My approach to the body/mind/spirit draws upon all of the different movement, bodywork, and healing therapies that I have explored. I am a certified practitioner of BodyTalk, Topf Technique®/Dynamic Anatomy, Thai Yoga Therapy, Reiki Master, and am a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist through ISMETA.  I also continue to study and teach Western Herbal Medicine and Flower Essences.

Certified BodyTalk Practitioner (CBP), Registered Somatic Movement Therapist (RSMT), Reiki Master, Topf Technique® Practitioner, Professional Modern Dancer, Ceramic Artist/ Instructor

To schedule a session or for more information:
danica.bodytalk@gmail.com
(646) 734-3289

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I have been drawn towards kinesthetic forms of expression and learning my entire life.  Growing up on three continents — the United States, Germany and Panama — many of my earliest friends and adventurers were non-human ones. When my family moved to Panama, the animals, jungle plants and towering trees surrounding our home beckoned me to explore. I spent my free time interacting with the environment around me. In this natural space, I developed a sense of awareness and respect for the way in which the boundaries of my self — my body, mind, spirit — are more fluid than they seem, and are intimately intertwined with the awareness, energy, intention and creativity of the natural world. I came to understand that accidents (a skinned knee or a twisted ankle, for instance) might not just be mistakes easily explained away, but rather might be better understood as imbalances to be learned from — as signs that a different understanding might be necessary to integrate myself into my environment.

My preference for intuitive and non-verbal forms of communication found expression very early in my life through dance.  Throughout my school years, my passion for dance provided a physical medium through which I was able to preserve a sense of wholeness in what often seemed to me an out-of-balance, overly verbal and rationalizing environment. Dance became for me not only a form of expression, but a practice of integration, realignment, and attention to balancing the multiple aspects of my self: intellectual, spiritual, emotional, physical and interpersonal. Dance, I came to realize, had the power to heal.

My love of dance drew me toward other movement and healing modalities. In my early twenties, I discovered the Topf Technique® — a way of accessing the human skeletal system through imagery and movement. Studying with Nancy Topf, I learned how to listen to the human body and to recognize signs and signals of imbalance. This way of reading the body and its non-verbal cues, finding understanding from information received kinetically and energetically, made sense to my body. In my studies with Nancy Topf I learned to use my senses and intuition to take in information about another person’s body and state of being. I learned a deeper, intuitive way of communicating through touch, patience and space.

After many years, I found myself returning to animals and plants, re-discovering that animals and trees are more straightforward than humans. Human bodies can be resistant and prickly when they are in pain. Human bodies often disguise their imbalances, mask their suffering, compensate for rather than attend to injury. On an energetic level, people can often resist or reject healing. Through Topf, I learned how bodies learn to trust and how they begin to open to change. Topf Technique® is a healing technique that is about waiting and listening, about identifying an imbalance or a tightness in the body, staying with that body part — actually putting my hands on the body part — until it is ready to release and shift. I understood that bodies want to heal, and by simply witnessing and acknowledging an imbalance or pain, as opposed to masking or hiding it, the Topf Technique® invites healing. Through Topf Technique®, and later in studying Rosen Method, I learned how to watch the breath to identify energetic blockages or physical imbalances, as well as how to encourage healing to flow into various parts of the body.

While Topf and Rosen Techniques taught me about communication with the body through breath, it was through Thai Yoga therapy that I discovered that healing is participatory and creative. In my training as a Thai Yoga Therapist, I came to understand that guiding someone through yoga stretches is akin to sharing a spiritual journey. The power of the technique is that both people participate fully in the session. No one can do another’s healing work for them. Rather, I enter into the healing journey together with another person, as a spiritual being, devoting my highest intentions to helping him or her on a path to wellness. Through Thai Yoga, I learned to guide people in connecting to their own creativity, desires and inspirations for well-being. I came to understand, those who seek guidance in their healing are not helpless, but are inspired co-creators of a collaborative and dynamic healing process.

In my studies and practice of Reiki and BodyTalk I have found the integration of all my trainings.  All of Nature, including ourselves, plants and animals, desire balance.  Reiki‘s strength is in its nonjudgmental flow of energy.  Our bodies take in the balancing resonance necessary to heal and grow — just like every plant or animal being in nature.  And the simplicity of Reiki focuses this life-giving flow through the body to where it is most needed.  BodyTalk shines in it’s ability to seek imbalances in the body, identify the root causes, and open the pathways and connections to optimal health and wellbeing.  In BodyTalk, there is always a link to better balance and a clear road to improved communication within the body.

In my practice, I seek to bring together everything I have gathered through my multifaceted training. As a practitioner I am present and witness to the awe-inspiring healing power of nature.  My goal as a BodyTalk and Reiki practitioner is to help people and animal companions be inspired in their lives, comfortable and balanced in their bodies, and ready and capable of moving forward confidently and with strength toward fulfilling their passions.