“Danielle has been a mentor and practitioner of mine for nearly a decade. Of her many skill sets, I most appreciate her capacity for attunement and trust in the body's wisdom. Our work continues to deepen my somatic connection with purpose and aliveness in transformative ways.”

– Marika Heinrichs, wildbody somatics

Training and Lineage

Danielle’s primary somatics training took place in the Somatics & Trauma program with Generative Somatics in the San Francisco Bay Area (Advanced and Teacher Training programs, 2011-15). She has also completed the Advanced Somatic Bodywork program at the Strozzi Institute in Petaluma, California. 

Danielle undertook her osteopathic training at the Collège d’Études Ostéopathiques, completing the five-year manual and research program in 2019 (DOMP with honours). Her research on polyvagal theory and trauma-informed practice in osteopathy, where she laid out part of her vision for blending somatics and osteopathy, won the Andrew Taylor Still Thesis Award for best qualitative thesis. Danielle’s varied approaches to treatment include specializations in cranial osteopathy, biodynamic osteopathy, visceral manipulation, osteoarticular release, myofascial mobilization, and strain-counterstrain techniques.*

Before completing her osteopathic training, Danielle had a decade of experience as a registered massage therapist in Nova Scotia, Canada. Further experience includes her training in Chi Nei Tsang (Chi Nei Tsang Institute, Oakland), her work as a volunteer childbirth Doula (Doula Project, Halifax), and her participation in sessions with internationally recognized trauma clinicians Daniel Siegel and Bessel van der Kolk. 

Danielle has 15 years of experience working with all bodies. She works with chronic and neuroplastic pain, autonomic nervous system regulation, breathing regulation, sexual trauma histories, pediatric and obstetric care, and supporting queer and trans bodies in healing from the impacts of systemic oppression. She works with newborns and centenarians alike.

She is fluent in English, Spanish and French.

*Note: Danielle is a manual osteopathic practitioner (DOMP), which is distinct from a doctor of osteopathy (DO). The history of this distinction is complex, both within the US and internationally. In short, the principles of osteopathy were formulated in 1874 by American physician Andrew Taylor Still (who later founded the American School of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Missouri in 1892), but its development has since bifurcated. Manual osteopathic practitioners, who are most often trained in Canada and in Europe, specialize in highly refined manual therapies for helping the body to heal itself, whereas doctors of osteopathy, who are most often trained in the US, are medical physicians who employ surgery, pharmaceuticals, and other medical practices.