who embody & bridge contradictions of identity & community. My work is grounded in decades of bodywork, social/racial justice & spiritual/neurodivergent practice. Phone: 5109080936
Website: https://vanissarsomatics.com/
Email: vanissar@cs.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: practitioner
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Nazbah Tom |
Toronto , Canada |
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I am a Diné queer person and I live in Toronto. I use drama therapy and somatic bodywork to move individuals through a process of embodied transformation using conversation, touch, breath, gesture, imagination, theatre practices, and new somatic practices. I have been studying somatics since 2006. Phone: 437-580-4614
Website: www.nazbahtom.com
Email: nazbahtomcp@gmail.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English, Navajo (not fluent)
Role at gs: teacher, practitioner
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Paola Laird |
Bay Area: Oakland , CA |
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Please see website for bio Phone: 4158673421
Website: www.paolalaird.com
Email: paolalaird@gmail.com
Remote Clients:Yes
Languages: Spanish and English
Role at gs: teacher, practitioner
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Jacks McNamara |
Santa Fe , NM |
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Jacks McNamara is a trauma healing coach, artist, organizer & facilitator. Their practice centers queer & trans activists and cultural workers. Jacks offers workshops & consults on topics ranging from queer mental health & challenging white supremacy to trauma-informed care & overcoming burn-out. Phone: 510-282-4553
Website: https://healing.jacksmcnamara.net
Email: healing@jacksmcnamara.net
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: practitioner
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Kira Banks |
St. Louis , MO |
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Kira Banks has been involved with GS since 2015 and has worked to support individuals and groups in understanding themselves and systems of oppression for over 20 years. Her work is rooted in Black Psychology, which uplifts resilience and rejects deficit approaches. Phone:
Website:
Email: kira@kirabanks.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: practitioner
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Hilary Moore |
Berlin , Germany |
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Since 2014, Hilary has taught with generative somatics. She also works on the national Leadership Team with Showing Up for Racial Justice and has deep commitments to Climate Justice. Based in Berlin, Germany, Hilary holds in-person and remote sessions, sliding scale based upon need. Phone:19168024984
Website:
Email: mooreannhilary@gmail.com
Remote Clients:Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: teacher, practitioner
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Isaak Brown |
Bay Area: Oakland , CA |
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I have been working with clients for seven years. My philosophy: we are whole. The more we are aligned with our truth, the better the world is. Phone: 510-316-1667
Website: www.isaakbrown.com
Email: isaakbrown@gmail.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: practitioner
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Piya Banerjee |
Puyallup , WA |
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I have trained with gs and SI since 2012 and also have an MA in Somatic Psychology. I employ a systems-oriented, relational, and trauma-informed approach to my work that blends gs methodology and psychotherapy. QTBIPOC centered healing practice. Phone: 415-610-6258
Website:
Email: piyabsomatictherapy@gmail.com
Remote Clients: No
Languages: English, Bengali, understand conversational Spanish
Role at gs: practitioner
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Briana Herman-Brand |
Seattle , WA |
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Briana Herman-Brand, MSW, has worked for the past 18 years with youth and adults to heal and transform dynamics of trauma and oppression. She has focused in fields of domestic & sexual violence, youth liberation, white anti-racism, LGBTQ experience, transformative justice, and community organizing. Phone:
Website:
Email: brianahermanbrand@gmail.com
Remote Clients: No
Languages: English
Role at gs: teacher, practitioner
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Meredith Broome |
Bay Area: Oakland , CA |
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“I am a Certified Master Somatic Coach and work primarily with social activists, business leaders, queer, trans and non-binary folks, polyamorous individuals and couples, and all survivors of trauma in my office in Oakland, CA, as well as remotely.” Phone: 510-595-1335
Website: www.centeredlife.com
Email: meredith.broome@gmail.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: practitioner
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Sumitra Rajkumar |
Brooklyn , NY |
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Sumitra Rajkumar is a somatics practitioner, teacher and organization coach who lives in Brooklyn, New York. A longtime political educator for organizers and cultural workers, Sumitra has trained with generative somatics since 2011. She is writing her first novel. Inquiry via emails welcome. Phone: 917-570-3609
