Brae Weil Sisk

​I believe in a model of facilitation that supports
​self-empowerment
self-knowledge
 self-care
each person needs a chance to arrive
at the center of their unique experience.

​It is an honor to support each individual healing journey. 

​​Somatic Healing Artist
​Massage Therapist, Somatic Movement
​& Tui Na Specialist

Certified Massage Therapist  CACMTC #23341​
A Classical Chinese Medicine approach through acupressure and tuina therapy combined with connective somatic awareness exercises and guided movement sequences to integrate trauma and transform patterns of dis-ease of any kind. 

Herbal Alchemist
Green Witch and Potion Master 

As an herbal alchemist and green witch, I enjoy working with plant allies, nature and land relations,  embracing food as medicine, using the practice of prayer and preparation for topical, edible and medicinal potions to facilitate well-being and joyful living.

​Movement & Embodiment Coach
Council Facilitator 
Group Facilitation and the Art of Relationship

The Way of Council:
Community Building and Emergent Collective Process
Body-Mind Integration:
Developmental Movement Therapy & Education

Ancestral Healing & Spiritual Guide
Clairvoyant bridge and channel

Holistic Spiritual & Emotional Healing can be achieved through intentional focused processes. I facilitate as the channel or bridge to connect with difficult to reach ancestral relationships and multi-dimensional complex roots of disease and discord that can be accessed through simple hands on work, movement, breath, sound vibration and ritual. 

My work and my spiritual practices are deeply rooted in nature, the wild rivers, trees and mountains of Northern California, where I spent my formative years.  The power of healing comes from our understanding that we as humans are a part of this wild animal earth; the winds, rains and seasons of it's turning and changing tides is what runs clearly through my work. My time in rural Northern California was spent cultivating my fierce feminine power, my visionary capacities, my skills as a bodyworker, a scientist, a community organizer and facilitator. I have overcome many challenges, learning to enjoy life through deep connection to nature, the physical body and energy medicine.

Located now in the Bay Area, I bring a wild and untamed intuitive creativity to the art of an unfolding healing process with each individual. As a Tui na specialist and a life-long student of Chinese Medicine, I utilize taoist principles of spirit and the elemental forces of nature moving through us. This bodywork method, coupled with somatic movement therapy, brings a practice of body-mind integration to the individual and collective healing experience. Weaving a tapestry of healing through embodied communication and empathetic listening, interpersonal connection, and playful expression of self,  we find the alchemy of transforming pain and discord into sparks of light that guide us forward in the night.  I enjoy working individually and in group process to bring revolutionary and subtle skills, and a playfully expanded awareness to the art of healing. 

I am honored to carry a blended bundle of wisdom through training and apprenticeship in South American and Asian healing traditions with western studies in biological science, developmental movement therapy, physical and mask theatre, and embodied anatomy. Please refer to my influences below for more info on my teachers and mentors.

I am a performing, visual and  healing artist, who has found her own personal transformation through explorations of theatre, dance, bodywork, qi gong, painting, prayer, energy medicine and nature based-ritual. My personal process guides my learning and allows me to share wisdom and facilitate others from a place of humility and empathy. I am pleased to offer support and guidance to others on their path to healing and wholeness. 

I draw on teachings and experiences from a wide variety of influences, including Taoist energetics, Qi Gong and Chinese Medical philosophy, scientific principles and wisdoms of anatomy, physiology, ecology and systems science. I hold a bachelor degree in the Biological Sciences, and I am a California Certified Massage Therapist with a specialty in Tui Na Therapy and Acupressure. For seven years I was an apprentice to Don Victor Estrada, a Chacaruna from the Andes of Peru.

chacaruna: (n) Literally, bridge person. A chacaruna is the one who helps others to cross from one state of consciousness to other states of consciousness, from the mind to the heart, from the present to the past or to the future. A chacaruna is always exploring this reality to connect with the beauty and perfection of creation. They help people connect to the spirit world and can walk between the upper, middle and lower worlds.

My emphasis is on nervous system re-patterning to overcome trauma and the roots of disease through somatic movement education and developmental movement therapy, as well as the healing power of play. Many are experiencing the trauma of living in an oppressive, racially biased, violent and economically depressed world in the face of serious environmental changes.  In my life I have always been drawn to practices that invite social justice and connection to the diversity of humanity. It is a pleasure to incorporate many earth-based wisdom traditions in the synergy of ancient and modern processes for healing in our modern world.

It is imperative that we claim our place in the world as innovative, aware humans; developers of paths forward, together and through these times. We must have courage, and we need each other to continue to be passionate humans with purpose and the willingness to work together. I endeavor to engage in work that promotes connectivity, creativity and collective wellness through body-mind-spirit integration and respect for our nature as earth animals. It is my pleasure to offer a nurturing presence and healing touch to support a deeply transformative experience for those who are open and willing.

