Elsie White has been practicing bodywork since 2008. Her strong background in therapeutic massage served as a good foundation for the cultivation of her passion, Biodynamic craniosacral therapy. Elsie adds to the palette of her offerings a co-creative intuitive healing modality and therapeutic astrological readings. Her private practice, Peace and Renewal Healing Arts, is located in Chatham, NY, as is our new Turtle Back classroom.
Elsie guides clients into deeper relationship with their own bodies, their connection to the natural world and their innate ability to sense the wide variety of experiences we are privileged to have as embodied human beings. By teaching body awareness and encouraging self-compassion, Elsie empowers clients and students to care for themselves in new and fulfilling ways.
After graduating from Turtle Back Craniosacral Education, Elsie began teaching in 2018 with Margery Chessare, and took charge of the school in 2022. She is thrilled to have a chance to share the Biodynamic approach that has so enriched her own life and practice.
Kei Soares-Cobb, LMT
Teaching Assistant, Future Co-Teacher
Kei Soares-Cobb is a Cape Verdean- American healing artist based in Providence, Rhode Island. Kei is a Licensed Massage Therapist and an RYT-500, initiated in the kriya yoga lineage of Swami Sri Kripalvananda and trained in the Viniyoga Yoga therapy tradition of T.K.V. Krishnamacharya.
Kei’s bodywork practice merges the fine art of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy with traditional Thai Yoga Massage and is informed by his ancestral animist traditions and Buddhist meditation practice.
Kei’s interdisciplinary performance art integrates poetry, dance, sound and video, and has been shared at the trinity Repertory Theatre , RISD Museum and on stages worldwide with is guru and choreographer, Nora Chipaumire.
Outside the studio, Kei loves hiking, swimming, planting fruit trees, and having conversations about death and green burial.
Kelly Bancroft, LMT
Teaching Assistant
Kelly began her journey into the healing arts when she learned Reiki in 1995. She went on to study massage and graduated from the Heartwood Institute in California in 1997. She has also studied various healing modalities with amazing teachers including Malidoma Some, Eliot Cowan, Lee Albert, Carole Osbourne, Gary Strauss, Ryan Halford, Michael Shea, Hilary Garivaltis, John Wilks, Jonathan Evans, Mia Kalef, Carey Benenson Taussig, Rose Khalsa, and the Upledger Institute (CS1, CS2, Ser1, Peds1, CCPB). Her passion is Craniosacral Therapy
Kelly is licensed in New York and Massachusetts. She has a practice in Chatham, NY.
Joan Bender, BCST
Teaching Assistant
Joan is a 2017 graduate of Turtle Back Craniosacral Education. She started her career as a Mental Health Counselor working with trauma survivors. A class in Reiki peaked her interest in energy work, and opened the door to exploring the healing arts including BCST. Attending Turtle Back felt like coming home, and offering BCST is where her passion lies.
Joan has a wellness practice in Delmar, NY where she offers Health Coaching, Reiki and Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy.
Outside of the therapy room, Joan can be found spending time in nature, growing flowers and vegetables and spending time with her animals.
Jenni Vegliando
Office Manager and Teaching Assistant
Jenni has worked over a decade managing the ins and outs of the office. She looks forward to utilizing her knowledge to assist Elsie and Turtle Back with all of their office needs.
Jenni followed her curiosity in the healing arts in 2019 when she became a certified yoga instructor. It was soon after that she enrolled in Turtle Back Craniosacral’s Biodynamic Basics and Foundations courses. She will complete the foundations training in the Spring of 2026.
When outside of the office, Jenni enjoys baking, gardening and accessing the Akashic Records.
Anna Goldenberg
Teaching Assistant
Patricia Tschannen, MPT
restorativephysicaltherapy.com
Patricia Tschannen, MPT, a massage therapist since 1993, received her master’s degree in physical therapy from Russell Sage College in 1999.
