How are you experiencing this moment in your heart, spirit, and body? In what ways are you navigating belonging among multiple communities? Join Mariana Pardes and Debórah Eliezer for three participatory sessions centering Jews at the intersection of multiple perspectives to engage in open-hearted, body-oriented, and empathy-led dialogue.  This series is intended to provide a supportive and brave space in community to express and listen to each other with respect for our shared humanity and dignity. Rooted in liberatory/anti-oppressive values, this circle welcomes a critical analysis of ..read more

In a small group context, we will be exploring somatic or body-based practices as an opportunity to experientially connect to ourselves as embodied beings. We will engage in a process of discovery of what it’s like to be in our bodies with a spirit of playfulness, curiosity, and compassion. We'll experiment with practices that incorporate gentle movement involving arms and legs, tuning into our senses, widening our field of vision, grounding, and self-contact (using our hands to offer touch to our own bodies). A few notes: ⦁ This group will meet in-person in Center City (16th & Locust) on ..read more

Earlier this summer, I was featured in an article about somatic practices in the PhillyVoice! The article outlines how a somatic approach to healing draws on the mind-body connection. Here are some excerpts of what I shared: "In somatic work, we're really prioritizing, in a bottom up way, how the body communicates and what it might be communicating," Mariana Pardes, a Philly-based somatics practitioner, said. "And so first and foremost, (we're) just learning its language. Sensation, physical sensation, movement of energy, bodily posture and gestures, imagery." "I was a client first," Pardes sa ..read more

During in-person sessions, I offer the option of consent-based, hands-on contact. Somatic touch differs from other kinds of bodywork. Somatic touch supports you in tapping into and listening to your body’s sensory experience. It is gentle and exploratory in nature and does not involve manipulating tissues as in massage. Somatic touch also serves to send direct cues of attuned presence to your nervous system. The affirming and nourishing quality of somatic touch supports your body’s capacity to access a felt sense of safety and enables your nervous system to create new pathways. It is this re-w ..read more

I am pleased to share that I am now offering in-person somatic sessions in Center City (Philly)! During in-person sessions, I offer the option of consent-based, hands-on contact to bring you in relationship with your body. I will offer gentle touch in combination with verbal inquiry and dialogue to facilitate present-moment mindfulness and discernment of your body’s communication in its own language: sensation, movement of energy, colors, and imagery. Somatic touch work occurs on a massage table, where you will be invited to lay flat on your back. You remain fully clothed and I will seek your ..read more

What's buoying you amidst the turbulent waters of life? For me, it's relationships. Relationships that include the relationship with myself as well as others: my therapist, my mentor, a couple of friends, my cat, my mom... it's a small but robust circle of nourishing and affirming relationships that create space for the fullness of my humanity. Relationships are also at the center of my work with clients. At a minimum, two relationships are present: the relationship between us and the relationship between you and your bodyself. Our relationship — which I approach as a collaboration anchored ..read more

What's buoying you amidst the turbulent waters of life? For me, it's relationships. Relationships that include the relationship with myself as well as others: my therapist, my mentor, a couple of friends, my cat, my mom... it's a small but robust circle of nourishing and affirming relationships that create space for the fullness of my humanity. Relationships are also at the center of my work with clients. At a minimum, two relationships are present: the relationship between us and the relationship between you and your bodyself. Our relationship — which I approach as a collaboration anchored ..read more

Are you a care provider* interested in supporting your clients/patients with cultivating somatic/body awareness? Are you open to offering a trauma-informed resource for your clients to freely access in between sessions to: ?cultivate somatic/body awareness ?build their window of capacity/tolerance ?expand tools to orient, ground, & settle their nervous system when activated or dysregulated ?nurture a felt sense of their inner sources of strength, joy, dignity, & pleasure ?practice with noticing, tracking, & naming body-based communications Would you like to personally experience ..read more

Since establishing my practice, and especially since the outbreak of COVID-19, I have been wrestling with how to facilitate access to body-based practices. While I only have the capacity to work 1:1 with a limited number of ongoing clients, I’ve been interested in coming up with an offering that would be informed by the guiding principles and tools of my individual sessions, yet be in a format that would be sustainably and meaningfully accessible to more people. After 6 months of brainstorming, creating, and revising, with the support and input of fellow somatic practitioners, former clients ..read more

This series can support you to: nurture a gentle, curious, & compassionate approach to embodied self-awareness acquire skills to access joy, strength, & nourishment within your body develop a trust in your body’s guidance & your inner voice and intuition strengthen your capacity to hold space for & release stress, anxiety, & tension tune into your own answers regarding what you need to care for yourself cultivate a collaborative and affirming relationship with your body learn more ..read more