Influences:
​Rivers of Wisdom

First of all I am grateful to all my teachers and mentors. There are so many influences that shape the wholeness that emerges from one life, through experience, reflection and synthesis.  I know I will not be able to name all those who have touched and shaped my life here, and yet here are some of my roots and the links that can be provided for further inquiry, when possible.   


I am proud to carry a lineage of work that was passed to me through instructors at The Massage Therapy Institute in Davis, an especially my instructors at The Berkeley Acupressure Institute, some of whom  I continue to study Acupressure and Tui Na with. Thank you specifically to my mentors and teachers Kathleen Davis,  Janet Oliver, LAc and Brian O'Dea LAc. www.meridianflow.co in Berkeley Ca.

​My work incorporates deep transformation healing through bodywork techniques and meditations based in Taoist Healing Energetics from the Chi Nei Tsang Institute. https://www.chineitsang.com/ Chi Nei Tsang techniques working with internal organs aids emotional digestion, allowing deeper levels of somato-emotional processing.  Tracking emotional charges through the enteric nervous system, facilitating the release of habitual patterns through the body, and making way for greater structural alignment.

I am deeply moved by the synergy that can occur when the Chi Nei Tsang work is coupled with the deep self-awareness and facilitation of internal exploration through the BodyMind Centering , http://www.bodymindcentering.com/ and to my personal influences;  BMC teachers Diane Elliott and Dr. Martha Eddy.

My facilitation abilities, many of my understandings of the transformation of energy, and a deep influence in my work with body-mind-spirit healing come from my apprenticeship with indigenous healer and Chacaruna from Peru, Don Victor Estrada. http://www.donvictorestrada.com I am deeply grateful to the skills I have gained form navigating alongside such an amazing healing genius. 

I am also grateful to be carrying the lineage of The Way of Council, from the tradition of the Ojai Foundation  http://www.ojaifoundation.org/center-council. I give thanks for this simple and profoundly important way of leaning into a collective dream to find ways forward through participatory process and transparent leadership. I especially thank the two trainers and facilitators who have shared generously of their knowledge in this practice of collective field dynamics and facilitation magic, Marlow Hotchkiss and Sharon Shay Sloan. It is a joy to incorporate and include this tradition as one of many different wisdom traditions, on the modern healing path. 

The influence of sacred alchemy as a double spiral of healing and performance comes from the mentorship and master teaching of Giovanni Fusetti. To walk and play in a tradition of thousands of years of history invites a magical richness, following the natural way of humans; to play and tell story, thereby entering into the cathartic experiment and experience of life. I am happy to jump into this delightful river, to find myself in the cauldron of this lovable human experiment, where we can share through playful embodiment of our collective consciousness. 
 Check out more of Gionvanni's endeavors and offerings  at Helikos International School of Theatre Creation  
http://www.giovannifusetti.com/   www.helikos.org/
​
I am also presently working, collaborating and training in somatic education and developmental movement therapy through the Moving on Center http://www.movingoncenter.org/ with director Carol Swann  and various other instructors, including Dr. Martha Eddy, Peggy Hackney, G. Hoffman Soto, and Diane Elliott . The experience of studying at the Moving On Center is one of receiving influence, absorbing the wisdom and insight of the many masters in the field of somatic movement and the study and art of somatics as social practice.

So much honor and appreciation for Dr. Martha Eddy and her brilliant synthesis and continued work to create accessible forms of movement rituals for health and wellness, personal success, and social change in a world full of chaos and trauma. I am presently engaged in certification programs in BodyMind Dancing and Moving For Life: Dance for Recovery www.movingforlife.org/ 

Thank you also to Peggy Hackney and Janice Meaden,  as well as the other teachers of the Integrated Movement Studies program http://www.imsmovement.com/. The deep dive into Bartenieff Fundatmentals and the work of Rudolf Laban has helped prepare me to listen, observe, and understand the patterns of connectivity underlying all the experiences we have. I hope to continue to find connectivity and strength in this practice through teaching and facilitating greater presence and embodied healing, opening up possibilities and choices through re-patterning of the nervous system. 

In my experience and from a synthesis of teachings which have been shared with me, from Andean and Taoist alchemists that a synergy for spiritual healing, emotional processing, and physical integration is accessible. The language of somatic movement education, especially techniques and awareness of developmental movement therapy, allows a deep level of transformation of nervous system patterns. Unlocking holding patterns associated with trauma to inform a broader choice of movement for the current body-mind. In the process I am able to facilitate we (clients, groups and myself) allow the unique alchemy of healing for each person to become fully integrated.  This process and path toward wellness includes the structural support for real necessary changes and for achieving sustainable well-being; Body, Mind and Soul.

May we all remember how to be vibrantly alive in our bodies so we may be present and available for engagement with life in every moment.