About the practitioner
Dana Christy (they/them), Certified Shiatsu Practitioner, Licensed Massage Therapist, and therapeutic yoga practitioner, is the founder and head practitioner at WellSpring Healing Arts, a multidisciplinary wellness practice founded in 2017. Dana studied bodywork and East Asian Medicine at Zen Shiatsu Chicago and earned yoga teaching certifications for children and adults with Global Family Yoga and Yogaview. Dana specializes in working with trauma, autoimmune conditions, chronic illness, and the LGBTQIAP+ community.
Dana has extensive experience working with survivors, helping them address the vast network of physical, psychological, and energetic reverberations that trauma creates in the body. Dana also leads trainings on trauma-informed bodywork and embodied healing throughout the Chicago area, most recently with Zen Shiatsu Chicago.
Dana Christy began studying embodied trauma-informed healing in 2010. They have pursued multiple courses of study centered around trauma awareness and trauma healing, including The Breathe Network’s trainings in Trauma-Informed Care and Trauma-Informed Yoga.
Dana identifies as a survivor of sexual violence, as well as a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community. They embrace these identities as spaces where they can connect more authentically with their clients. Dana also identifies as white, autistic, and a cat person.
Dana is committed to furthering equity, accessibility and inclusion in the healing arts world, and aims to hold space for all beings on their healing journey, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, body size, age, or ability.
My healing philosophy
My mission as a practitioner is not to impose any kind of schedule or expectation on my client’s healing, but instead to hold space for the body’s self-healing capacities to take effect in whatever way is most authentic. I have no “goals” for my clients. They have the freedom to dictate exactly what they want to happen in every treatment. Consent is at the core of every interaction. I use all the tools available to me, including movement, visualization, healing touch, and breathwork, to create a fluid, nourishing, and accessible healing environment.
You can learn more in this interview, which was conducted as part of Mystic Mag's recent feature on Asian Bodywork.