about

about Zoë


Improvisation, embodied intelligence, & the human potential movement are core forces that guide me in my practice.

Iam a queer artist, somatic coach, bodyworker and educator based in Brooklyn who's been dancing for just about 3 decades, and creating visual art for just as long. I've always been fascinated by the body and what it looks like in practice to embrace community dynamics that center around accountability and creative, expressive connection.

I've been curious about my self-concept for as long as I can remember, and when I discovered my own sensorial over-excitabilities and intensity pointed to a "Gifted Intelligence" I started to make sense of myself in deeply profound ways. I began to dignify some of my most essential needs, ways of being and forms of self expression for the very first time. My mentor Ilana Grostern introduced me to the idea alongside her methodology "The Art of Living Body First" in 2022. It is now the foundation of my coaching.

I studied improvisation and bodywork with Christian Burns at the SF Conservatory of Dance in 2015 and then moved across the country to pursue dance in NYC. I completed a yoga training with Kula Yoga Project in 2019 where my spiritual practice deepened and began integrating with my embodied one. My passion for bridging community organizing and liberation work with creative forms of expression and movement practices started to find richer ground to root into.

My interest in coaching was sparked after my yoga training where I met Zach Dacuck, who I began an 18-month mentorship with in 2020, learning about the intersections between bodywork, coaching, yogic and Daoist philosophy. I then found Ilana Grostern who quickly became one of my most significant collaborative partners.

I began coaching executives as a facilitator for the Ariel Group in 2021, working with clients like Harvard Business School, Johnson & Johnson, Lippincott, TVA, Capital One and FTI Consulting. I opened to the world of Ayurveda and learned Marma Therapy from Bryn Hlava, a teacher, collaborator and dear friend. I am currently getting ICF accredited as a somatic coach through the Embody Lab. I focus on working with creatives, the queer community and gifted populations.

I hold a BFA in Printmaking and a BA in Community Studies from the University of California Santa Cruz.

Has anyone ever told you that you are too much? Too intense? Do you feel like you're swinging between extremes, at the will of your emotions? Do you find you're able to understand yourself differently but feeling exactly the same, wondering if anything is actually changing?

The world view of Western medicine and philosophy separates the body from the mind, overly pathologizes our "muchness", and says that we are problems to fix. We are conditioned by this worldview to intellectualize our experience and disregard the reality and intelligence of our embodied life. The result is we feel stuck, fractured, and isolated from our own experience, our own selves and each other. We haven't developed the skills to tune in and listen to our internal landscape, to hear what our sensations and emotions are trying to tell us, to be with the intelligence of our entire organism and regard the body as sacred and wise.

That's why I work somatically, to help you more fully understand and sense the body/mind connection, to teach you how to use your cognition more effectively and accurately. The result is you living on your own terms without the shame, judgement and doubt that comes from forcing ourselves to be something we're not, to do what others think is "right" or "best".

Change happens inter and intra personally, within cultural, and social contexts, within the context of our earthly reality and our cosmic one. My approach focuses on shifting you away from your reactivity towards responsiveness to give you reliable access to your agency. We work to deepen your understanding not just of yourself, but also of the contexts that shape you.

When we commit to living in alignment with what really matters to us and are able to hold reverence for the body/mind connection, we spend less time stuck in survival and spend more time feeling into our life, coming radically, ecstatically alive.

My vision is that we continue to develop our capacity to regard our embodied life as essential for our personal growth and collective liberation. It is for us to move courageously in our spaces of healing while leading from our hearts to become safer for each other.

My work is to support the inevitable transformation that awaits humanity as we continue to face the impacts of global capitalism and free ourselves from the pervasive dominating systems that separate us from our power. I hold space for us to realize the possibilities that come when we acknowledge our interdependence with each other and the earth, when we choose empowerment over punishment, and acknowledge abundance over scarcity.

I believe in embodying life-affirming ways of relating to co create accountability, and establish radical cultures of care. I believe in moving with tenderness and determination towards our collective and ecological liberation.

"Abolition is about presence, not absence, it's about building life-affirming institutions." - Ruth Willson Gillmore.

Read more about the principles of The Art of Living Body First here