Dear Reader, welcome!

Please, allow me to walk you through my academic journey that is very much shaped by my curiosity to explore the human experience looking through many perspectives.

Here, I share with you my passion for research, which you will see is the thread that weaves through all of my experiences.

Thank you for your interest. If you feel so inclined to share your thoughts or would like to explore collaboration, feel welcome to connect with me here. I will be happy to hear from you!

ACADEMIC BACKGROUND, RESEARCH AND CONTRIBUTION

SUMMARY:

ACADEMIC DEGREES:

POST-GRAD CERTIFICATE IN SOMATIC PSYCHOTHERAPY (2020) Antioch University - Santa Barbara, CA

MASTERS IN ORGANIZATIONAL AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT (2012) Keller Graduate School of Management - Dallas, TX  

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE - BIOPSYCHOLOGY & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE (2007) UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA - Santa Barbara, CA 

ADDITIONAL CERTIFICATES AND TRAINING:

RYT 200 – SOMATIC YOGA THERAPY TRAINING w/ BMC  (2013) - Dallas, Texas  

CONTACT IMPROVISATION TRAINING w/ SOMATIC AWARENESS  (2015) - Amsterdam, Netherlands 

INTRO TO DANCE/MOVEMENT THERAPY at CODARTS UNIVERSITY (2015) - Rotterdam, Netherlands

AGUAHARA Level 1,2,3 - PRACTITIONER TRAINING (2015) - Ibiza, Spain 

AGUAHARA TRAINING-COURSE FACILITATOR TRAINING (2016) - Ibiza, Spain

LONG-FORM:

DOCUMENTED JOURNEY BY CHAPTER

BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE, BRAIN AND NEUROPLASTICITY (United States of America)

Zuzzie Kapas graduated with a B.S. in Behavioral Neuroscience from UCSB in 2007 with an award for research promise in Psychology. For four years, she worked as a research scientist in Neuroscience and Behavioral Genetics laboratories studying the effects of substance abuse on the brain. Zuzzie spent two years as a research assistant at UCSB working at the Szumlinski and the Kippin lab. Upon moving to Portland, Oregon, at OHSU she worked at the Crabbe lab and the Ryabinin lab for another two years. Zuzzie’s research specialized on identifying the genetic factors that would predispose an individual to addiction, as well as studying the effects of alcohol and cocaine exposure on prenatal brain development. Her research evaluated treatment options after prolonged exposure to harmful substances that had a potential for reversing the damaging effects, while also promoting the neuroplasticity of the brain.

ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY AND ECO-SUSTAINABILITY (United States of America)

In 2010, Zuzzie decided to continue with a graduate degree outside of the sciences. She earned her MBA in Organizational and Human Development within the sector of Sustainability Management. Zuzzie took caring for the environment and the community to her heart. She volunteered for the Deep Ellum Community Association supporting the sustainability initiatives of the city of Dallas and was an active promoter of chemical-free green living. In 2012, Zuzzie was recruited to work for the Geavista Group, a sustainability consulting firm, where she supported a year-long company merger and acquisition with CLEAResult in the role of a team building and business development coordinator. Zuzzie assisted the VP of Business Development by coordinating and by participating in the strategic planning meetings with C-level executives nationwide remotely and in-person. Zuzzie prepared internal and external presentation materials, coordinated travel and conference representation, and accompanied the VP in all business development activities. Zuzzie assisted in the implementation of the change management and culture integration processes. She also executed the information transfer and brand consolidation across the merged entities. Zuzzie worked on improving the consistency and efficiency of information sharing between the regions. She developed, coordinated and implemented employee wellness and team building activities that facilitated a greater connection to self and others.   

THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE BODY-ORIENTED APPROACH (United States of America)

In 2012, Zuzzie simultaneously branched out into the terrains of somatic work and the field of depth psychology, which was prompted by her personal interest in psycho-somatic healing. She discovered a profound connection between the human body, Nature and the collective unconscious. Her personal healing process generated a path forwards investigating the inter-relatedness of ancestral imprints within the body, to the psyche, in correspondence to the state of the world and the collective unconscious.

