About Susanna Reynolds
I grew up in the Washington D.C. area, then attended Princeton University, graduating magna cum laude in Anthropology with a certificate in Theater and Dance. During this time I taught theater and dance to both children and inmates and wrote my thesis on Drama as a therapeutic and ritual modality for interpersonal change in the prison setting.
I was fortunate to study with Ashley Montague, the anthropologist and writer of Touching, The Human Significance of the Skin. David Crabb, a Linguistic Anthropologist heavily influenced my study of movement and language as forms of communication that change an individual’s self-perception and capacities.
In the journey from academic inquiry towards practical skills, I attended massage school at the Baltimore School of Massage and studied with Nelitta Anderson, a native Hawaiian Healer (Kahuna). I also studied human energetics and principles of learning for 10 years with the Krock Institute.
I apprenticed as a midwife for one year in Colorado, ending this period of study at the Guild for Structural Integration, learning the work of Dr. Ida Rolf with Peter Melchior and Emmett Hutchins, Dr. Rolf’s first trained teachers.
Life-long-learning is a passion that supports my work
Since 1993, I raised my three children with my husband Paul Reynolds, while deepening my studies and work through the Sound Circle Waldorf Teacher Training in Seattle, WA, further Cranial Sacral Therapy Study with Dr. Stevan Hall, and Visceral Manipulation Study with Michael Hahn. My experience of raising children and teaching has enhanced my capacities as a manual therapist and educator.
I developed, taught, and mentored the Seattle Waldorf School Parent-Tot program. I worked privately and with faculty members at Sound Circle in Parent education, developing, directing, and co-teaching classes for parents in working with developmental dynamics in parenting and children from birth to 21 from 2005-2015. Practicing Cranial and Structural Therapy while teaching Parent-Tot Programs led me to HANDLE Training, broadening my work to include learning and processing struggles within newborn to ninety-year-olds.
This amazing work, developed by Judith Bluestone, has been further enhanced with deepened learning about reflexes from Janet Oliver at PlanForLearning.com, Dr. Robert Scaar, and Anna De Vallo PT, in Trauma and Sensory Processing, and most recently through the Masgutova Institute as a core member in training.
For my own spirit and well-being, after my children grew up and left home, I took up the study of yoga after practicing in phases of my life since my teen years. Over several years I completed a 500-hour training and am a licensed teacher through The Yoga Alliance, and teach in Columbia City and online through LotusYoga.biz. Working in movement, sound, breathing, and meditative practices, doing my own Handle and reflex learning, singing, walking, hiking, swimming in lakes and ocean, gardening, and writing poetry are my personal renewals.
My certifications and areas of study include:
Core In-Training Member of the Masgutova Educational Institute
Certified Practitioner of the Ida P. Rolf Method of Structural Integration
Cranial Sacral Therapist trained in Visceral Manipulation
Reflex Patterning Integration through Plan for Learning by Janet Oliver
Reflex Patterning Integration through Stacey Patterson’s Organized Mind HQ
Yoga Instructor at Lotus Yoga Studio in Columbia City
Early Childhood Educator trained in the Waldorf Method
BA in Theatre and Dance