Holly Sass (they/them)
Bodyworker
Craniosacral Therapy
Massage
Handpoked Tattoo
Speaks: English
I am a white, genderqueer bodyworker and emerging handpoke tattoo artist from the unceded land of the Ohlone people (otherwise known as the East Bay in Northern California, USA). Since the age of two, I’ve been in a practice of movement, which carried me to New York City in 2011 to pursue dance. After graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2014, I worked part-time at a physiotherapy clinic as a trainer/aide for four years alongside a freelance dance career. Fed up with the intentions at this clinic to “fix” clients, I slowly uncovered my desire to approach bodywork and “healing” radically differently.
From 2017-2019 I studied massage therapy at Pacific College (NYC) and Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy at Stillpoint (NYC). From 2019 until its closure in 2021, I began practicing bodywork at thirdroot, a community health center in Brooklyn, NY oriented around healing justice. In 2021, I began working with, and learning from, Hyp+Access, a disability justice organization creating access care for folks with hypermobile conditions. Both Thirdroot and Hyp+Access have been pivotal guides in my learnings of disability, healing and transformative justice and I would not be practicing the way that I practice now without their generous, compassionate teachings.
from 2019-2022, i held a private practice in brooklyn, ny, committed to offering a safe space for queer folks to find rest and a wide sliding scale for financial accessibility. In my last year in NYC, I birthed and organized bodies for bodies, a collective of queer/trans teachers, bodyworkers, and healers of many capacities who offer free/sliding-scale treatments and workshops for the queer/trans community.
Since moving to Berlin in 2023, I have found home at meta:morfosis and am grateful to continue my offerings in such a resonant space. Here, I’ve also begun handpoke tattooing, which feels merely like an extension of the body care I already offer.
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy (BCST) is a gentle hands on practice that non-invasively orients to the inherent health and wholeness of a person. Without physical manipulation, the practitioner acts as a support and facilitator towards one’s unique experience of homeostasis through light touch and keen listening to the body’s subtle, yet profound, cycles of primary respiration. These palpable, steady cycles of respiration encourage our bodily fluids to travel throughout our systems and bring gentle motility into our bones, organs and all other tissues.
As humans, our bodies regularly endure trauma, pain, and conditional forces, which can show up as patterns and stagnation within our system. With BCST, we can listen to these places of holding while orienting to the intelligence of the forces within the body to uncouple these patterns and move towards rest, reorganization and regeneration.
BCST would not exist without the influence of Cherokee and Shawnee healers. read more of the complicated history of BCST and osteopathy by Susan Raffo here.
Massage involves a tactile conversation with the tissues, fascia and joints of the body. Through gentle physical manipulation of the tissues, we can invite more flow of fluids within the body, soften facial congestion, and find more ease in joint movement. Through this slow touch, we will also be communicating a sense of grounding through the nervous system. I sometimes involve elements of the Ilan Lev Method – a passive movement based bodywork practice that supports the integration of massage.
Massage can support inflammation, acute and chronic pain, post-op healing, and a general desire to reconnect with one’s own body.
Handpoked tattooing is a slow transformation process, involving depositing ink into the skin with a (sterile!) needle, poke by poke, to ultimately end with an abstract drawing (most of which resemble water, wind, fire and wood) on your body for life. We can tattoo from one of my flash drawings or dream something up together. Tattooing is a way to celebrate, reclaim and/or honor the body.
Prices:
- Bodywork: sliding-scale 50 € – 90 € with no one turned away for lack of funds
- Tattoo: 30 € – 60 €
Website: https://bodytopography.online
Email: hs@bodytopography.online
Telegram: @hollysass