How to Get Out of Your Head and into Your Feet
“Dancing Your Bliss” with Rachel Fleischman
This week Better talks to Rachel Fleischman LCSW, REAT, a therapist based in San Francisco whose career mixes talk therapy with creative workshops under the banner of “Dancing Your Bliss,” using dance movement and art to help her clients. She is long term partner of Better and recommends our services to her clients. We wanted to learn more about her practice and how her clients learn to dance their bliss.
Therapy Saved My Life
Rachel likes to say she has a personality and brings it into the room with her when she works with her clients. She’s proud and “just a touch boastful” about how hard she’s worked over the last eighteen years, and is not a “kid therapist.”
“What’s really exciting about psychotherapy in the smallest nutshell is that you have an hour that is yours; no one is checking their phone; you are with a human being who has had years and years of experience. You sit there. It’s your hour and if you are with a mature therapist like myself, you’re in good hands. In that hour you get the utmost attention and care, and if you’re lucky you leave with genuine insight.”
Her method is to use positive psychology, finding and staying with her client’s strengths, emboldening them to live to their strengths, and also being curious about the lives of her clients, a mix of millenials, gen-xers and baby boomers.
“ I really believe in therapy and it certainly saved my life. Now, more than ever, it’s very strange to be a human being. We’re up against all kinds of questions and those questions continue, no matter what our age.”
This positive energy is rooted in personal experience and an awareness that she shares many of the same worries and anxieties as her clients.
“Life is full of drudgery. I get up in the morning without caffeine. I have an allergy to caffeine. And I have a very strong history of anxiety and depression. It’s in my genes. I’m a Russian Jew. We’re not stoic. We whine and lament and whinge. I joke sometime that it’s in my bones to see the glass as half empty. Can you imagine how much my life would suck if I didn’t have “Dance Your Bliss” and my wonderful clients, my cat and my husband! When we come out of our heads and into our bodies, things completely change.”
Dance Your Bliss
Rachel’s office-based sessions represent only half her practice. She has a reputation for working across the country and abroad as a facilitator of workshop groups in the so-called expressive arts, meaning drawing, writing, poetry, and most importantly, movement and dance.
“I’ve led “Dance Your Bliss” for eighteen years for thousands of people, men and women of all ages and abilities on several continents — and it’s my FAVORITE thing to do because there’s nothing like music and dance to lift us up.”
The best way to think of it, according to Rachel, is a wilderness camp for grownups, to take off your sneakers and makeup, undo your tie and tight jeans and be yourself.
“Here’s the deal; you’re a creative genius. You may not believe it but I believe it. Let’s make things with our hands. Let’s play. Let’s dance. The truth is there’s so much creativity in all of us. It’s my job to help you feel alive again. I put on music, give people the opportunity, and I slowly, very carefully, break people into their bodies with meditation, stretching and yoga moves where you completely let go of your inner critic. The most introverted person who will ever be is moving. You don’t have to call it dancing. Is moving freely and expressively, having a blast.”
There is a growing body of clinical research that demonstrates that dance therapy is being successfully used to treat a wide range of conditions including from anxiety and stress to Parkinson’s disease and depression linked to cancer. According to Dr. Judith Wurtman in Psychology Today, research demonstrates that,
“…dance movement therapy offers not only an opportunity for physical activity, but also gives depressed individuals an opportunity to interact socially and emotionally with others.” (Psychology Today)
This is exactly the atmosphere and treatment that Rachel sees as central to “Dancing Your Bliss”.
“The workshops are a full-on creative explosion and I’ve never had anyone leave and say you’re wrong. I can’t do anything. Nobody feels embarrassed. It’s a safe environment.”
Angry, Frustrated, and Fatigued with Health Insurance?
As we said earlier, Rachel has been sharing Better with her clients since 2016. She heard about us during a group therapy session for therapists.
“We were all therapists and the big life issue I wanted to talk about on that day was how angry and frustrated and fatigued I was dealing with health insurance and the problems it caused my patients.”
Rachel was not and is not on any insurance panels but provides superbills for her clients, but this still meant she was involved in their difficulties in getting reimbursed. By good fortune, one of the therapists in the group knew all about Better.
“The leader of the session was way ahead of me and she said, you need to talk to Rachael at Better. I immediately contacted Rachael, talked on the phone, and then told all my clients about Better. They got the app, started filing claims and got paid back.”
The relationship has never looked back and we are very happy to be helping Rachel to get her patients paid back.
“You guys are doing something so priceless. It’s been a solid year and half since I and my clients have been loving Better.
The insurance questions at intake have gotten so much easier. I tell my clients that it’s so simple. All they need to do is take my superbill and press “send”. When I say that to a client there’s no way they can misinterpret that or get it wrong.”
Our thanks to Rachel Fleischman for talking about her amazing work as a therapist and creator of Dancing Your Bliss. We’re very excited about continuing our relationship with her practice and her clients!
Do you need Better brochures for your practice? Request them online or get in touch with your questions at providers@getbetter.co
