Suzanne Snijder van Wissenkerke

I played piano since age five, giving me a twenty-five-year head start on skills vital to bodywork. Listening with hands and ears, moving to match my dynamics and tempo in response to the big picture, were all in my musician's toolkit. When I shifted gears at age 30 to first try massage, applying these skills toward this healing modality came naturally. Growing up, I lived in the American Midwest – canoeing every summer in the Boundary Waters, getting a liberal arts degree in the sciences --- pragmatic, grounded in nature, in spirit. The science behind massage, the axioms of structural balancing resonated most strongly until, years later, discovering somatic therapy, I grew to embrace the freedom of “not knowing.” Playing only what's written? Not any more. My current practice is full of improvisation, rewarding me with daily discovery, inspiration and challenge --- and yes, benefiting my clients! My steps from keyboard, to science and nature, to integrative bodywork, connect me in a theme of moving notes. Now, sitting with a client, I continue to listen for the “notes between:” the ones that, in relationship with the others, create harmony or dissonance, and can lead on to the next notes.