Pat specializes in manual therapy in her private physical therapy practice in Saratoga Springs, NY. She seamlessly blends Visceral Manipulation, Myofascial Release, Yoga and Craniosacral Therapy into her individual patient treatments.
Pat is also certified as an instructor of therapeutic yoga and offers weekly group classes. She continues to take coursework in every modality she practices and considers herself to be a lifelong learner.
Margery Chessare, LMT, BCST, RCST®
Turtle Back Founder, Retired Lead Instructor
Margery was in private practice as a craniosacral therapist from 1995 until 2020, teaching since 1999. She leads programs in craniosacral therapy, beginner through advanced, and enjoys mentoring practitioners. Invited to be the first craniosacral instructor at the Center for Natural Wellness School of Massage Therapy in Albany, NY, she taught there for nearly 10 years.
Margery's perpetual craniosacral education includes several models of this work, all of which she draws on for her own teaching: Upledger CranioSacral Therapy, Hugh Milne's Visionary Craniosacral, and Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, which she studied with Scott Zamurut, Michael Kern, Mike Boxhall, and Michael Shea. She is certified as both Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist and Instructor by the International School of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, and is an RCST® and Approved Teacher by the Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Association of North America (BCTA/NA). Margery is honored to be a teaching assistant, since 2008, with Michael Shea, Biodynamic innovator and author.
The integration of complementary studies, including trauma resolution, embryology, pregnancy and birth, is paramount to Margery's approach to craniosacral therapy.
She is the author of a chapter in the book Working Wonders: Changing Lives with CranioSacral Therapy, published by North Atlantic Press.
To listen to a podcast interview with Margery, click here.
Read an article about Margery’s approach to teaching in The Tide Newsletter, a publication of BCTA/NA, published March 2022.
Michael Shea, M.A., PhD.
Michael J. Shea is one of the preeminent educators and authors in the fields of somatic psychology, myofascial release and craniosacral therapy. He presents seminars throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe, and is the originator of Biodynamic cardiovascular therapy. He received his master's degree in Buddhist Psychology at Naropa University, and a doctorate in Somatic Psychology at The Union Institute. Dr. Shea was certified in 1986 as one of the first Full Instructors of CranioSacral Therapy by the Upledger Institute and was an advanced Rolfer for 20 years. He held the position of adjunct faculty, teaching human embryology in the pre and perinatal psychology doctoral programs at the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute in California.
As a formal student of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, his teaching style is grounded in his spiritual practice of developing compassion with the use of manual therapy. For many years he apprenticed with a medicine man on the Navajo reservation in Arizona. From these traditions, he brings a unique cross-cultural perspective to teaching health and healing. Because of the influence of the Dalai Lama, Michael's clinical focus is on the treatment of infants and children with neurological problems and developmental delays. This includes teaching clinical skills for adults who carry pre and perinatal trauma.
Michael is the author of a number of books, including Somatic Psychology and Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy - Volumes 1 through 5. He has been a Florida Licensed Massage Therapist since 1976, and is a founding member of the International Affiliation of Biodynamic Trainings and the Massage Therapy Body of Knowledge task force (MTBOK). He makes his home in South Florida with his wife, Cathy.
Michael has numerous videos, some serious, some not, on his YouTube channel. Here's a link to one that offers an excellent example of his warm and brilliant teaching style, from a presentation at the Breath of Life Conference in London, 2013.
Bridgette Shea, L.Ac., MAcOM
Bridgette Shea, L.Ac., MAcOM, is a licensed acupuncturist and wellness educator who has been practicing and teaching traditional healing modalities and yoga for more than 20 years. She is the author of two books. Handbook of Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda: An Integrated Practice of Ancient Healing Traditions, and Cultivating Your Microbiome: Ayurvedic and Chinese Practices for a Healthy Gut and a Clear Mind. Bridgette owns Ageless Acupuncture in Saratoga Springs, NY and hosts the Vital Points podcast.