Zuzzie completed a 200-hr Integrative Yoga Teacher Training with an emphasis on Body-Mind Centering® at the Dallas Yoga Center. She continued under the mentorship of teachers that focused on trauma-informed psycho-somatic healing for women that experienced sexual assault or were subjected to hostility, racial dicord and violence. She volunteered at the local women’s shelter facilitating meditation, yoga and expressive arts groups for women and their children who were seeking asylum. While continuing to deepen her understanding of trauma by working with the affected population, Zuzzie also engaged in her own personal practice of the somatic movement discilpines that allowed her to become intimate with her own traumatic imprints.

In addition, Zuzzie managed to skillfully merge her organizational development experience with the behavioral neuroscience related perspective and transition to functioning as an independent contractor. She continued with training workshops in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Somatic Coaching for Business Professional. Recognizing some gaps in the corporate organizational structures she created Integrated Conscious Leadership, through which she offered her consulting services focused on somatic coaching, team building and conscious company culture development.

EMBODIMENT RESEARCH AND RELATIONAL MOVEMENT (USA, UK, Europe & Southeast Asia)

Training in Body-Mind Centering® profoundly deepened Zuzzie’s relationship to her own body on a somatic and energetic level. This practice facilitated a deep psycho-spiritual journey of integration, connecting her to previously untapped states of awareness and consciousness. Zuzzie studied directly with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, the founder of BMC® for two years and continued under the mentorship of senior teachers Carla Rudiger and Jessica O’Keefe, as well as senior BMC® teachers Lisa Clark and Amy Matthews. Body-Mind Centering has been a foundation paramount for Zuzzie in terms of developing her sensory acuity to energetically and viscerally perceive the information exchange between herself and the environment through both interoception and by “sensing the room” externally. 

Furthermore, Zuzzie began investigating Contact Improvisation in 2014 which became an important platform for her experiential movement research. Zuzzie investigated her own psychological patterns that became visible to her during shared contact improvisation dances. This relational movement practice opened doorways to the investigation of trauma imprints and facilitated a possibility for loosening up places of rigid holding, releasing psychological blocks and by repetition of new experiences of trust, surrender, self-agency and collaboration transforming one’s sense of belonging and one’s experience of self within the whole.

Zuzzie observed the natural re-organization that occured on a neurological, psychological and energetic levels within an individual and the group consciousness during these shared non-verbal movement practices. Inspired by Contact Improvisation and BMC®, she curated enriching workshops integrating various somatic and relational based modalities. Her main interest was to study the psychological effects of these practices on individuals and their level of fulfillment being part of a group, as a result.

Zuzzie traveled across the USA, UK and EU to continue her movement research by engaging in classes, workshops, artist residencies and contact jams. Under the guidance of Daniel Werner (GER), she investigated an approach to Contact Improvisation from a Body-Mind Centering® perspective and with Joerg Hassman (GER) from the Contemporary Dance perspective. 

While in her Contact Improvisation training in Europe, Zuzzie was introduced to underwater dance improvisation by Daniel Werner, which greatly influenced her path thereafter. Zuzzie traveled to Spain for a month-long residency to deepen her underwater consciousness research and completed three levels of training in Aguahara - being work in the water. She studied directly with Alexander Siebenstern, the founder of Aguahara, which offered her the space to investigate underwater somatic movement, leading to profound consciousness expanding experiences. 

ECOSOMATICS AND EMBODIED MULTI-DIMENSIONALITY (USA, UK, Europe & Southeast Asia)

Over the years, Zuzzie facilitated on-going classes, workshops and contact improvisation jams in Dallas, TX and Boulder, CO. She collaborated with movement researchers globally and traveled to co-create spaces for relational exploration on land and underwater, dedicated to evolving this body of work further. She followed enriching opportunities in Portugal, Catalunya, Mexico, Ibiza, Thailand, India and Bali, where she participated in artist residencies and guided both underwater and land based movement workshops.

Zuzzie finds somatic listening to be the key that opens the doorway to experiencing the beauty of being in a greater communion with All life on Earth. Through her EARTH :: BODY :: CONTACT workshops she guides participants to meet their own self from within. Connecting to their cellular memory, participants awaken their dormant capacities for full-body listening and through the bridge of their own Body begin to cultivate an intimate relationship with Nature and Spirit. Zuzzie also holds space for individual and group shamanic journeys she facilitates underwater. The Aguahara ~ An Aquatic Journey Back to Self is a personal shamanic ceremony, a journey into the realm of the unconscious through somatic listening, facilitated by Zuzzie.

