About Zuzzie

Zuzzie Kapas is an inner exploration and self-discovery guide supporting individuals on their journey to dive deeper within. For over a decade she has been facilitating consciousness expanding personal and group journeys, honoring the body as a bridge between the worlds seen and unseen. 

In her workshops, participants get to expand their innate sensory acuity by observing their body and their mind during movement and stillness. Zuzzie offers rich somatic guidance with relevant and deeply personal imagery. Participants have an opportunity in this safe container to engage their curiosity and journey into the terrains of their psyche, gradually rendering the unconscious material conscious, allowing space to practice restorative relational experiences.

Through a real-time psycho-somatic group journey participants get to face their deep-rooted patterns, heal fragmentation and build new neural pathways that support healthy boundaries and a cohesive sense of Self. Zuzzie consciously chooses to work in natural environments that are engaging to the participants and offer opportunity for the practice co-creating an environment that fosters inclusivity, acceptance, values vulnerability and supports relational healing of trauma. 

Zuzzie holds a Master’s degree and post-master’s specialization in Somatic Psychotherapy from Antioch University in Santa Barbara, California. She sources from over a decade-long experience as a somatic practitioner and movement artist, in addition to her training informed by evidence-based somatic modalities and understanding of Epigenetics and Behavioral Neuroscience acquired through her undergraduate and post-graduate research at the University of California in Santa Barbara and at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland.

RELEVANT SOMATIC MOVEMENT INFLUENCES AND TRAINING

THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE BODY-ORIENTED APPROACH (United States of America)

Zuzzie’s journey with introspective movement began in 2010 when she developed a regular yoga practice after moving to Dallas, TX. Drawn deeper by her personal inner experience, she pursued and completed her 200-hr Integrative Yoga Teacher Training with an emphasis on Body-Mind Centering® at the Dallas Yoga Center in 2013. Her training included the foundations of Hatha, Vinyasa, Ashtanga and Iyengar Yoga, as well as the in-depth studies of the Yoga Philosophy, Sound Healing, the use of Mantras, Mudras and Pranayama. Zuzzie had the opportunity to teach at yoga studios, rock climbing gyms, and wellness clubs across the DFW Metroplex. She continued her studies in Yoga Therapy for somatic healing, applying her trauma-informed approach in sensitive environments such as women's shelters, child welfare facilities, and private schools for troubled youth, all while maintaining her regular teaching schedule. Zuzzie simultaneously branched out into the terrains of somatic work and the field of depth psychology, which was prompted by her personal interest in psycho-somatic healing. She discovered a profound connection between the human body, Nature and the collective unconscious.  Her personal healing process generated a path forwards investigating the inter-relatedness of ancestral imprints within the body, to the psyche, in correspondence to the state of the world and the collective unconscious. 

EMBODIMENT RESEARCH AND RELATIONAL MOVEMENT  (USA, UK, Europe & Southeast Asia)

Zuzzie’s movement facilitation extended beyond yoga, drawing from four years of in-depth studies in Body-Mind Centering—an introspective embodiment practice rooted in human evolutionary patterns, pre- and post-natal development, and the neuroscience of trauma and attachment. Training in Body-Mind Centering® profoundly deepened Zuzzie’s relationship to her own body on a somatic and energetic level. This practice facilitated a deep psycho-spiritual journey of integration, connecting her to previously untapped states of awareness and consciousness. Zuzzie studied directly with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, the founder of BMC® for two years and continued under the mentorship of senior teachers Carla Rudiger and Jessica O’Keefe, as well as senior BMC® teachers Lisa Clark and Amy Matthews. Body-Mind Centering has been a foundation paramount for Zuzzie in terms of developing her sensory acuity to energetically and viscerally perceive the information exchange between herself and the environment through both interoception and by “sensing the room” externally. 

Furthermore, Zuzzie began investigating Contact Improvisation in 2014 which became an important platform for her experiential movement research. Zuzzie investigated her own psychological patterns that became visible to her during shared contact improvisation dances. This relational movement practice opened doorways to the investigation of trauma imprints and facilitated a possibility for loosening up places of rigid holding, releasing psychological blocks and by repetition of new experiences of trust, surrender, self-agency and collaboration transforming one’s sense of belonging and one’s experience of self within the whole.

Zuzzie observed the natural re-organization that occured on a neurological, psychological and energetic levels within an individual and the group consciousness during these shared non-verbal movement practices. Inspired by Contact Improvisation and BMC®, she curated enriching workshops integrating various somatic and relational based modalities. Her main interest was to study the psychological effects of these practices on individuals and their level of fulfillment being part of a group, as a result.

