We recently connected with Dana Cusato and have shared our conversation below.
Dana, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
I experienced a 12- year chronic health journey in my teens and twenties and for the past 5 years, have supported my clients through pregnancy and birth. The healing and birth processes are so similar, in my experience. My understanding is that resilience is not gained from anything outside, but it is rather awakened within. It is innate and deeply stitched into our DNA. There are forces that can rob us of our own healing and birthing agency under the guise of safety and precaution, but ultimately it is only us who knows our body’s truth. In birth, the hormones within a woman are specifically orchestrated to navigate intensity, open her body beyond what it has known before, guide her baby into her arms, and establish a loving bond for life. Now, when there are factors such as observation, bright lights, synthetic oxytocin and exogenous opiates, these replace the mother’s own production of oxytocin and endorphins. This subsequently severs the bond to some extent. So, when we outsource this primal knowledge, something is sacrificed and we risk not knowing our own innate capacity. Now, of course, one way of birthing is not right for everyone- and healing is always possible. Although, I work with clients who are at least curious and ready to engage in the work of unpacking all the ways we give that power away, and to reclaim it, piece by piece. This is the resilience I discovered on my healing journey and what I help facilitate for my clients.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am a Craniosacral practitioner and holistic birth doula. I have many years of experience working in the field of coaching and additionally provide somatic healing and inner child work. My practice specifically honors the mother-baby dyad and facilitates an intact bond through pregnancy, birth and postpartum. I see clients at my space in Malibu, at their homes postpartum, and virtually.
I came to these modalities through my experience with over a decade of complex chronic illness. No treatment was very effective until I addressed the underlying emotions and patterns in my nervous system. I then discovered a profound connection between the way I was born and the particular health challenges I encountered later in life. I found this in most of my clients as well and I pursued the study of pre and perinatal psychology. I saw that if a certain theme was unresolved from one’s own birth, it was likely to repeat in some way, especially when one gives birth. I work with my clients before conception and prenatally to unwind these early imprints in order to open more fully to the birth they are desiring. I support my clients in breaking free from past cycles and evolving mindfully through the rite of passage that is motherhood
I love that much of my practice is in-person at my beautiful oceanfront studio. We are in intimate one-on-one and group settings, establishing community and sisterhood for these women. At a time when everything has gotten so virtual, this has been important for me to preserve, especially since pregnancy and birth are such embodied, physical journeys. It has become an unconditionally loving container of women from different backgrounds and experiences being heard by one another. Nourishment is such an important part of pregnancy and motherhood. I find great pleasure in getting creative in the kitchen to serve my clients local, organic food for our monthly group sessions.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The three most important qualities and skills for me have been listening unconditionally, giving quality time and attention to my clients, and to trust in the body. These were things that were often missing from my care when I needed them most. In my sessions, I ask a lot of questions and really seek to understand the individual in front of me. Proper attunement can make all the difference for someone to soften enough to make resolution in the nervous system. When I trust the body that it is acting intelligently to protect the individual and inquire more deeply, then healing as opposed to symptom suppression, can occur.
Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?
The work I provide is deep, so my ideal client would be ready to reflect on their life and patterns. They would be open to seeing things in a different way than they may have before. People resonate with me who are more holistic-minded or seeking a home birth. I’m happy to work with women who want more resources, support and advocacy as they embark on their birth journey. I love working with women to release old emotions and patterns as preparation for an embodied, empowered birth. I also have great success in the mother-baby postpartum sessions for unwinding any trauma from their birth.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.danapenenberg.com
- Instagram: @original_imprint_birth
Image Credits
Kelle Ramsey. Joanne Kim
