AnaLisa Rutstein

AnaLisa Rutstein is a meditation teacher, somatic healing guide and coach whose work centers on somatic healing and embodied self-compassion. She is known for trauma-sensitive meditations that help people reconnect gently with their bodies after trauma, chronic illness, or long periods of disconnection. Her website describes her work as "Coming Home to Yourself."

Her work grows from her own life. She has lived through complex childhood trauma, chronic illness, breast cancer, and a difficult relationship with food and her body. She writes that learning to tune in to herself, to inhabit her body and to treat herself with kindness did not happen overnight, and that these experiences continue to shape how she accompanies others. For more than thirty years she has explored meditation, somatic practices, expressive arts and self-compassion, both personally and professionally.

Her training is extensive. She holds a Master's degree in Clinical Psychology. Her certifications include the Hakomi Mindfulness-Centered Somatic Psychotherapy Practitioner Certification and the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield. She has also completed Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Training for Professionals with Jane Kristeller and Andrea Lieberstein, and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate in Expressive Arts at Salve Regina University. Other training includes Certified Eating Psychology Coach with Mark David at the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, a Health Coach Certificate from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and Advanced Training for the Treatment of Trauma at the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute. Her Insight Timer teacher page also lists her as Practice Leader for the Sounds True Healing Trauma Program.

She offers one-to-one coaching, in which she works slowly and collaboratively and honors each person's nervous system, boundaries and readiness. Sessions may involve noticing familiar patterns, listening to how you speak to yourself when things are hard, and using drawing, writing or imagery. No one needs to think of themselves as creative to take part. She also helps people find what brings safety, comfort or steadiness, starting with small things such as noticing the support beneath them.

Her group offerings are live online courses. Being Here is a four-week compassion course for living with chronic illness and pain. Tending: A Soft Path into Embodied Eating is a six-week course for people whose relationship with food and their bodies has become complicated. Coming Home to This Body is a six-week self-compassion course for women living with breast cancer or navigating life after treatment. Each draws on guided meditation, gentle somatic practices, reflection and, in the eating and breast cancer courses, expressive arts. The Healing Trauma Program is a nine-month online course and training to befriend the nervous system, foster resilience and embody safety. She also offers three free mini-courses: Coming Home to Compassion for the breast cancer journey, Coming Home to Kindness for the food journey, and Coming Home to Care for chronic pain and illness.

Her Healing Songs & Meditations are gentle songs paired with nature imagery, made for moments when words alone are not enough. Each song is written as a letter, spoken directly to pain, hunger, shame, the body and nourishment rather than about them. On Insight Timer her meditations are described as gentle and spacious, with an emphasis on nervous system safety and compassionate listening to the body.

Her work is for people living with the aftermath of trauma, with chronic illness or pain, with breast cancer, or with a hard relationship to food and their bodies. Those who have worked with her describe feeling calm, grounded and more connected to themselves. Her aim is that each person discovers what coming home to themselves means, in their own way and at their own pace.