Testimonials
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Working with Lee helped me tap into deep layers of my body’s wisdom in a safe, supportive environment. Letting go of outer layers through movement, sound, breath, texture, color and memory, I developed an awareness of my fundamental and primal self. This experience has truly enhanced, complemented, and advanced my life’s journey.
—Nani, Workshop Participant
Group Program
When I first began working with you I was so scared of the inner workings of my mind/body and I couldn’t even admit it to myself. Most of the time it didn’t torture me because my personality self was so rigidly formed and protective. So although I may not have said it in these words I came to you and to the workshop to come home to myself. Slowly but surely that process has begun to unfold. The quiet listening is now my marriage to myself. For the very first time, I go inside myself and await with curiosity to see what is happening and it is like a universe exists within me that has sound and color and movement…traffic jams at times. But all in all it is always me and every part of me. Truly it is time for a celebration. One of the intentions I wrote down is that I want to be a better healer. First and foremost I have become a better healer to myself. The rest I can wait patiently to see how it will happen.
I am also so proud that I have learned to look and listen to others from a place within myself. In my work as well as my personal relationships, I now see how important it is to honor and take care of myself and trust that if I have the intention to offer loving interaction with people that is the best that I can do as well as deep and open listening.
I will never be the same after taking this workshop. There is no turning back. I listen in and there I am…pulses and bubbles and streams and my eyes look out from within all this and I see me and I see you and I see me seeing you. gratefully, Ana
—Ana Goldenberg, Sound and Color Healer, Psychotherapist
I have learned to fully acknowledge and appreciate my body’s wisdom and all that it has to offer me in times of decision-making and searching for direction. Whereas before, I often found myself looking outward for guidance, now I realize just how prepared my body already is to help me navigate through the world.
I leaned a variety of strategies for embodying my visions. Sensing my visions connected my dreams to my body, so instead of viewing them from a distance, I experienced them from the inside out. I am now able to translate what is unknown (like the future) into what is known (what is present). How does the future manifest in the present? This is where noticing bodily sensation while dreaming or looking ahead can make “the future” less hazy and more in reach. Also sensing what happens in my body– whether it’s fear, anxiety, excitement, joy, frustration, etc– while envisioning what is unknown or uncertain can aid in decision-making. “What does your gut tell you?” It’s a real thing.
Feeling welcomed, supported, and continuously affirmed by the group helped me realize that what I feel, what I dream, what I sense, and what I say IS in fact very important and crucial. I’ll always take with me Lee’s words: “Everything that is happening in the world is happening to you.” So knowing myself more deeply and making my wellbeing a priority is not just self-fulfilling but a gift and service to the world.
What was perhaps the most important lesson I learned/realization I had through these workshops was this: make time for you to just be you. Being with my body and another felt really special, sacred and sublime.
—Julie Verdone, Artist
Working with Lee helped me tap into deep layers of my body’s wisdom in a safe, supportive environment. Letting go of outer layers through movement, sound, breath, texture, color and memory, I developed an awareness of my fundamental and primal self. This experience has truly enhanced, complemented, and advanced my life’s journey.
-Nani, Librarian
Over the course of this program I have successfully become a non-profit, which was a goal of mine, and I feel empowered and supported (from within my body, surprisingly) to make more changes that I set out to make. I used to think I needed more outward support in order to make these changes, and while I still accept that support (and now ask for it), I realized that a huge wellspring was within my own body!
—Dawn Smelser, Director of MotherHeart Sangha
I thoroughly enjoyed Somatic Wellbeing for Visionaries and Leaders. During the classes Lee’s instruction and guidance allowed me to reach deep states of relaxation and quiet that has expanded my sense of well being and enabled me to work and live with a greater sense of ease and comfort. I also am able to accomplish tasks with far less effort.
-Jeff DeLone, Sr Partner at Velocity Concepts, VP/Owner of Brain Balance Centers Springfield&Cherry Hill
I am grateful to feel a lot more recovered and “in” myself.
—David Siller, Sustainable Community Builder and Educator
This workshop has gone much further than I ever could have imagined. The Freedom I felt during the sessions allowed me to open up to be more honest and vulnerable. Along the way I have observed shifts in myself and my relationships for the better.
