Amy Shoko Brown
My practice is rooted in over 30 years compassionate mindfulness training and creative process. In private practice, I offer the healing modalities of Somatic Experiencing, Biodynamic CranioSacral Therapy, and QiGong, to support students and clients to embody their most resilient, creative, and loving selves. Clients include people who want relief from chronic stress, adult survivors of abuse, people struggling with syndromal patterns (especially EDS, CFS, IBS, migraines), accidents, medical trauma, developmental trauma, LGBTQ social trauma, Somatic Experiencing students and others health professionals.
Somatic Experiencing® is a profound method for regulating an unbalanced nervous system. Training with Somatic Experiencing International emphasizes theory, supervised client sessions, and personal SE sessions so that practitioners know the work from the inside and out. This is essential because an SE practitioner is the “tuning fork” for your healing. I love seeing the light come back into people’s eyes as they renegotiate trauma, and am dedicated to individual clients as well as students of SE. In addition to my private practice, I also serve as a Training Assistant for the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute at trainings throughout the US. For those in the SEI training, I’m an Approved Provider for Personal Sessions, Individual Case Consultations, and Group Case Consultations at all levels of the training.
Biodynamic CranioSacral Therapy® is a gentle hands-on modality for supporting deep healing by re-establishing connection with the Health of your bodymind system. It’s a wonderful complement to Somatic Experiencing because the nervous system sometimes needs a more restorative time. With my background in SE and BCST, I focus on embodied presence in both modalities, helping clients receive the deep nourishment of BCST while integrating the energetic healing into their very tangible everyday life.
I’ve studied QiGong (Chi Kung – Energy Work) beginning in 1990 with several teachers including Ken Cohen, Arthus Makaris, and Pragata Blaise. I began seriously studying qigong when struggling with chronic fatigue, finding qigong to be the only form of exercise that I could engage in with good benefits. Many years later, Pragata introduced me to the 18 Lohan Hands, a set of forms and spontaneous movement that completely altered my sense of what it is to be healthy!
Art is a passion, love, and sanity-keeper. I’ve always been more interested in process than product, so my style focuses on the empowerment of expression and the joy of discovery. Art has allowed me to process and express what words cannot, especially grief, loss, transition and renewal. In 1998 I earned a Masters degree in Art Therapy from the College of New Rochelle. I’ve worked with a variety of people in many settings, always appreciating how art opens the heart.
My appreciation of mindfulness is rooted in 30 years of practice and training at Zen Mountain Monastery. As a lay-ordained senior practitioner, I regularly offered beginning instruction in Zen meditation, introduced people to art practice, assisted with affiliates’ retreats, and served as the Volunteer Coordinator of the National Buddhist Prison Sangha. I continue to serve as a practice advisor for NBPS, training new advisors, learning from those I correspond with, and developing materials for trauma-informed meditation.
If you are a trauma or healthcare professional looking for Case Consultation in Somatic Experiencing and/or embodiment for therapists, please see the Case Consultation page for more information.