Donna Brooks is a somatic movement educator and therapist, Yogi, and embodied meditator who has 35 years of experience teaching, counseling and coaching in movement and the healing arts.

I offer yoga for grief and somatic movement therapy for trauma, grief and loss in Northampton, MA, servicing clients in Easthampton, Pioneer Valley, Amherst, South Hadley, Greenfield, Whately, Hatfield, Sunderland, Deerfield, Holyoke & Haydenville.

I also offer yoga therapy and somatic movement therapy online for clients nationwide via Zoom.

You can choose whether to meet in-person or online depending on your needs, comfort and location. 

“Somatic Movement Therapy” also known as “Embodiment Therapy”, combined with yoga therapy allows you to access wisdom stored in the body by freeing the body from stress, trauma, constraints and habitual tensions. These tensions are often created by adverse experiences, physical injuries, trauma, illness, grief, cultural and personal habits and even developmental stages that you may have skipped as a baby.

Embodiment therapy involves making intentional, gentle movements while focusing on the internal experience of the movement. This process unifies your body and mind and attunes you to your physical, emotional and mental needs.

It is a chance to relieve habitual and long-held blockages and constrictions, creating clarity and helping you make better choices about your well-being.

You will experience being alive, aware and present in your body. A way to think of it is… Embodiment is to the body what meditation is to the mind.

Embodiment therapy is a gentle yet effective healing modality and I specialize in working with:

• Somatic movement therapy and yoga for grief and loss
• Yoga therapy for Parkinsons Disease
• Embodiment for Pelvic Floor Dysfunction
• Embodiment therapy for chronic pain relief naturally

Somatic movement therapy allows clients to process information as a whole-body experience. As an embodiment expert, I bring the whole sensory embodiment process to allow clients to anchor themselves. Change happens in this space.

My clients report that this kind of somatic movement therapy work is the perfect companion to the therapy or grief counselling they are doing. Also that conscious embodiment helps bear the difficulty of facing and transcending the pain, strain, and trauma.

For both online and in-person somatic therapy sessions, please wear comfortable clothing. If you can bring something that belonged to the deceased, please do.

For embodiment therapy online sessions, choose a room where you feel comfortable and safe, where you can talk freely and where you can be seated and work on the floor. 

Ideally, you will have a computer positioned with a microphone and camera so that we can see each other during the session.

I have helped people who are experiencing many types of loss throughout my career. 

• Some grieving for loved ones who have passed away. 
• Some who have a loss of function because of stroke or Parkinson’s disease. 
• Some who have experienced a loss in relationships, loss of freedom or loss of youth. 
• Some who are facing terminal illness or injuries. 

I have worked with people who have big difficulties - HIV-Aids (in the 1980"s), people who experience a traumatic brain injury, or who have met loss because of an accident, injury, aging or death.

It is important to know there is no right kind of loss. Loss affects us all in different ways, but the tools of embodiment and somatic therapy are universal in their ability to offer freedom and space inside of loss.

Every client and movement therapy session is different because we go where you need to go on any given day.

I will gently guide you to open up to the impulses triggered by your grief - shock, collapse, freeze, fight, flight in your body. Together, we work to engage the visceral, nervous system, mental and emotional challenges of your trauma or loss. For some client sessions, this is based on conversation, embodied meditations, and listening. For others, we may focus on gentle movement.

But you will always experience being seen, understood and respected. My clients report our sessions to be comforting, insightful and give them space to “catch their bearings”.

Like everything else I do - it’s very gentle, and you set the pace. The first step is to feel safe and grounded. We focus on embodied safety rather than rational safety, which is a new concept for many people! Depending on the person, this can take time to develop and usually it is not a linear process.

I use a combination of gentle-yet-powerful techniques and focus on listening for where you are at right now. There is no prescription and no plan. We listen to your body. And you will learn how to listen to your body.

It depends on the client. If emotion happens, it happens… it is experienced and released. There is no right way to be. We go where you need to go. Regardless of where the session takes us, by the end you will feel more centered and accepting. Many times, you may experience a sense of space, freedom, hope, or even joy.

You may also be more appreciative of life and have a better understanding of how your life, happiness and grief can all co-exist.

The quick answer is no! Somatic movement therapy for trauma, grief and loss actually allows you to experience the grief and experience the feelings that perhaps you were previously afraid to allow. It is deeply moving and extremely liberating and allows you to keep the bonds of love alive in a healthy way.

Many people repress the feelings of loss, and it gets pushed into the body. If you repress emotion for enough time, it can affect the health of your body significantly. It causes premature aging, chronic ailments and/or chronic pain.

I see many clients who come to me for chronic pain. Back pain, neck pain, knee pain, etc. But it is not uncommon when we start the work to find the old emotions from past grief arise. Emotions that never had the chance to be experienced and heal. Somatic therapy for trauma, grief and loss teaches you how to be with whatever comes up for you, even if it is the worst pain imaginable.