I am grateful for finally noticing that as much as I believed that I was in my body, the truth is that I was mostly living in my head with stories and thoughts from my childhood, influencing my thoughts and feelings, in the present. The epiphany from this is learning that all of my Fear, Shame and suffering is still living inside of me with the little girl who was not encouraged to express her feelings. I hold her now with Love and Compassion. I am pleased about noticing how my confidence level has improved. This has enabled me to speak my feelings and thoughts, even if they are uncomfortable, by not letting them get caught in my throat and head.
The sensations, movement impulses and feelings I experience are constantly Flowing and changing. Most of the time now I am able to lean into whatever is flowing through me, in the moment. If I do this, I remember that I am not my thoughts or feelings. I hold the space and give them the time they need to manifest and then subside. I compare that to a wave arising in the ocean, reaching the shore and then calmly going back to join the ocean of my ever changing thoughts and feelings, whether they are Joy, anger, fear, shame, sadness etc.. Thank-you, Thank-you, Thank-you Lee for sharing your passion and yourself with me!
—Karin Surkin, Retired Medical Professional, Mindfulness Enthusiast
Lee’s program provided tools and language to think about the realm of intuition. I came to respect that it can be known, not just left in ephemera. Beyond this, during the program, my body came to speak for itself. Lee’s guidance and the environment she created helped me find a rapport with that which only seems too subtle.
–Albert Fung, Artist
Clients and Students
Many times this year, I’ve said that working with Lee was one of the best decisions I’ve made for myself. Our work together over the course of the year has taken me through incredible transition. When we began our work, I was working full-time in an office, feeling exhausted and struggling to access my intuition regularly. By the end of 6 months, I had left my job in a timely way, started to organize my own business and re-visioned my dreams. I started dancing and moving in new ways, and being able to gather information from my own body. By the end of 9 months, I had started and completed a large arts and justice project with a world-known artist and the country’s biggest mural organization. By 10 months, I was able to discern that it was time to move, and within a month, move across the country. All of these decisions came forward in short bits of time working with Lee. Our work helped me hear the messages and honor the timing of each decision, which happened to be fast. I now have ways of sensing decisions from the inside, resting deeply and also releasing what is ready to go, and continuing to go deeper. Everything from my self-image, past wounds and career decisions can be discovered in this internal landscape. I know this now. I feel I am developing a growing, personal language out of sensations, awareness and deep connection within myself. It has deepened my yogic practices tremendously, as I learn to become even more sensitive to my experience without pushing it away or missing it completely. As a teacher of personal growth, this work has also shaped my own work with others. I’m less inclined to take the responsibility of telling someone else what to do or how to fix their concerns, as I now believe they can actually figure that out through their own sensitivity and intuition. I can better support them in participating in their own growth and healing work. Through contact with non-judgmental presence, and information flows I receive from myself and give to myself. This is the foundation of all practices of self-love and spiritual mastery. The Visioning Body deepened my experience of this.
—Jess Rado, Counselor and Integrative Artist
Today during a session with Lee I had the thought ‘Anything that happens to my body is important.’ This was followed by an expansion of the idea to all bodies, ‘Anything that happens to bodies is important.’ Working with Lee supports my ongoing awareness of being a biological, physical being in a biological, physical universe. Living an urban life at this point in history, I find my attention constantly being drawn to socio-cultural, political realities and other logistical patterns that overlay and imprint upon my life and consciousness. It feels incredibly important to turn attention back to the wordless flowing sensations of living itself so that I can begin to live in ways that are right for me. Sessions with Lee create space for this kind of attention and experience, and that feels very precious and necessary.
—Asimina Chremos, Dancer/Artist/Writer
Working with Lee profoundly impacted my relationship with my self. Through movement, breath, and voice, I discovered a whole new geography of my body. I sensed my diaphragm and organs of my belly for possibly the first time. I traveled energetic pathways I never knew existed and traced back to the roots of some of my habitual movement and improvisational impulses. I now find myself carrying my awareness through my whole spine, not just my neck up, and drawing on modes of awareness and approaches to breathing that help me when I am feeling stressed. Lee’s unwavering support as I explored these patterns was an anchor when discomfort arose. Her warm, compassionate presence allowed me to believe that I could do no wrong in my explorations, which in turn allowed deeper impulses to rise to the surface to be examined. I was stunned by how much I was able to deepen both my connection to myself, and compassion for myself. Thank you.