Website: N/A
Email: sumitra.rajkumar@gmail.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: strategy body, teacher, practitioner
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Donaji Lona Esteva |
Bay Area: San Francisco , CA |
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Donaji Lona integrates her Biniza (Zapotec) indigenous ancestral legacy of interdependence, resilience, resistance, and community struggle into the organic transformation process and integrates politicized somatics in her work with clients. She has been a long-term community organizer for immigrant rights (POWER) and as a member of (National Domestic Workers Alliance). She brings her commitment to social justice to her politicized healing work. She’s been a teacher and practitioner in the field of somatics for over ten years. Her experience as the mother of two sons, one with Down syndrome (now an ancestor), has defined her vision of inclusion and care for life. Phone: 415-254-9552
Website: No
Email:donajisihua@gmail.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: Español / English
Role at gs: teacher, practitioner, Transformative Resourcing Team member
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Natalíe Lorraine Ortega |
Bay Area: Oakland , CA |
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Natalíe Lorraine Ortega is a Somatic Practitioner. She is a mama, queer, cisgender, Latinx, sober, radical and spiritual. She is first generation, has an MSW, was raised in New York and is rooted in Oakland. She is hella committed to racial justice, young folks and all things woo.
Website: NA
Email: natalielorraineortega@gmail.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English, Spanish
Role at gs: teacher, practitioner
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Denise K. Benson |
Bay Area: San Francisco/Los Altos , CA |
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Denise Benson, LMFT, is a therapist in private in Los Altos and San Francisco. She works with adults in a range of areas: from leadership development and to healing trauma. Denise is certified by Strozzi Institute as a Master Somatic Coach and has co-led “Somatics and Trauma” with Staci Haines. Phone: 650-796-8167
Website:
Email: denisekbenson@gmail.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: somatic therapist private practice
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Becca Meredith |
Seattle , WA |
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Educator, organizer and healing practitioner living on stolen Duwamish land. Collaborating at the intersection of racial justice, food sovereignty, spirituality, and prison abolition. Committed to offering grounded healing spaces for embodied transformation. White, queer, femme, plant lover. Phone: 206-802-8813
Website: none
Email: becca.somatics@gmail.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: practitioner
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Elizabeth Ross |
Philo , CA |
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Elizabeth came to Somatics from the harm reduction movement. She has decades of experience working with trauma, addiction and is committed to healing and radical change. Elizabeth comes from an activist family targeted by the FBI and has a long history of justice organizing and collaboration. Phone: 707-813-4613
Website:
Email: elizabethross3@hotmail.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: practitioner
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Nathaniel Shara |
Bay Area: Oakland , CA |
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Nathan Shara is a queer, South Asian trauma therapist and writer, and a lead teacher and practitioner with generative somatics. Nathan works in in Oakland, CA applying transformative justice principles through individual somatic work with survivors of violence and with people who have caused harm. Phone: 206-595-2875
Website: N/A
Email: thisbridge@gmail.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: strategy body, teacher, practitioner
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Liu Hoi-Man |
Bay Area: San Francisco , CA |
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Liu Hoi-Man is an immigrant from Hong Kong. She had 20 years experience of working with children with developmental disabilities and anti- violence in the LGBTQ communities. She has been involved with generative somatics since 2004 and is one of the senior teachers for generative somatics. Phone: 415-297-1987
Website:
Email: liuhoimanhk@gmail.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English, Cantonese
Role at gs: teacher
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Mahfam Malek |
Bay Area: Oakland , CA |
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Mahfam (they/them) is a queer, non-binary, Iranian immigrant somatic practitioner. Mahfam has been training with gs since 2011 & is a practitioner/coach, trainer/consultant, & gs teacher-in-training. With a varied background in justice movements, they bring a commitment to center LGBTQ, POC, sick & disabled, and otherwise marginalized populations. Sliding scale services offered. Phone:
Website:
Email: mahfammalek@gmail.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: staff, teacher, practitioner
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Fayza Bundalli |
Vancouver, BC , Canada |
