Rachael Skolnik Bonaiuto
Rachael Skolnik Bonaiuto is the founder of Embodied Wellness, a somatic psychotherapist, board-certified dance/movement therapist, and licensed professional counselor whose work centers on embodied presence, grounded awareness, and compassionate empowerment. She helps individuals, couples, families, and groups develop healthier relationships, clearer decision-making, and durable patterns of well-being by integrating body, mind, and spirit into practical therapeutic and educational offerings.
Research & Theoretical Work
Rachael’s approach is deeply eclectic and evidence-informed, drawing from somatic counseling psychology, Dance/Movement Therapy, Authentic movement and mystical studies, Jungian theory, humanistic psychology and cognitive-behavioral frameworks. Her training includes an MA in Somatic Counseling Psychology from Naropa University, certification as a BC-DMT, and continuing study in Authentic Movement, Buddhist meditation, and trauma-aware modalities. She synthesizes these lineages to match interventions precisely to client needs and developmental context.
Approach and Practice
Rachael practices with honesty, curiosity, and warmth, offering interventions that cultivate somatic awareness, self-authoring capacity, and relational attunement. Core methods include dance/movement therapy, embodied psychotherapeutic techniques, client-centered approaches, and experiential practices such as Authentic Movement and Akashic Records Consultation. She emphasizes process over prescription, helping clients reclaim bodily authority, translate insight into action, and build sustainable wellness through creative, embodied practices.
Personal Journey and Leadership
Embodied Wellness emerged from Rachael’s long personal and professional journey of healing, resilience, and reclamation of bodily agency after illness and encounters with fragmented systems and institutions. Over two decades in the mental health field – including community development, Peace Corps service, life-skills training, and international teaching – Rachael cultivated an authentic presence that blends intuitive responsiveness with clinical rigor. She models the trust in inner knowing that she invites in others.
Programs and Community
Since founding Embodied Wellness in 2008, Rachael has designed and led individual therapy, family and couples work, group therapy, workshops, and movement-based community offerings. She teaches Authentic Movement, facilitates ecstatic dance events, and leads educational programs locally and abroad. Her services include clinical consultation, classes, retreats, and collaborative projects that foster self-love, creative expression, and functional change across career, health, relationships, and creative practice.
Guides, Mentors and Elders
Rachael is an active member of the Golden Bridge SomaSource Leadership Team and a learner in the Circles of Four postgraduate program for teachers of Authentic Movement. She has studied with meditation teachers internationally and engaged in extensive study of Authentic Movement around the world. Trained through Levels I-IV in the Akashic Records, she has been guided by many teachers along the way, deepening her exploration of Somatics, Presence and Therapeutic Support, as well as Mysticism, Embodiment and Intuition. Her formation is shaped by mentors in dance/movement therapy, somatic practice, and rites-of-passage work, and by the countless participants who have been both teachers and co-creators in her long-standing groups.
Life and Commitment
Rooted in Boulder, Colorado, Rachael devotes her days to tending individual clients, guiding Authentic Movement groups, and nurturing a living practice of embodiment within her community – all while raising two bright and active children. She meets each person with presence, kindness, truth, and practical care, honoring the innate intelligence that lives within every body. Embodied Wellness is her vessel for restoring agency, deepening connection, and cultivating embodied wellbeing through creative, relational, and evidence-informed pathways. She welcomes collaboration and heartfelt inquiry into what it means to live in harmony with oneself, others, and the greater unfolding of life.
