Releasing Generational Trauma Through Somatic Activated Healing – An Interview with Sah D’Simone

What if the very parts of yourself you once hid were actually the doorway to your liberation?

For Sah D’Simone, a spiritual teacher and creator of the Somatic Activated Healing Method, awakening wasn’t a single moment but a journey marked by upheaval, loss, and a relentless search for meaning. From his Catholic upbringing in southern Brazil to the disorienting move to the United States at sixteen, Sah wrestled with identity, addiction, and the weight of generational trauma before discovering meditation, ecstatic dance, and the radical freedom of selflessness.

Today, he blends Buddhist wisdom, somatic movement, and social justice into a practice that helps thousands release the past stored in their bodies and return to presence. In this conversation, Sah shares how reconnecting with his ancestors reshaped his spirituality, why healing our lineage is key to embracing our divinity, and how dance became his medicine for transforming pain into peace.

Continue reading or listen in by subscribing for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or YouTube to discover how Sah D’Simone’s story can inspire you to embody joy, courage, and unapologetic authenticity.

I want to hear about your fascinating story of awakening. Can we start with your childhood—where you grew up and whether faith or spirituality was a part of your upbringing?

Sah D’Simone: I grew up in Brazil, in the south, in a small town called Laina, Paraná. I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic school until I was about 16. We went to church and practiced all the rituals, but honestly, faith wasn’t something we talked about much at home.

It wasn’t a structured or deeply emphasized thing—it felt more like something we did because of society. Brazil is such a Catholic country that it was just what everyone did: go through the motions.

Lately, I’ve been reflecting on that time, especially as I’ve been reconnecting with my ancestors and the unseen forces of life in a much bigger way. When I was 12, 13, 14, 15, I actually had a very close connection with the unseen—with spirits, even with the dead. Now that my mom has passed, I’m seeking my own connection with her in the afterlife.

Looking back with more awareness, I realize there were so many moments of spiritual contact in my childhood. It’s beautiful to remember that now. Thank you for asking.

You moved to the United States when you were 16. That’s such a huge shift. I moved from Kentucky to Northern California at the same age, and while it wasn’t a new language, it still felt like a different world. What was that experience like for you, moving here at 16, and how did life unfold after that?

Sah D’Simone: In short, it was pretty traumatic. Moving to a foreign country with a completely different language, values, and culture was overwhelming. Back in Brazil, we came from a very different economic background. Here, I was suddenly working really difficult jobs as a teenager, trying to figure out where I belonged.

Even something as simple as sitting on the bus became complicated. Do I sit with the brown kids? The African American kids? The white kids? I didn’t speak Spanish, so I couldn’t connect with the Latino kids, and I spoke Portuguese. I admired the black kids because to me, they had the coolest style, so I tried to dress like them. But I was also afraid of the white kids because their world felt so foreign to mine. It was confusing, isolating, and very difficult. And you can imagine—me, someone who always has so much to say—back then, I was silent. Entirely silent throughout high school.

After high school, what was the next step for you?

Sah D’Simone: I want to pause and go back for a moment. Growing up in Brazil, in a Catholic, machista culture, I had to hide my queerness from a very young age. That hiding became foundational to who I was, and it created a lot of angst, anger, and existential questioning. That led me into drugs and alcohol very early.

When I moved to Florida for high school, those patterns only deepened. By the time I was 19, I had moved to Los Angeles and felt an incredible sense of freedom. Suddenly, there was diversity, culture, and inclusivity. I felt seen. I felt like I belonged. Of course, there were four of us living in one studio apartment, but I was thrilled to be there.

At the same time, I was searching for God in all the wrong places—trying to find the goddess at the bottom of a drink, the dark mother in a line of cocaine. In the clubs, drunk and high, I would get glimmers of the divine, but nothing that sustained me.

From there, I moved to New York and started working at a fashion magazine. That career took off. I was young, surrounded by celebrities and amazing creatives, and it was exciting. But at 27, as I turned 28, the magazine was bought out. That’s when I went to India—and everything changed. That was 11 years ago, and it marked the beginning of my true awakening.