—Annie Wilson, Performer/Choreographer, Yoga Teacher
It has been wonderful to study with Lee, whose knowledge of movement is very impressive. Her sensitivity, skills and commitment inspire confidence. Working with her is a way to learn techniques as well as new things about myself.
—Cathleen Cohen, Artist, Poet, Educator
I was looking for body movement classes and found Lee. She was intuitive and gentle from the start, giving me the encouragement to quickly open up and feel comfortable using movement, motion, and sound to express myself. In each session, Lee provided the space to enable me to fall deep into the present moment. And with Lee’s somatic training, the sessions felt fluid and supportive. Lee is a bright light, and there is so much to gain through her somatic teachings!!
—Ari Barkan
My year was one of pretty intense pain and grief as you know. I’m so deeply grateful for your practice and I can’t say enough about how life changing your work with me was and continues to be. You really held my emotions, body, and turmoil through one of the most intense and also transformative time periods for me. Grief is so intangible and mysterious and I felt supported and able to be totally vulnerable in your space — no judgement and so much listening, so much listening. Although things are still challenging right now as I continue to support my trans body and embark on what being more communicative about that in public spaces might look like, I feel secure that our practice together is holding me and is there for me. I also feel more centered in my creative practice and a real sense of comfort and joy in my body in a way I did not feel was possible for many years. As I was skiing down these little slopes on our vacation with my child in front of me skiing, watching them tumbling, charging forward, and finding a way to keep picking up speed, I was able to really just enjoy the motion of my body and it’s strength in going slow and steady, working on my form as I went etc. It was so amazing!!! After over 10 years — the suffering with chronic pain and fear was gone — it felt like a total triumph :)
—Somatic Visioning & Reiki Client
There is a multidimensional depth to Lee’s “listening” and reflecting back what is “heard” in Somatic Visioning sessions which encourages a rich mining and discovery process to unfold. This moving dialogue offered me the time and space to explore and sense into an expanded and clearer vision and version of who I am. I gained solid trust in utilizing my body as navigator; the journey enhanced by Lee’s supportive and guiding presence.
—Melanie Lewis Rosalsky—Mover/Shaker/Facilitator/LMT
If you’re looking for a sensitive and attentive practitioner to facilitate an exploratory journey toward wellness, Lee Fogel is a wonderful fit. With an open and inviting presence, she utilizes her background in Somatics, as well as Reiki, to gently attune to the needs of her clients. I leave my sessions feeling empowered!
—Rachel Greene, Dance/Movement Therapist
Lee has been an important and powerful role model in my commitment to my body. I’m so lucky to have her as a consistent teacher, guide, and partner in healing and hearing my body. Something happens when I turn my attention to my body with Lee at my side. I’m surprised over and over by the transformations that occur when she holds the space safe and with intention, providing words, sounds, and breath that expand my experience of being alive. Like opening up a conversation I’ve wanted to have, but have been putting off for way too long, I leave our sessions feeling a sense of relief, wellbeing, and groundedness. My energy increases and I’m happy to use the tools and resources Lee gives me when it becomes lower. Lee’s presence is sensitive, wise, and above all one of safety, inviting out what is begging to be seen. I value Lee’s unwavering commitment to the power of listening, the connections she makes based on what is coming up, and her generosity in sharing the joy of being in a body.
—Julia Taylor, Massage Therapist
Faith is not a word that I use very often after not finding what I was looking for in my own Christianity but was exactly the word that found me when I sat down to write about my somatic practice and reiki experiences with Lee. When we began I came looking to repeat the same patterns I’d been falling into for years, fixing myself to be something more (stronger, calmer, more deliberate, etc) for others and Lee welcomed me and this aspiration with excitement and compassion. However, session after session I was given the permission that I never give myself, to sit in silence and move with my body. To be aware of my needs. My practice with Lee, in addition to other forms of self care, has allowed me to begin stepping out of my caretaker role in order to be taken care of both by myself and also by the world around me. I’ve started learning to put faith in those around me and my ability to grow and heal, for the sustainability of all the things I love, including myself.
—-Shay(den) Gonzalez, Facilitator, Trainer, Yoga Teacher
Lee has a calm presence and immense well of patience that she shares in her classes and sessions. She provides a safe place for exploration and guides with a gentle hand and open heart. People of all experiences can learn from Lee, both from her wisdom about the human body, and from her genuine way of engaging with the world.
