Personal Bio and Influences

The human body is Susan’s life work and Embodi is her signature style of integrating a lifetime of living and learning into therapeutic practice. Working as a massage therapist since 1981, she is known for her compassionate, thoughtful, and comfortable style of facilitating change with clients and students, emphasizing techniques that encourage lasting results and awareness.  Susan is a Board Certified Structural Integrator, a Board Certified Massage Therapist, Licensed, and a member of the International Association of Structural Integrators and the American Massage Therapy Association. Fundamental to this bodywork is a belief in the profound intelligence and wisdom of each human being.  

Susan wants clients to leave their sessions not only feeling better, but knowing more, and knowing how to help themselves.  

Many interests over time have influenced the direction of Susan’s approach to working with the human body-mind.  Early pulls toward dance, anatomy, psychology, and visual art began to shape her direction which led to completing a certification in Massage Therapy in 1981 and a Masters degree in a body-mind oriented psychology called Movement Therapy from Antioch New England Graduate School in 1983.  Additional passionate interests in experiential anatomy and movement practices resulted in a teaching certification in embodyoga from the Yoga Center Amherst.  Since 2001, Susan’s Embodi approach has been incorporating health coaching into client therapeutics when indicated, both within sessions and outside sessions via telephone contact. More recently the synthesis of many disciplines inspired the creation of That Is How We Roll ball therapy instruction, bringing her great joy in the classroom. 

Among Susan’s teachers along the path are many of the most insightful body-mind leaders of a generation including (in chronological order): 

• Penny Lewis Bernstein - Dance Therapy pioneer and author of Theoretical Approaches to Dance Movement Therapy

• Andrea Olsen - dancer and author of Bodystories and Body and Earth

• Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen - author of Sensing, Feeling and Action, and founder of the School of Body Mind Centering

• Gail Straub - author of The Rhythm of Compassion and Empowerment and co-founder of the Empowerment Trainings

• Thomas Myers - author of Anatomy Trains and founder of Anatomy Trains Myofascial Integration, 

• Patty Townsend - founder of Embodyoga

• Dr. Joseph Muscolino - chiropractor, teacher, and author of numerous books for the manual therapist

• Elaine Petrone - Founder of The Miracle Ball Method

Susan maintains a private practice in Brattleboro, Vermont where she has repeatedly been voted “Best Massage Therapist in the Brattleboro Area”.  She keeps her practice small enough to be genuinely attuned to the nuances and details that affect her client’s lives.  

In her online newsletter entitled embodihealth, Susan brings her coach-like approach to the teaching and practice of experiential anatomy through short lessons and articles.  The hope is for readers to enjoy enhanced comfort in their bodies via deepened body awareness and through learning pragmatic do-it-yourself body-mind skills.