I’m curious about your process of coming out. As I talk with people who’ve gone through that experience, it often seems connected to allowing oneself to be seen—and sometimes also to embracing one’s divinity. At what point did you become aware of your sexuality, and what was that process like for you?

Sah D’Simone: I don’t know if coming out was connected to my divinity at the time. I had been sexually exploring and experiencing from a young age, but I officially came out at 23, when I held a big title at a popular fashion magazine in New York. That’s when I felt I could. I was at the top of my game, and I believed there was nothing anyone could say about who I was, whether they liked me or not, because I had proof of my success.

Back then, I was fully invested in the American Dream—money, power, fame. I equated my worth to what I had to show for it. But when you combine queer trauma, religious trauma, immigrant trauma, a lineage of mental illness, and refugee ancestry, you get a recipe for both extraordinary drive and extraordinary burnout. That was me: caught in workaholism, drug addiction, and a relentless pursuit of external goals that ultimately didn’t bring happiness.

It’s a strange thing to tell people—money, power, and fame don’t lead to happiness—because we’ve all heard it before. And yet, when someone living that reality says it, I wish more people would really listen with humility and grace. Now my life looks completely different. I live on a ranch with a pig, a goat, chickens, ducks, and soon horses. This morning I was feeding a tomato to the pig, and it bit my finger! My whole reality has changed.

And I’ve realized something: finding our divinity is deeply connected to healing generational patterns and trauma. They’re sticky, pervasive, and shape how we think, feel, and interact with the world.

After you left Bullet Media, you went on this journey of awakening. What propelled you to take that first trip? Did you have a specific event or invitation, or was it something else?

Sah D’Simone: Honestly, it was very simple. In November 2012, I left the fashion magazine. I went to Europe and binged—partying, getting high, going to Berghain in Berlin, visiting my best friend in Switzerland. In 2013, I was blogging and starting a new company, but what I wrote about was always circling around the same questions: How do I become happy? What is peace? What is spirituality? What does it mean to be human beyond materialism?

That genuine inquiry led me east—toward meditation, Hindu philosophy, Buddhism. Everything pointed to India, Nepal, Thailand, and Indonesia. My plan was to study with gurus in South India. But one day, my dad walked into the kitchen and said, “You should go north. You should study with the Dalai Lama in the Himalayas.” I was shocked—what did he know about this? But when I looked up the Dalai Lama, something happened. For the first time in my life, I felt a deep déjà vu, a soul-level recognition. I thought, I know you. And I knew I had to find him.

So in the spring of 2014, I boarded a plane to India. My first stop was a 10-day silent retreat, where we meditated on our own death. Imagining my final moments created a powerful psychosomatic experience—it cracked me open. That was my first massive awakening.

After the retreat, I met the Dalai Lama in a group of 200 people. Sitting in his temple, I felt an unfamiliar peace. My mind was calm, my body was relaxed. It wasn’t just his words—it was the environment he created simply by existing in freedom, not clinging to any fixed identity. That presence liberated the entire room.

I remember leaving and asking my friends, “Was there something in the water? Did we get roofied by a saint?” But it wasn’t that—it was the presence of a liberated being. And I thought, That’s what I want. I want to walk into a room and have people instantly relax. I want my presence to remind people of their freedom. That realization changed the course of my life.

Later in 2014, I did a 30-day retreat in Nepal, where I met my guru. For the first time, I felt profoundly alive without substances. Service arose naturally—caring for others felt like caring for myself, and caring for myself was caring for others. It became a sustainable, beautiful cycle. That’s how my journey truly began.

You’ve shared about the Dalai Lama’s presence—how it transformed the room and inspired you to want to cultivate that same gift. For many, fame itself creates an energetic shift when someone enters a space. How would you differentiate between the kind of presence you had in the fashion world and the presence you experienced with the Dalai Lama?

Sah D’Simone: The difference is actually very clear.

When I was at my prime in the magazine world, I wanted people to feel my superiority the moment I walked in. I had access to designer clothes that most people could never afford —outfits straight from Paris that I didn’t even own but could wear because of my work. And I used that access to project power, to create envy, to make others feel small.