To expand her movement vocabulary, she traveled internationally, studying Contemporary Dance in Barcelona and Amsterdam, Contact Improvisation on land and water in Berlin, Dance/Movement Therapy in Rotterdam, Authentic Movement and Gaga in Spain, and Joged Amerta Movement with master teacher Suprapto Suryodarmo in Central Java. Zuzzie traveled across the USA, UK and EU to continue her movement research by engaging in classes, workshops, artist residencies and contact jams which deepened her mytho-poetic awareness of human existence through movement collaborations, group performances and self-reflection. Under the guidance of Daniel Werner (GER), she investigated an approach to Contact Improvisation from a Body-Mind Centering® perspective and with Joerg Hassman (GER) from the Contemporary Dance perspective.

While in her Contact Improvisation training in Europe, Zuzzie was introduced to underwater dance improvisation by Daniel Werner, which greatly influenced her path thereafter. Zuzzie traveled to Spain for a month-long residency to deepen her underwater consciousness research and completed three levels of training in Aguahara - being work in the water. She studied directly with Alexander Siebenstern, the founder of Aguahara, which offered her the space to investigate underwater somatic movement, leading to profound consciousness expanding experiences. 

ECOSOMATICS  AND EMBODIED MULTI-DIMENSIONALITY (USA, UK, Europe & Southeast Asia)

Over the years, Zuzzie facilitated on-going classes, workshops and contact improvisation jams in Dallas, TX, Boulder, CO, Los Angeles, Desert Hot Springs and Ojai, CA. She collaborated with movement researchers globally and traveled to co-create spaces for relational exploration on land and underwater, dedicated to evolving this body of work further. She followed enriching opportunities in Portugal, Catalunya, Mexico, Ibiza, Thailand, India and Bali, where she participated in artist residencies and guided both underwater and land based movement workshops.

Zuzzie finds somatic listening to be the key that opens the doorway to experiencing the beauty of being in a greater communion with All life on Earth. Through her EARTH :: BODY :: CONTACT workshops she guides participants to meet their own self from within. Connecting to their cellular memory, participants awaken their dormant capacities for full-body listening and through the bridge of their own Body begin to cultivate an intimate relationship with Nature and Spirit. Zuzzie also guides eco-somatic movement journeys underwater. The Aguahara ~ An Aquatic Journey Back to Self is a personal shamanic ceremony, a journey into the realm of the unconscious through somatic listening, facilitated by Zuzzie, who completed 3 levels of Aguahara Practitioner training and is a level 1 Aguahara training-course facilitator, certificates she acquired between 2015-2016.

Zuzzie recognizes her calling to share embodiment work to reopen the pathways towards reciprocity with Nature, Spirit and the Cosmos, ultimately serving the evolution of our collective consciousness towards embodied multi-dimensionality.

MOVEMENT RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS (United States of America)

Zuzzie shares a portion of her inner journey in the chapter she wrote for the book “Dance Adventures: True Stories About Dancing Abroad” titled “Inter-Independence” (p.245), published in 2019. She was invited to contribute to the book project by Megan Taylor Morrison. In this chapter Zuzzie documents the unfolding of her psychological process during her relational movement practice in Java with Suprapto Suryodarmo. Zuzzie hopes to engage the reader in a contemplation about the possibilities relational movement practice holds in terms of individual and group psychological healing, integration and growth. Zuzzie facilitates her workshops from this deep understanding and interest to investigate further.

MENTAL HEALTH, SOMATIC INTEGRATION, PSYCHOTHERAPY (United States of America)

Beginning in 2019, after settling in Southern California, Zuzzie continued to explore the applicability of her interdisciplinary work in the realm of psychological healing. She pursued a post-master’s specialization in Somatic Psychotherapy at Antioch University in Santa Barbara, CA, which lead her to offering her services as a Somatic Integration Specialist at inpatient, higher-acuity residential, and intensive outpatient treatment programs, both in-person and remotely. Working under clinical supervision and as part of the treatment team, she refined her understanding of complex trauma, dual diagnoses, and psychotic disorders, while developing therapeutic activities tailored to patient needs.

Zuzzie’s approach to movement facilitation was further enriched by respected evidence-based somatic modalities, including Dr. Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing, Dr. Pat Ogden’s Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, and Dr. Allan Schore’s Affective Neuroscience and Trauma Theory. She refined her facilitation techniques to integrate the latest findings in behavioral neuroscience, trauma-informed somatic integration, and eco-somatic practices, bridging movement arts with evidence-based therapeutic modalities. In 2022, Zuzzie began working individually with clients in clinical settings, supporting their somatic healing and integration.

Zuzzie aims to facilitate meaningful groups that allow space for each individual to re-discover their authentic connection to Self. By participating in the group activities clients get to forge new neural pathways that offer them a possibility to live a grounded, connected and well-integrated life. Zuzzie is committed to holding space in ways that fosters inclusivity and acceptance for All.

Link to details about Somatic Healing and Integration can be found here. To learn more about Aquatic Healing Sessions conducted in warm-water, please click here. Thank you for visiting Embodied Art Of Life.