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Fayza Bundalli (she/her) is a cis queer femme of South Asian heritage. She is a mother, a teacher with Generative Somatics, and a somatic therapist and bodyworker. She is a settler living and practicing on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) territories. She works primarily with folks who are queer and BIPOC Website: www.fayzabundalli.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: teacher, practitioner
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Lara Barth |
Bay Area: Oakland , CA |
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Lara is a queer, trilingual somatic practitioner and teacher who has been with gs since 2009. With a background in racial justice and anti-imperialist organizing, Lara also brings trauma healing and resilience into her work as nurse, building abolitionist community responses to health emergencies. Phone: 415-240-2164
Website:
Email: laralei324@yahoo.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English, Spanish, French
Role at gs: teacher, practitioner
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Clare Bayard |
Bay Area: Oakland , CA |
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Providing horse-assisted, office and Skype sessions since 2015, in training with gs since 2012. My life’s work is to integrate personal & collective healing & transformation. I’ve been an organizer for 20+ years and bring an analysis of systems of power, privilege and oppression. Phone: 415-308-2415
Website:
Email: kickitover@gmail.com
Remote Clients:Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: practitioner
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Elizabeth Bruno |
Madison , WI |
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Elizabeth began studies with generative somatics in 2013. She works with individuals committed to social justice to build resilience, embody belonging, and heal from the impacts of internalized oppression to become the vibrant, powerful leaders and healers needed to create new just systems. Lizzie is a metabolizer and somatic practitioner who is deeply committed to collective liberation. Lizzie is a white bodied person focused on repair of christian supremacy. Lizzie listens to the land, body and rhythms of nature as a base from which to heal and develop. Phone: 608-515-7348
Website: lizbruno.massagetherapy.com
Email: elizabet.bruno@gmail.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: practitioner
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Danielle Bezaire |
Halifax/Nova Scotia , Canada |
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Danielle Bezaire connected with gs in 2011 and has since been practicing somatics and manual osteopathy in Nova Scotia. She has just defended a thesis on trauma-informed practice in manual osteopathy for patients with a history of sexual trauma. Phone: 902-877-2456
Website: www.halifaxsomatics.com
Email: daniellebezaire@gmail.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English, French, Spanish
Role at gs: practitioner
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Becka Tilsen |
Seattle, Minneapolis , WA / MN |
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Becka was a movement baby raised by fierce Midwest working class elders who loved to laugh. Becka developed as an organizer in anti-violence, immigrant rights and indigenous sovereignty movements. She’s been studying Somatics since 2010 and practicing professionally since 2015. She is a new mother. Phone: 206-913-8131
Website: beckatilsen.com
Email: becka@beckatilsen.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: practitioner
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Bhavana Nancherla |
New York City , NY |
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bhavana is a somatic practitioner, learning with gs since 2013. bhavana coaches clients as loving and rigorous care workers to ourselves and each other. Experience in anti-violence organizing, operations & culture-setting, and childcare & parenting deeply shape their offer as a practitioner. Phone:
Website:
Email: bhavana.somatics@gmail.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: strategy body, practitioner
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Sue Kuyper |
Bay Area: Oakland and San Francisco , CA |
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Sue Kuyper is a white queer 50-something bilingual (Spanish/English) politicized somatic healer and licensed clinical social worker and organizational consultant who has been working in crossroads of social movements, community-based organizations and healing for the past 30 years primarily in the Mission District in San Francisco, Oakland and Guatemala. During the years of 2001-2009, Sue worked with rural, urban and indigenous survivors of genocide and political repression in Guatemala. She offers an in-depth multicultural, international and multidisciplinary perspective with expertise in community worker vicarious trauma, transnational families, immigration trauma and transforming embodied whiteness. Sue has been training with generative somatics since 2009. She is a single mother with co-parents of two multiracial young people who teach her to stay humble and committed to deep change every single day. Sue lives and works on unceded Chochenyo and Muwekma Ohlone homeland also known as Oakland, California. Phone: 415-580-2456
Email: suekuypersomatics@gmail.com Website: SueKuyper Somatics on Facebook
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English and Spanish