It’s hard to admit this, but I think many of us unconsciously operate this way—to be on a pedestal while others remain below. That’s what I was radiating: separation, duality, superiority.

The Dalai Lama, on the other hand, is a holy being with hundreds of millions of followers. Yet when he walks into a room, he makes everyone feel like a saint sitting beside him. He elevates the whole space, dissolving hierarchy, making each person feel worthy, whole, and lovable. That’s the difference—and it’s something we can all aspire to: entering a room in such a way that our very presence reminds people of their own goodness.

I first learned this from him 11 years ago, but the lesson deepened years later when I trained as a medical chaplain at Cedars-Sinai. Sitting with the sick and dying, my rabbi mentor, Sarah Barukh—one of the most brilliant spiritual leaders I’ve ever met—said something I’ll never forget. I always had this urge to bring patients something: a cookie, a rose, a book, a cup of coffee. And she told me, “Be the cookie.”

She meant: let your presence be the gift. Can you transmit peace, love, and compassion without a single word?

I worked with patients who were non-verbal, confused, or nearing the end of life. Sometimes I would simply sit at the end of a bed and pray quietly. Some days I left feeling something had happened; other days, I felt like I had done nothing at all. But later—while showering, sitting in a tea ceremony, or gardening—I would suddenly realize: those moments mattered. Every quiet presence, every silent prayer—it all mattered.

What do you think allows someone to walk into a room and, through their presence alone, shift the energy—helping people feel like saints, or simply at peace? What must someone do to create that kind of environment?

Sah D’Simone: Beautiful question. I’ve never structured it into “five steps,” but if I reflect on it now, a couple of things come to mind.

First, it’s about constantly bringing your attention back into the body. Breath in, breath out. Feet on the ground. The brush of air on your skin, the warmth of the sun. The simplest somatic awareness: swallowing, noticing sensations, being here. And when a feeling arises, you stay with it in the body without making it personal. You let feelings come and go without turning them into a story about who you are.

That’s hard for us, because we’re so conditioned to pathologize, criticize, or possess every sensation that visits the body. But if you can rest in your body and allow feelings to move through you without clinging or pushing away, something shifts.

Second, it’s about loosening the grip on identity. Buddhism teaches that one of the root causes of suffering is self-cherishing—that deep tendency to make everything about me. In truth, every spiritual tradition points to the same thing: selflessness is the path to God, to peace, to happiness.

When you allow experiences to come and go without attaching them to your identity, you stop reinforcing the illusion of separateness. We are not isolated individuals; we’re relational fields, interconnected with everything. The more we can live from that reality, the more our presence itself relaxes people.

It’s a dance, of course. People worry: if I let go, do I still get to accomplish my dreams? Do I still matter? Am I still unique? But the truth is, authenticity isn’t found in grasping at uniqueness—it’s found in relaxing into who you already are, connected to everything. That’s the presence that transforms a room.

You’ve also written a book, Spiritually Sassy: 8 Radical Steps to Activate Your Innate Superpowers, which has been very popular. How do you define being spiritually sassy?

Sah D’Simone: When I first wrote the book, the words “spiritually sassy” came out of me so fast. It was a big part of my identity then—to be sharp, fiery, quick. I’m not in that season anymore, but the essence still matters.

To be spiritually sassy is to boldly choose to be yourself in a sea of sameness. My boyfriend reminded me recently that I used to say all the time, “What is everybody doing? Why does everyone look the same?” I felt suffocated by it.

For me, spiritually sassy means refusing to copy and paste someone else’s life or dreams onto your own. It means having deep conversations with your ancestors, with the earth, with your spirit, and asking: What am I really here to do?

So many people hold back—won’t get the haircut they want, won’t paint their nails a certain color, won’t explore a curiosity—because they’re afraid of what others will think. Spiritually sassy people don’t live like that. They’re irreverent, not out of unkindness, but because they’re deeply curious about being alive in this fleeting human experience.

That’s what it means: to live authentically, uniquely, and courageously—not because it’s trendy, but because it’s true.

When I look back on the books I’ve written, I can see each one was tied to a season of life—something I was processing or wanting to express in that moment. You’ve said you’re not necessarily in a season of sassiness anymore. What season of life would you say you’re in now?