—Johnny Blazes, Interdisciplinary Performance Artist
As a new doula developing full-spectrum practice, I encourage the women and families I support to pay attention to connections in their bodies. Seeing a person, in labor or otherwise, really “drop down” (language that Lee gave me) and tap into an inner calm and strength is a beautiful thing to witness. As a person with chronic back pain, I tried to find that place in myself over these years, with limited success. I thought I was doing okay [I thought, I do yoga, (and push myself) I meditate (and get stressed out that I’m not doing it right), I read up on healing practices, I’ve tried acupuncture, massage, physical therapy. I’m pretty centered, right?]. However, I reached a point where I was experiencing that pain on a pretty intense emotional/mental level. It felt present with me all the time, and I couldn’t remember feeling before it, outside of it, or beyond it. I wanted something that offered the mind-body-spirit connection and sense of timelessness that I got from acupuncture with the immediate physical relief of massage.
More fully, I needed something more than relief or therapy; I needed healing. After an initial phone conversation with Lee, I felt understood, empowered, and confident that Somatic Visioning and Reiki with her could offer that. She asked thoughtful questions that were central to my experience of pain that just never came up with another type of practitioner. Sessions guided by Lee’s flexibility, knowledge, humor, and support provided that vital kind of healing I needed.)
Through Lee’s guidance, I learned about the physiology of the pain I experience. This helped me envision a new narrative of what goes on in my body, to demystify and wrap my mind around it. Perhaps more importantly, I (much more quickly than I ever thought possible) tapped into a deep, pre-narrative, pre-symbolic, meditative place. For a long-winded recovering English major, this was a feat. This place has been integral in relieving pain and also exploring with curiosity (rather than pressure), reverence (not force), and trust (not trepidation) a different way of moving in time and in the world. For me, this has meant feeling physically and emotionally more abundant, generous, able to move and make decisions from a place of interest rather than compulsion. And I thought I was just coming for someone to fix my right shoulder!
Because I was unfamiliar with Somatic Visioning and Reiki, I signed up for a minimal number of sessions. It quickly became apparent that this type of healing was an answer to many sources of tension for me and after three sessions I was really just tapping into something, so I continued. In this phase, Lee continues to use her expansive knowledge to be even more supportive and flexible in empowering me to explore ways of healing, whether that’s through narrative building, traditional hands-on Reiki, education around muscle anatomy, or somatic movement and awareness. Even as these sessions wind down, I now know that this practice will be something I’ll continue to explore and return to — with curiosity and reverence! — whenever I need healing in my life.
—Margaret Downey, Doula, Philadelphia Alliance for Labor Support (PALS
Colleagues
Lee is an exceptional teacher and human being. She has an ability to communicate which is direct and heart-felt. Her understanding of movement and the connections between movement and our psychologies runs deep as well. I would recommend her workshops and classes to anyone interested in deeper exploration, personal growth, and better communication skills.
—Robert Brian Levy, Chief Instructor, NOLA Aikido
Lee is a thoughtful, caring, and very engaged practitioner. Her creativity and empathetic awareness shine through in every interaction.
—Rebecca Weber, Choreographer, Dancer, Somatic Movement Dance Educator, and Director of Somanaut Dance
As a friend, a colleague, a peer, and at times a co-facilitator/co-teacher, I’ve been blessed and amazed at the way Lee can draw forth an experience which both touches and transcends her own depth of heart and commitment to living a full, vibrant, and embodied life. She gives the gift of herself, which then opens the way for all of us to sink into our own gifts and bring them forth. Thank you!
—Sarah “Sulis Sarasvati” Cutler, Bodyworker, Yoga teacher, Educator, www.laughingtreespace.com
The way I felt emotionally and physically grounded sold me on Lee’s teaching.
—Deborah Vogel, Neuromuscular Educator and Movement Analyst, Instructor of Dance at Oberlin College
With kindness, intuitive intelligence and sensitivity, Lee possesses a great gift for somatic movement inquiry. With grace and a light-heart, she provides an exceptional environment for learning and awareness.
—Lilly Bright, President, Curiously Bright Entertainment/Arthouse Films, LLC