Rubenfeld Synergy
Touch Talk Therapy
What is Rubenfeld Synergy?
“Rubenfeld Synergy is an integrative somatic therapy designed to meet each part of us with compassion, presence, and safety, soothing the nervous system and allowing for new movement and awareness.
The method used by Rubenfeld Synergists centers on the understanding that the body and mind are integrated and inseparable, thus we use the term bodymind.
Our bodymind speaks to us through how we move, hold our bodies, experience pleasure and pain, and relate to others.
Synergists teach us to notice the language and metaphors of our nervous system and how, with awareness, they can guide us to greater physical and emotional freedom.”
In a Rubenfeld Synergy Method® session, emotional and psycho-spiritual processing are fully integrated with the somatic patterns in order to harmonize the Bodymind.”
Rubenfeld Synergy Website
What to Expect as a client...
What to Expect as a client...
Sessions are done in the privacy of one’s home or in a therapeutic room, and it is discussed with the client before the meeting.
Clients lie fully clothed on a bodywork table or sit in a chair.
Sessions are confidential.
Before touching and at the beginning of the session, the synergist will express verbally that there is touch involved in the session; however, the client has full power to stop touch and the session whenever they want, with or without reason.
Synergists are present with an intention of safety, support, and listening.
Synergists use light, sensitive touch and compassionate dialogue, simultaneously, to track a client’s total bodymind communication.
The Synergists reflect these expressions back to their clients, thereby increasing a client’s awareness of incongruities between what they are saying, what they are feeling, and what they are doing. Through this process, a client’s “truth” is articulated more and more clearly and can then become an integrated and harmonious expression.
What is the purpose of
touch?
In Rubenfeld Synergy Touch–Talk Therapy,
the purpose of touch is therapeutic awareness and integration,
not manipulation or treatment in a medical sense.
At its core, touch is used as a gentle, intentional form of communication that helps bridge the mind–body connection.
1. To Bring Awareness to the Body
Touch helps clients notice sensations, emotions, and patterns held in the body that may be outside conscious awareness. Many people understand their experiences intellectually but are disconnected from how those experiences live somatically. Touch helps bring attention into the body.
2. To Support Emotional Access and Expression
The body often holds emotional memory. Gentle touch can help emotions surface safely, allowing clients to name, explore, and process feelings that words alone may not reach.
3. To Create Safety and Presence
Touch is always consensual, respectful, and non-invasive. Its purpose is to help regulate the nervous system, foster a sense of safety, and support the client in staying present while exploring inner experiences.
4. To Integrate Talk and Body Awareness
Rubenfeld Synergy uniquely combines verbal dialogue with somatic awareness. Touch helps ground insights so that emotional or cognitive realizations are not just understood, but felt and integrated.
5. To Help Release Holding Patterns
Without forcing or manipulating the body, touch can help clients become aware of chronic tension or holding patterns connected to emotional experiences, beliefs, or past events — allowing natural release through awareness.
6. To Support Wholeness and Self-Connection
The ultimate purpose of touch in this method is to help clients reconnect with themselves — emotionally, physically, and psychologically — fostering a sense of integration, self-trust, and inner coherence.
What Touch Is Not in Rubenfeld Synergy
It is not massage
It is not corrective bodywork
It is not sexual or invasive
It is never used without explicit consent
Touch is used as a listening tool, not a fixing tool.
In essence, Rubenfeld Synergy uses touch to help the body “join the conversation,”
allowing healing and insight to emerge through awareness, presence, and compassionate inquiry rather than force.
My personal story with
Rubenfeld Synergy
I first began working with a Rubenfeld Synergist in 2020 after moving back home from Vietnam.
The pandemic had just begun, and with quarantine setting in, I suddenly found myself back in old family dynamics I thought I had already worked through.
I found my synergist, Melba, through a referral from a friend at the time who was working with her.
At first, I resisted the sessions. I told myself these were just “normal” family challenges, nothing that required any type of therapy sessions or services. However, through the work, I began to uncover something deeper…patterns of enmeshment with my parents that left me unable to set boundaries or truly speak my truth.
These sessions slowly opened my awareness and revealed feelings and stories that were living in my body from one of my deepest wounds in my life, being relinquished as an infant.
What I once thought was fully resolved surfaced again, inviting me to face buried anger, trust issues, abandonment wounds, and the pain of feeling unwanted.
It wasn’t easy and I get the chills expressing my personal story with this work, but it was life-changing, transformative, and it forever changed the way I walked, witnessed, and moved through the world. I became more empowered, and I was able to let go of feelings I felt I would never be able to let go of and create room for more gratitude and love.
Rubenfeld Synergy helped me connect to myself in a way no meditation or yoga practice ever has.
The shifts I experienced were lasting, grounding, and deeply transformative.
When my synergist, Melba, opened a training program in Goderich, Canada, I knew in my heart I had to say yes.
The freedom I gained through this work inspired me to commit to sharing it with others.
What people are saying…
Let’s work together
Currently accepting practice clients.
Reach out to learn more about the modality and about being a practice client.