Zuzzie recognizes her calling to share embodiment work to reopen the pathways towards reciprocity with Nature, Spirit and the Cosmos, ultimately serving the evolution of our collective consciousness towards embodied multi-dimensionality.

INFLUENTIAL TEACHERS AND MENTORS (USA, UK, Europe & Southeast Asia)

With her ongoing research, Zuzzie continued to expand her movement vocabulary by Gaga practice, a movement language and pedagogy developed by Ohad Naharin from Israel. In her movement practice, Zuzzie has been also working with the concepts of Subbody Resonance Butoh learned from the movement teacher Gadu. Other teachers that had a great influence on Zuzzie’s movement vocabulary specific to Contact Improvisation are: Nancy Stark Smith (USA), Nita Little’s Relational Intelligence (USA), Tom Goldhand (NE), Alicia Grayson, Nina Martin, Jennifer Nugent (USA) and Fernanda Prata (UK). In addition, practicing voice and movement with Alessio Castellacci (IT) and Axis Syllabus with Kira Kirsch (GER) and Daniel Bear Davis (USA) profoundly influenced Zuzzie’s pathways to movement. Facilitators of 5Rhythms Lucia Horan, daughter of Gabrielle Roth, Lorca Simons, Kate Shela and Amber Ryan (USA) have also provided meaningful spaces for personal and relational movement exploration.

Furthermore, in 2017 Zuzzie traveled to Indonesia to practice under the guidance of Diane Butler, PhD, founder of Awakening InterArts in Bedulu and Tejakula, Bali.  She further traveled to Central Java to practice with movement master Suprapto Suryodarmo, the founder of Joged Amerta. The practice of Amerta movement deeply informed Zuzzie’s embodied experience of self and the other, moving together and as an individual, further expanding her faculties for non-verbal communication and her ability to simultaneously hold expanded states of consciousness. Zuzzie’s movement facilitation today is deeply informed by the embodied wisdom ingrained within her from her personal experience and the intimate relationship she cultivates with her inner life. Zuzzie shares a portion of her inner journey in the chapter she wrote for the book “Dance Adventures: True Stories About Dancing Abroad” titled “Inter-Independence” (p.245) - edited by Megan Taylor Morrison who has provided relentless support throughout the entire writing, editing and publishing process. In this chapter Zuzzie documents the unfolding of her psychological process during her relational movement practice in Java with Suprapto Suryodarmo. Zuzzie hopes to engage the reader in a contemplation about the possibilities relational movement practice holds in terms of individual and group psychological healing, integration and growth. Zuzzie facilitates her workshops from this deep understanding and interest to investigate further.

MENTAL HEALTH, SOMATIC INTEGRATION, PSYCHOTHERAPY (United States of America)

Beginning 2019, Zuzzie continued to further investigate the applicability of her interdisciplinary work to psychological healing by offering therapeutic groups at mental health facilities. She dedicated her focus to refine her group facilitation skills by merging her experience of behavioral neuroscience, trauma-informed somatic coaching for groups and individuals and her passion for weaving in expressive movement arts. 

In the spring of 2020, Zuzzie earned her post-graduate certificate in Somatic Psychotherapy from Antioch University and continued to offer her adjunct services as a Somatic Integration Specialist at in-patient, higher acuity residential and intensive outpatient treatment programs, both in-person and remotely. Working closely with supervision and as part of the treatment team, she continued to refine her understanding of complex trauma, dual diagnosis and psychotic disorders and develop therapeutic activities for individuals and groups accordingly.  

Zuzzie’s approach is informed by well respected evidence-based somatic modalities, such as, Dr. Peter Levine's Somatic Experiencing and Dr. Pat Ogden’s Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. Her facilitation is rooted in Mindfulness, Body-Mind Centering® (BMC®) and sources from Dr. Marsha Linehan’s Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Dr. Allan Schore’s Affective Neuroscience and Trauma Theory.   

Zuzzie aims to facilitate meaningful groups that allow space for each individual to re-discover their authentic connection to Self. By participating in the group activities clients get to forge new neural pathways that offer them a possibility to live a grounded, connected and well-integrated life. Zuzzie is committed to holding space in ways that fosters inclusivity and acceptance for All.