Sah D’Simone: Right now, I’m in a season of connecting to nature and animals in a way I never have before.

Recently, in my membership community, I guided people through a somatic exercise to learn what a true “yes” or “no” feels like in the body. We practiced saying yes—noticing how the body perks up, the chest opens, the gaze lifts. Then we practiced saying no—feeling the contraction, the body pulling inward. It was simple, but powerful.

From there, I read a list of ways to serve others, because so many of my students are natural givers and people pleasers. That makes them incredible healers, friends, partners, parents—but it can also lead to burnout. The practice was about recognizing your season of life and serving from that place.

As I read aloud different forms of service—making food for a shelter, reading poetry at an orphanage, caring for the sick in hospitals—one option was “tending to the land and caring for animals.” And when I said it, my whole body lit up with a yes.

That surprised me. My whole life has been focused on serving people. I had to wrestle with the thought: Is tending the land and caring for animals as worthy as caring for the unhoused, the sick, or the dying?

But I realized—it is. Service has seasons, just like nature. And we are nature. Right now, my dharma is shifting into this new expression. It might not look spiritually sexy, but it feels spiritually true. So I like to say: I’m in my “spiritual farmer” season.

I think about the phrase “spiritually sustaining”—sustaining life, sustaining the land. That seems to capture the season you’re in. I’d also love to ask about dance. It’s such a huge part of what you bring, and I’m thrilled you’ll be leading a workshop at the Awakened Lifestyle Expo. When did dance first become a healing or spiritual modality for you?

Sah D’Simone: I’m so excited for our workshop too; it’s going to be epic.

Dance entered my life as a spiritual practice in 2015. I had just finished a long retreat and was deeply grounded in my body when I traveled to Bali, where I discovered ecstatic dance at the Yoga Barn. I wasn’t sober yet, so stepping onto the dance floor without substances felt uncomfortable and unfamiliar. But then it became extraordinary. With my eyes closed, I allowed the dance to dance me. I stayed inside my body, let sensations rise and fall, and realized it was meditation in motion.

That’s life, right? The real invitation is to meditate through your life.

The somatic activated healing method didn’t emerge until years later, around 2020, during the pandemic. But the seeds were planted in those ecstatic dance experiences. I practiced in Bali, New York, and Los Angeles, experimenting with Five Rhythms and other modalities. I started posting dance videos on Instagram, always after prayer, breathwork, and meditation. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was already creating structure.

Then something wild happened—Deepak Chopra’s team reached out. After an interview-style meeting, they invited me to teach my “dance medicine” on stage with him. I only had a month to formalize what I’d been intuitively doing! That’s when I realized the heart of the method: helping people keep their attention inside the body while in motion. When the body leads, the mind steps back, and the natural stress cycle can finally be completed.

During the pandemic, I taught live on Chopra Global’s account every Friday for a year and a half. Thousands of people joined weekly, and it became a huge social experiment. I explored: What happens when we move with the breath? With our eyes closed? How do different movements affect the nervous system? Those insights shaped the Somatic Activated Healing method, and by 2022, we launched teacher trainings. Since then, we’ve trained hundreds of people.

What makes this practice different from ecstatic dance or other movement modalities is intention. We’re not performing something pretty or chasing a high. This is a dance of freedom—a dance of no-self. You release the past stored in your body, relax so deeply into being nothing that you open to being everything. From that space, divine inspiration flows—clarity, creativity, wisdom beyond your individual life.

That’s the heart of it. And when we come together in December, we’ll get to experience this practice live.

Sah with Deepak Chopra

Talk to me about the teacher training. For those listening or watching who might be interested, what is the Somatic Activated Healing Method training like? How often do you offer it? Who is it for? Can it be integrated into other modalities?

Sah D’Simone:  What makes our training unique is that it weaves somatic dance with Buddhist wisdom, restorative justice, and social justice. We bring in the Buddhist teachings on the qualities of the heart and the concept of no-self, alongside one of humanity’s oldest healing practices—trance dance.

