Get to know
Bella
Physical Therapist, Dancer, Yogi, Teacher, Student, Partner, Mom, Granny, Daughter, Sister, Friend
Connection is everything.
Contact
(916)267-5478
Email: bella@bodyjoy.net
Worthy wisdom is never born overnight.
Knowledge and experience must marinate in the crucible of time. Body Joy’s unique framework and integrated approach is the outcome of wisdom compiled over 50+ years of professional practice and life experience of founder, Bella Dreizler.
In the beginning
Earliest memory: twirling around to the strains of Liberace emanating from our first ever television. I have always danced. And climbed and biked and skated and and and. Movement in all forms, immersion in the natural world—-Sierras and Pacific, writing poetry, this was my childhood medicine.
Mary Oliver wrote: “Pay attention, be astonished, tell about it.” This was my mantra.
On the way
The health care needs of a younger sibling, reading every book about nurse Clara Barton, fascination with biology, physiology, anatomy, all things human body wove together and landed me on a path to physical therapy. I graduated UCSF in 1972 and have continued with oodles of continuing education. I am a passionate lifelong learner. My own body has always been my most definitive “textbook.” Connecting in fresh ways with my own deeper being is the forever revealing foundation that connects me with yours.
On the treatment table
After 20 years of clinical practice, Dreizler Physical Therapy was born in 1990, offering quality, hands-on care. After 15 years, and thousands of patients treated, I sold the practice so I could spend less time running a business and more time focusing on patients. Exploring new ways to provide the best of care, offering a more holistic way of treating patients: integrating traditional physical therapy techniques with movement-based practices to help people in their search for healing.
On the dance floor
In 2000 the Gabrielle Roth video series (on VHS- remember those!?) set me to dancing 5Rhythms, a moving meditation practice. Two years later, visiting Esalen, where 5Rhythms practice had been birthed, I stumbled into a 5Rhythms class. Felt like I’d fallen off a cliff. My life forever changed. I’ve been on this dancing path ever since. Eventually I needed to bring the practice to the Sacramento community. I was fortunate to study ten precious years with Gabrielle and was certified as a 5Rhythms teacher in 2008. I’ve been teaching, learning, dancing, and creating community ever since.
On the mat
My interest in yoga arose in physical therapy school. In 1972 my first teacher was Lilias Folan who taught on PBS. There were no yoga studios back in the day! I practiced sporadically, always integrating the sensibility of physical therapy. By 2005 I was taking studio classes and beginning to develop my own unique teaching form. After receiving yoga teacher certification in 2013 I was fully prepared to fine tune the principles of loose, long and strong—-a fully fleshed out weave of physical therapy and yoga.
Not finished yet
This personal journey has been shaped by the way yoga and dance expand Western medicine boundaries. And vice-versa, the movement of physical therapy enlivens the mat and dance floor in fresh ways. Aligning body, heart, mind through practice brings us in touch with our deepest being.
My own personal health challenges continually require self-care reimagining. Personal experience renews my commitment to bring expert integrated practice to others.
It is a privilege, and one I do not hold lightly, to have lived this long. A challenging childhood, an adventurous young adulthood, a busy busy middle age, these decades have delivered me to this moment I am able to simply be, bear witness and open to love and healing. So grateful.
