Deeper Work
Sustained Change
Private Advisory
Strategic Advisory · 3 or 12 Months
You've succeeded by every external measure.
You're ready to be met, not managed.
Some days you feel like too much. Others, not enough.
STRATEGIC ADVISORY
I work with a small number of leaders each year: executives, founders, and physicians who hold a great deal for others and are rarely held themselves.
Beneath most high achievers runs one of two quiet stories: I'm too much, or I'm not enough. Both are exhausting, and both keep you at a distance from the people you care about.
This work begins with deep listening. Through narrative medicine and lineage-informed body work, we tend to what lives beneath the pressure, so you can lead with steadiness, hear the people around you more fully, and feel that you belong in your own life again.
There is no pitch here and no pressure. The choice is always yours.
Private engagements begin with an inquiry conversation.
WHO THIS IS FOR
This work is for leaders who are:
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Living in physical or emotional pain, sensing the body is speaking, not failing
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High-functioning on the outside, running on empty underneath
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Moving fast but no longer certain what they're moving toward
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Navigating friction in relationships that keeps following the same pattern
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Longing to be truly heard, and to hear others more fully
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Ready to expand into the spiritual depth and gifts they've sensed but set aside
Testimonial
“I cannot believe the powerful impact Ssanyu’s distance healing has had on me physically, mentally and energetically. Ssanyu’s healing work is indescribable and likely unbelievable for anyone who isn’t privy to working with someone of her talent before.”
Emily, Entrepreneur, New York
How it works
Every engagement begins with a 1:1 Alignment Session, where we map what you're carrying and what you're building toward. Your session fee is credited toward the engagement.
From there, we meet weekly, with real-time access between sessions. Three months to recalibrate. Twelve months to rebuild the structure that holds everything up.
What's included
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We begin your healing journey with this cathartic session. Ssanyu will help you locate your emotional and physical pain points and explore the stories and hidden beliefs associated with those areas.
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Weekly Zoom sessions with Ssanyu
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Tap in with Ssanyu whenever you need it
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Narrative medicine, breath, and lineage-informed body work, shaped around what you're carrying.
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Learn to hear yourself, and the people you lead, more fully. This is where empathy becomes a practice, not an idea.
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Space for the gifts and inner knowing you've sensed but set aside, held with care and without pressure.
Our Curriculum
Module One
Somatic Intelligence: What Your Body Knows Before Your Mind Does
Module Two
Energy Intelligence: The Intentional Allocation High-Performers Master
Module Three
Ancestral Intelligence: The Strategic Wisdom Encoded in Your Lineage
Testimonial
“Ssanyu has taught me meditation and energy techniques that not only bring about amazing physical sensations, but also leave me with the light, clear, expansive feeling I am seeking. I am not sure how she does what she does, but it is truly incredible.”
Kirk, PhD, DC
What changes
Over three or twelve months, what shifts is both inward and relational:
Steadier presence under pressure
Cleaner decisions, with less internal friction
You listen differently, and people feel it
A sense of belonging, with yourself and with the people you lead
A practice you own long after we finish
Investment: By inquiry
✹ Three months to recalibrate
✹ Twelve months to rebuild the structure that holds everything up
Pillars of the Program
Healing through story
Narrative Medicine is a research-backed framework for exploring the emotions, experiences and deep-seated beliefs that impact our health. Through narrative medicine-led prompts and indigenous healing modalities, we'll explore your emotional, physical and spiritual pain, its influence on your life, and where these stories sit within your body. In unearthing these stories, we remove the blocks that keep you from living authentically and healing, revealing your truest nature.
Intuitive Body & Bone Healing
Bone healing is an ancient Ugandan practice rooted in unearthing the stories that live in our bones and cause physical pain, emotional disconnect and burnout. Intuitive bone healing is the practice of activating and moving energy through the body, releasing trapped stories and opening ourselves back up to healing and wholeness. Combining these powerful healing modalities, alongside sacred texts, we'll release the energy that sits beneath your stories and create an embodied, multidimensional healing practice you can take into your own life.
Breathwork
The condition of the nervous system, the state of your emotional life, and the quality of the breath are intertwined. What takes place in our outer environment and in our mind is registered in the breath. This breathwork series is centered around diaphragmatic breathing, which helps you balance your autonomic nervous system. Together, we'll build a mindful practice of slowing down and tuning in, bolstered by personal affirmations known as kakassas that root you further into a daily breath and healing practice.
Doula & Womb Healing
For womyn who are struggling to conceive and/or wanting to heal their feminine center
Whether you’ve experienced sexual trauma, miscarriages, abortions or fertility issues, this deeply healing and integrated approach soothes the nervous system, clear old stories from inside the body, and helps womyn tap into an embodied and renewed sense of self.
Rooted in my narrative medicine training, breathwork and indigenous healing modalities, I also help families prepare for labor, birth and postpartum with an embodied and integrated approach.
How I work
I bring together an M.S. in Narrative Medicine from Columbia, two decades of breath and somatic practice, the Pause3™ Method, and the bone-healing lineage of my Ugandan ancestors. I work with executives, physicians, and leaders who carry a great deal and are ready to carry it differently.
What is Narrative Medicine?
Narrative medicine is a clinical, research-backed discipline that honors the stories we carry about health, illness, and change. It begins with close listening: being truly heard, and learning to hear others. In our work, it becomes a way to understand what your body and your life have been trying to tell you.
Your toolbox: some of the tools you gain by working with me
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(What matters now)
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With yourself to trust your intuition and with others
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Learn to sit with it, and let go through conducting your own Spiritual Surgery
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For peace of mind and vitality
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Cultivating abundance and prosperity
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Trusted by leading brands & organizations
Testimonial
"All aspects of my life have improved from the Pause3™ Method. The multi-layered approach Ssanyu integrates into our sessions taps into many levels of healing and growth on a conscious and subconscious energy levels. I am beyond grateful knowing I have sustainable tools for a lifetime." Lindsay, founder, MA
About Ssanyu
ABOUT
Ssanyu Birigwa, M.S.
Ssanyu is a Columbia-trained Narrative Medicine facilitator and world-renowned speaker on narrative medicine and the intersectionality of spirituality and health.
Ssanyu’s work is driven by a core philosophy: That we have the ability to heal ourselves and that healing is multi-dimensional and requires an embodied, integrated approach. Through narrative medicine training, indigenous healing modalities and her integrative Pause3™ method, Ssanyu teaches people how to heal themselves through story. More broadly, her work builds healthier communities and cultures by providing organizations with tools to actively listen, openly communicate and create psychological safety within groups and teams.
Ssanyu has led immersive workshops for Kripalu, Justice League NYC, Black Lives Matter, NYU, the Soros Foundation in Uganda and Rwanda, Columbia and more. She is the recipient of the 2016-2017 Columbia University Narrative Medicine Fellowship and lectured about the intersection of spirituality and health at universities around the world, including the Sorbonne Universite Paris; John Hopkins Interprofessional Telemedicine Education Symposium and the Saint Lukes SLUHN Diabetes Symposium.