Role at gs: practitioner
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Alta Starr |
New York City , NY |
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The Black Freedom Movement shaped Alta’s view of the link between individual and social transformation. A former teacher and parent organizer, Alta also worked as a funder supporting community organizing. Before studying with gs, Alta completed a four-year training at the Brennan School of Healing. Phone: 917-822-1773
Website:
Email: altastarr@palmareshealing.org
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: strategy body, teacher, practitioner
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Donna Diamond |
Bay Area: San Francisco , CA |
View Bio
Somatic Practitioner, Trainer and Life Coach. My work focuses on understanding and healing trauma. I offer information and practices that support individuals to act from a more authentic understanding of themselves and create more effective ways of interacting with others. Phone: 415-823-3911
Website:
Email: donnadiamond426@me.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: practitioner, Consultant/Practitioner
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Sonya Brewer |
Bay Area: Albany , CA |
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Sonya Brewer, MA, specializes in creative life and relationship design for “out the box” thinkers (and “feelers”). Sonya brings a wide breadth of experience including in-depth training in somatic psychotherapy and trauma recovery. Phone: 510-496-6010
Website: www.sonyabrewer.com
Email: sonya@sonyabrewer.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: practitioner
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B Stepp |
Seattle , WA |
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B is a mixed race, queer, nonbinary femme with black & white ancestry. They have been training with GS since 2010. They currently organize around housing & gender justice in addition to their private practice. They work with groups, organizations & supervise folks who are new to healing work. Website: www.heyhaveheartsomatics.com
Email: B@heyhaveheartsomatics.com
Remote Clients: Yes
Languages: English
Role at gs: practitioner
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Katelyn Song |
Seattle , WA |
View Bio
My approach to healing work is informed by my training with generative somatics trauma theory, body work and politicized healing. In my practice, I center people of color, young folks, queer-identified folks and people working in social and environmental movement work. Phone: 425-835-2001
Website: www.katelynsong.com
Email: katelynsonghealing@gmail.com
Remote Clients: No
Languages: English
Role at gs: practitioner
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Eliana Rubin |
South: Durham , NC |
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Eliana Rubin is a queer ashkenazi anti-zionist jewish femme. They facilitate multi-racial, cross-class healing groups which have become core to their movement philosophy of creating scalable change and transformation across communities. They also love to work with couples, friends, and other relationships looking for support in conflict, connection, and transitions. Eliana is committed to transgressive beauty and pleasure through embodied connections to land and lineage.
Website: www.sanctuaryembodied.org
Email: eliana@sanctuaryembodied.org
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Jess St. Louis |
Greensboro , NC |
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Jess St. Louis is white lesbian trans woman and politicized somatic coach who brings over a decade of organizing and narrative strategy experience to support leaders, organizers, and communicators embody more power, possibility, and lead from a place of freedom. They have studied with gs since 2014 and been a somatic coach since 2019. Website: www.somaticswithjess.com Email: jess.stlouis.somatics@gmail. Remote Clients: Yes Languages: English Role at gs: practitioner |
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Jenny Garcia |
Los Angeles , CA |
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Jenny is a Somatics coach, licensed Acupuncturist and Herbalist, dancer and theater artist rooted in a commitment to Healing Justice. She is a fervent believer in the holistic nature of medicine as not merely a service conferred upon others, but an intentional practice of relating to one another in mutual care. Jenny’s background in social organizing and healing within and beyond Los Angeles, where she grew up, propel much of her work in Somatics and Traditional Chinese Medicine. She is mixed – Chicana and white. Email: jennygarciaacu@gmail.com Website: www.jennygarciaacupuncture.com
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Zoë April Poulette |
Gainesville , FL |
View Bio
Zoë is a white trans woman living on Timucua land in so-called Florida. She has supported direct action movements in various ways for 15 years, which is what ultimately led her to somatic work. Zoë is interested in exploring how our contexts shape our bodies and beliefs, and how somatics can open up possibilities for us to shape it back, perhaps into configurations that are more in alignment with justice, desire, and liberation. She offers coaching, bodywork, classes, and healing groups both online and locally. Website: ThirdspaceSomatics.com |
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