About me.

The short and sweet story. You can read the hydrated version here.

Hello :) This is me, Pamela Samuelson, making out with the moon on a fine summer evening. My preferred pronouns are she/they.

I am a firstborn, first-generation human, born and raised and living with my family on the unceded lands of the Tongva, Chumash and Kizh peoples currently known as Los Angeles.

Embodywork, which is the current shape of my work as a bodyworker, coach and educator, is the evolving silver lining of the transformation of my own wounds.

As a dancer in a rigorous conservatory program in college, I developed a chronic injury so severe that I was unable to stand still without searing pain and spasms in both of my hips. I was brought over the course of 2 years to a complete physical crisis that forced me to stop dancing.  MDs could find nothing wrong with me, and brief encounters with physical therapists only made matters worse.

The things that made a difference, then and now, are somatic therapy, exploratory bodywork, and meditation.

Somatic, or embodiment-based, therapy brought me face to face with the presence of emotion on lockdown in my body, and then taught me to witness the tectonic shifts that occur when that energy is brought to consciousness and given permission to move.  Bodywork has demonstrated to me over and over that body and mind are inextricably one, that the body’s sensations never lie, and that our fundamental act as intelligent animals is to give and receive love. And meditation has cracked open my perceptions, handed me the reins to myself, and showed me the true extent of my malleability as an ordinary human being.

Over and over again, those three things have brought me back to myself, alive and whole. My gratitude became fascination. I leapt down the rabbit hole, and have chased everything that has felt like a key to freedom ever since. 

For a sense of the teachers and traditions that paved the way, click here. 

The goal of my work is twofold: to hold a deeply grounded, honest space for the people who get on my table to know and feel that they are whole, that are absolutely capable of transformation, and that they have total authority over their own experience - and then to meet them with the skill, subtlety, intuition, and courage to accurately read and explore with them the places in their bodies where they are asking for help. 

This work is appropriate for anyone who is in a body, on earth, at this time.

Contact me if you feel curious, brave, and ready to dive deep.