Dr. Suzi Tortora
Suzi Tortora, ED.D., BC-DMT, LCAT, LMHC, CMA, NCC
she/ her
In Suzi’s words: “Our moving bodies tell stories that speak of our experiences”. This title of one of my early publications continues to be the foundation of my psychotherapeutic approach to healing. Our experiences are held in the body starting from the beginning of life and accumulate through significant events in our lives. Most importantly, our bodies hold experiences that may be preverbal or may not be easily expressed through words. The way our body speaks is observable in as subtle an experience as sensing the flow of our breath, or how we hold our body and move through our environment. In my sessions, mindfulness, expressive arts, creative dance/movement and play-based experiential activities enable my clients to listen to their body, creating an understanding of how our body, mind and emotions are intimately connected. Through this process, I support people of all ages to enter into a journey of self-discovery that enables them to understand how their felt experience, thoughts and emotions inform all of their experiences.”
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Dr. Suzi Tortora is a Board Certified Dance/Movement Therapist (BC-DMT), New York State Licensed Creative Arts Therapist (LCAT), Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC), a Certified Movement Analyst (CMA), National Certified Counselor (NCC) and is trained in EMDR. She holds a doctorate in education (EdD) from Teacher’s College, Columbia University, with a specialization in infant and early childhood development, psychology and education.
Suzi is considered an early innovator in the field of dance/movement therapy and is a sought-after expert in the intersectional clinical applications of the fields of dance/movement therapy, infant mental health, and nonverbal movement analysis. She is the author of the acclaimed and extensively-used dance/movement therapy textbook, The Dancing Dialogue: Using the Communicative Power of Movement with Young Children and Dance/Movement Psychotherapy for Infants and Young Children with Medical Illness: Treating somatic and psychic distress, which she co-authored with Miri Keren, MD.
Suzi created and facilitates the two-year postgraduate Ways of Seeing International Training Program, which she developed based on her clinical methodologies. She has trained dance/movement therapists and allied healthcare professionals from around the globe. Suzi holds faculty positions in universities and training institutions in the USA, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Argentina, and China and regularly presents her work in academic and institutional settings.
In addition to her clinical work at Dancing Dialogue, Suzi is the senior dance/movement therapist within Integrative Medicine Service at MSK Kids, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Suzi originated this position at MSK with the generous support of Dréa’s Dream- The Andréa Rizzo Foundation and currently serves as the foundation’s International Medical Creative Arts Spokesperson.
Suzi has specialized training and/or certifications in EMDR, Authentic Movement, Body-Mind Centering and Meaning- Centered Psychotherapy and is a Level II Reiki Practitioner.
Suzi practices at both the Cold Spring and New York City offices.