Meet Dana Penenberg | Holistic Birth Coach, Craniosacral Practitioner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dana Penenberg and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dana, how do you think about risk?

Risk has quite literally saved my life and allowed me to be a catalyst for healing in others. When I fell ill with Chronic Lyme Disease in my teens for which conventional medicine provided no real answers, I had no choice but to risk leaving that system. I am alive today because I did.

I was first misdiagnosed with multiple other conditions and only given the solution to use antidepressants and painkillers. I had a deep conviction about root cause healing and felt I was just offered temporary band-aids. Through much trial and error with conventional and alternative treatments, I was led to wellness, to my teachers and to the knowledge I now offer others.

Taking risks as a stand for my life and for truth has absolutely been worth it for me. After trying everything under the sun with little hope, my heart is fully behind what I do now and I am so fortunate to be alive to share it!

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?

I am a Craniosacral Practitioner and Holistic Birth Coach, specializing in birth imprint healing. What sets my business apart is my experience, past challenges and the wholehearted belief in the capacity of the body to heal. I support the innate processes of self-healing and birthing, as well as the inextricable connection between the two.

My experience within the medical paradigm is that it does not provide solutions to heal at the source. I had been a very active sixteen-year-old, dancing over twenty hours a week on top of school. All of that changed when I woke up immobilized with swelling, body aches, fatigue, digestive issues, anxiety and depression. I was sent to the best specialists, but ultimately misdiagnosed and invalidated. I had a deeper knowing that something more serious was going on and causing a multi-systemic takedown in my body.

After pursuing my own research, treatment was another rabbit hole of disappointment, disillusionment, and required forging my own way. I first began working with clients in my junior year of college, while studying movement, psychology and somatic techniques. After graduation, I found an excellent Constitutional Homeopath, who helped me dispense with remaining medicines and heal at the source, fostering resilience in my body.

Studying and practicing Craniosacral gave me a much clearer understanding of the way the body holds trauma and communicates through symptoms. Releasing my own trauma has been a fundamental piece in unraveling the illness. What led me to birth imprint work was my fascination with the connection between source events, traumas, emotions and the timing of symptoms. Almost everyone who came to see me had birth trauma that correlated with their current symptoms. When I began taking people back to their birth, they healed emotionally and physically in profound ways.

What sets me apart in the birthing space is that I work for the mother and baby, outside the hospital setting. Therefore, I am unbound to the regulatory matrix, helping to provide a space where the mother can be attuned to her own body and baby. Through an understanding of the physiological birth process, I’m able to help my clients navigate the myths and truly allow the intelligence of their bodies to birth.

My vision is to empower my clients heal at the source to break free of cyclical outsourcing to conventional medicine, and realize the healing and birthing genius within. My work offers this at birth as well as for adults to redeem and repair their birth imprints.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Now that I’ve become a local to Malibu, my boyfriend and I don’t leave this area much. I love the ritual of the Sunday Farmer’s Market to see familiar faces and pick up fresh produce, eggs, seafood and edible flowers for a colorful home cooked meal. We enjoy Malibu Farm for a local, grass fed burger and catching a surf at the pier afterwards. My favorite treat after a long work week is the lobster burrito at Real Coconut Kitchen. Sunday brunch at Geoffreys with a salmon eggs benedict and oceanfront view is a dream! We enjoy going for a walk and dip at Point Dume. We cherish our oysters with a view of the painted clouds at Sunset Restaurant. The trails at Solstice canyon are wonderful to get an oceanic view from above on a clear afternoon. Dinner at Malibu Cafe is delicious and special, its setting within chandelier lit trees.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I thank my mother, Anna Penenberg for sharing my conviction about root cause healing. She supported me in seeking treatment outside of the conventional medical paradigm. She is an incredible healer and author.

I acknowledge my gifted homeopath, Dr. Topaz Abbott for helping me get off of many medicines, heal at the source and regain resilience.

I honor my Craniosacral teacher, Gary Strauss for holding space for my healing since I was 16 years old. His wisdom echoes through me every time I approach a client.

I would like to give a big shoutout to Leslie Thornton for believing in my work so highly that she hired me herself and as a coach for her clients. She has taught me to share my healing gifts in the format of coaching. She inspires me everyday to live from my heart and take a stand for people out of love.

I extend my heartfelt appreciation for my teacher Yolande Norris-Clark who taught me the art of birth-keeping. She inspires me everyday to show up in my truth; in integrity with myself and the women and babies I serve.

Website: www.Danapenenberg.com

Instagram: @original_imprint_birth

Image Credits
Nick Cusato, Joanne Kim, Nenah Bondi