Historically, trance dance was a sacred way of connecting to God and receiving divine insight. But over centuries of colonization, it was dismissed and devalued. In our training, we restore its sacred role and combine it with modern frameworks.

We’ve built a faculty of extraordinary teachers—clinicians, healers, shamans, movement experts, restorative justice leaders, and social justice activists. So it’s not just me you’re learning from; it’s a whole collective of wisdom holders. The training runs for about five months—sometimes six or seven—and it’s a deep dive.

And it’s for everyone. Therapists, life coaches, yoga teachers, and movement practitioners find it highly complementary, but we also have moms, dads, and people from every walk of life who simply want to become better parents, friends, or leaders. What you need most is the willingness to learn and to face your own shadows.

People often expect to start with the dance moves, but the first lecture is actually about the prison-industrial complex. Why? Because we believe the most traumatized people in society are those in prison, and if you want to be a healer, you must develop a higher view of what it means to make mistakes. So the training begins with deep excavation—facing the parts of yourself that have been exiled or unmet—before you learn how to guide others.

It’s rigorous, but also deeply rewarding. And it’s recognized internationally: we’re certified by the International Dance Council (a UNESCO body), and our graduates are accredited through the International Coaching Federation. That means you can bring this work anywhere in the world with a professional certification.

What’s the best place for people to learn more?

Sah D’Simone: The simplest way is to follow me on Instagram. All of the links and details for enrollment are there.

You’ll be leading a daytime somatic dance journey at the Awakened Lifestyle Expo, and then giving a keynote talk in the evening on Sunday, December 7. If someone shows up thinking, “I’m the worst dancer ever,” what can they expect from your workshop?

Sah D’Simone: First, you’ll feel uncomfortable—and then you’ll relax. When people say, “I’m the worst dancer,” what I hear somatically is, “It’s uncomfortable for me to be in my body.” It’s hard for them to be present with the full range of sensations that come with being alive.

So my invitation is: drop the masks, drop the shuffle, drop the identity, and let yourself get uncomfortable. I don’t teach anything that requires Julliard or ballet training—I don’t have that myself. What I’ve seen is that the more flexible and relaxed your mind is, the more fluid your movements become. And as you explore your physical range, you discover your emotional range.

Many people are limited to one or two emotions—happy or sad, numb or angry. Through the dance, we expand that. By moving the body in new ways—bringing in the hips, the neck, the parts of us that have been psychologically or spiritually exiled—memories and emotions rise from the unconscious into awareness. And when we allow ourselves to navigate that process, healing happens.

The method is structured: seven to ten minutes of exploring different ranges, guidance to let the dance move you, and invitations to drop the sense of self. It becomes a training ground for living in your body with presence.

And in your keynote, what will you be speaking about?

Sah D’Simone: I’ll be speaking on generational trauma—how wounds get passed down as unwanted “gifts” that end up guiding, and often sabotaging, our lives. Unless we become aware of what’s unprocessed in our lineage, we unconsciously repeat cycles of pain.

You can map this by talking with parents or grandparents, or simply by noticing emotions that feel disproportionate to your life experience. For me, it was guilt—so heavy it never matched the context of my actions. When I looked at my ancestral trauma, it became clear that this guilt had been passed down.

The work is to give our ancestors the peace they never had by healing in our own lives today. That’s the gift we can offer them, and ourselves.

If someone is listening right now and struggling to embrace their true self—whether it’s their story, their humor, their sexuality, their uniqueness—what encouragement would you offer them?

Sah D’Simone: In short, remember, there is nothing wrong with you. Sit with that statement. Repeat it: There is nothing wrong with me.

Notice the stories, sensations, and beliefs that rise against it. Notice how much power we give to the idea that something is wrong with us. And then practice returning to that truth: there is nothing wrong with you.

I also have free resources I love to share, like a three-day somatic dance practice that helps people embrace their fullness and humanity. I’ll make sure the link is available with this conversation so everyone can access it.

Wonderful. Thank you, Sah, for being with us today—for sharing your story, your wisdom, and your work in the world. We can’t wait to be with you at the Awakened Lifestyle Expo.

Sah D’Simone: Thank you. I’m so excited as well.