About My Work
Coming home to yourself begins with listening inward. I'm Danielle Sadhana Sokol - a somatic practitioner, expressive arts facilitator, meditation facilitator, and educator with more than 12 years of experience supporting personal development and embodied transformation.
My work is grounded in a simple belief:
Your body is not simply something you carry through life. It can be a source of wisdom, creativity, presence, and connection.
So much of our lives happen in our minds - thinking, analyzing, planning, solving, trying to understand. And while our thoughts are important, there is another dimension of our experience that is easy to lose touch with: the body.
The sensations we feel. The emotions we carry. The impulses we suppress. The places where we soften, contract, open, or protect ourselves.
My work creates space to slow down and listen to these deeper layers of experience.
I bring together somatic awareness, movement, expressive arts, meditation, and coaching to support a more embodied relationship with yourself.
Rather than focusing only on thoughts or words, we explore the whole of your experience - your body, emotions, imagination, relationships, and inner world.
Sometimes we move. Sometimes we make art. Sometimes we write, breathe, pause, or simply notice what is here.
There is no right way to experience yourself.
The invitation is to become curious about what is already present and discover what becomes possible when you begin to listen.
Sadhana Sokol
How I Work
I believe meaningful change doesn't always begin with just understanding more.
Sometimes, it begins with feeling more.
My integrative approach is experiential, creative, and body-centered. I'm interested in the space where different practices meet - where somatic awareness, movement, creativity, meditation, and reflection can become pathways to greater self-knowledge and authentic change.
This work may support you in:
-
Developing a more trusting relationship with your body
-
Recognizing and working with patterns of stress and overwhelm
-
Cultivating greater nervous-system awareness and regulation
-
Expressing emotions and experiences that may be difficult to put into words
-
Reconnecting with creativity, vitality, and aliveness
-
Navigating transitions and periods of change
-
Finding greater clarity about what you need and what matters to you
-
Making choices that feel more aligned with who you are
My role is not to tell you who you are or who you should become.
It is to create a supportive space where you can listen more closely to your own experience - and discover what is already there.
My Training & Professional Background
My work is informed by a range of somatic, expressive, contemplative, and movement-based disciplines:
-
Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP)
A body-oriented approach to working with the effects of stress and trauma.
-
Tamalpa Life/Art Process Practitioner
Training in an integrative expressive arts approach that brings together movement, visual art, creative writing, and performance as pathways for self-exploration and personal development.
-
Registered Somatic Movement Educator (RSME)
Accredited by ISMETA: the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association.
-
Training in Bioenergetic Analysis
Exploring the relationship between the body, emotions, and psychological experience.
-
Graduate Certificate in Movement Therapy
Angel Vianna College, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
-
Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Environmental Studies
University of Vermont, USA.
-
Foundational Training in Co-Active Coaching
Co-Active Training Institute.
Alongside my formal training, I have maintained a dedicated meditation and mindfulness practice for more than 15 years and have been facilitating meditation with individuals and groups for more than 10 years.
I also bring more than 15 years of experience in teaching, community work, and nonprofit projects.
These different areas of study have given me a broad foundation from which to work. But what interests me most is not any one methodology.
It is the space where they meet.
Beyond Training:
The Experiences That Shaped My Work
I believe that who we become as practitioners is shaped by much more than our degrees and certifications.
My professional and personal journey has taken me into classrooms, community spaces, nonprofit organizations, intentional communities, and creative projects with people from very different backgrounds.
These experiences have taught me that transformation doesn't happen in isolation.
It happens through relationship - with ourselves, with our bodies, with other people, and with the world around us.
Blossomy Project (Kolkata, India)
I facilitated a month-long Arts Corps intensive expressive arts program with children and teenagers who were survivors of human trafficking or considered at risk of trafficking.
Through movement and creative expression, we explored the relationship between body, feelings, and imagination, creating opportunities for connection, expression, play, and possibility.
União de Mulheres Pró Melhoramento da Roupa Suja
(Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
For more than six years, I developed and facilitated community-based projects in Rocinha, one of Rio de Janeiro's largest favelas.
Among these was The World and Me, a project I created with young people using movement, the creative arts and meditation to explore identity, belonging, and their relationship with who they are and who they want to become.
Perceber Sem Ver (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Through the Benjamin Constant Institute (IBC), I co-facilitated somatic movement workshops with blind and visually impaired participants.
Using a multisensory approach, we explored movement, relaxation, embodied awareness, and first-person experience of the body.
This experience deepened my understanding of the many ways we can perceive, experience, and relate to our bodies.
East Harlem Tutorial Program (New York, USA)
As a Youth Development Specialist, I worked with children ages 8-10 in public schools in East Harlem.
I created and facilitated literacy- and arts-based programming incorporating poetry, short stories, music, and visual arts, inviting students to explore identity, family, cultural heritage, and community through their own words and creative expression.
Community, Connection & Co-Living
My understanding of connection has also been shaped by building community in my own life.
I am the co-founder of two intentional co-living communities in Rio de Janeiro - Amorada Co-living RJ and Acasa.
Living intentionally with others taught me firsthand about community, collaboration, sustainability, shared decision-making, boundaries, communication, and the beautiful - and sometimes challenging - work of creating spaces where people can genuinely connect.
These experiences continue to inform how I hold space for others today.