Kristen Greco CMTSE, SEP
Kristen Greco (she/they) has been a practitioner in the movement and healing arts field for over 25 years. She is a Luminous Awareness Practitioner & Trainer, Advanced Bodyworker, Somatic Movement Educator, and Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner. Kristen specializes in addressing physical, emotional, developmental and intergenerational trauma. Her work also addresses injuries, chronic pain, and structural and energetic imbalances.
The modalities that she draws from include:
Social / Cultural Somatics
Craniosacral Therapy
NeuroMuscular Reprogramming
Postural Assessment
Movement Rehabilitation / Pilates
Body-Mind Centering
Energy Medicine / Qi Gong
Attachment Theory & Character Styles
Improvisational Movement / Devised Theater Processes
Mindfulness & Awakening Practices
Currently, Kristen teaches Somatics & Trauma informed practices at the Luminous Awareness Institute where she has been teaching since 2012. She now leads aspects of the practitioner training program. She will be adding additional classes and trainings open to the public in the future.
Kristen's foundation is in Orthobionomy® which has its roots in Osteopathy. She has a certificate in Somatic Education from Moving on Center in Oakland, and is certified as an Advanced Conscious Bodyworker through Alive and Well! Institute of Conscious Bodywork in Corte Madera, CA. She is a graduate of the Luminous Body School of Integral Energy Medicine and is a Master Luminous Practitioner.
In her late teens Kristen was deeply influenced by her experiences on the Dineh land in Arizona where her heart and mind were opened by teachings from the indigenous elders, as well as by elders on Aboriginal lands in Australia. Here she landed inside of the animism within deep ecology and cultural ecology perspectives which have fueled her practices, perceptions, activism, and teaching ever since. She has been greatly impacted by her meditation trainings at the Spirit Rock meditation center with Jack Kornfield and Dr. Rick Hanson & Dr. Richard Mendius (co- authors of Buddah's Brain), Lama Tarchin Rinpoche (Dzogchen) at Pema Osel Ling, Khedrupchen Rinpoche (Ngöndro), Loch Kelly (Effortless Mindfulness), and Master Mingtong Gu (Qi Gong).
Kristen is grateful to have received her Pilates training from Kelly Kane at the Kane School of Core Integration in New York City where she learned the subtleties of touch, the nuances of posture, and the great transformations that can take place when one listens to the inner working of the body.
Kristen worked as a Clinical Bodyworker from 2012 - 2014 at San Francisco's premier sports medicine clinic, Psoas Massage and Bodywork. She was a primary reference person for those who experienced physical and emotional trauma, as well as worked with injury rehabilitation and creating ongoing clinical treatment plans.
As a socially engaged somatics practitioner for the past 25 years, Kristen has developed a unique hybrid of therapeutic work that integrates the physical, emotional, and intergenerational aspects of personal and collective trauma and healing. Kristen consults and facilitates trainings for organizations implementing her innovative research in neuro-physiology, attachment dynamics, somatics, eros, & trauma informed practices. Kristen’s background as an artist and as an environmental and social justice activist informs her teaching practices.
Kristen is a former teaching artist and co-director of an intergenerational dance company at the University of San Francisco and often can be found dancing in experimental performance projects. She directed, performed and toured internationally with The Carpetbag Brigade Physical Theater Company from 2002 - 2011. Kristen's private practice is based in Oakland, CA and is influenced by her studies in dance, improvisation, and the art of being present.
Kristen says -
"My work is a unique intersection of physiology, subtle energy, consciousness studies and childhood development. We work together to create a cohesive and enlivened experience of being human, unpacking layers of defense patterns and physical and energetic protectors to get to one's core essence - energetically and inter-personally connected, grounded to one's own center, and vibrantly engaged in life.
My dedication is to transform systemic oppressions through a collective re-imagining and remembrance - to recognize and practice through embodied living the truth of our inter-connection. My teaching practice centers open hearted presence. By becoming skillfully present to how we are affected, and how we affect others inside our human and non human relations, we can activate collectively from our most clear and powerful centers to co-create the world we want to live in". -KG