GET TO KNOW: NICKY BIENSTOCK
Nicky (they/them) is a somatic breath, body, and energy worker with almost 15 years experience teaching people how to heal—specializing in chronic pain & illness, as well as trauma.
Somatic Breath is a guided, body-based practice that works directly with the nervous system through conscious breathing. It’s grounded in physiology, not performance. The goal isn’t to “breathe better” in a technical sense. It’s to help the body remember how to regulate itself.
Nicky helps you become the expert in your own body, so you feel more at home in your skin, with every breath.
Treatments offered: Somatic Breath
PRACTITIONER SPOTLIGHT
One in a Q&A series introducing the talented practitioners who make Boketto so special. Meet Nicky Bienstock:
What got you into your field?
I grew up sick with chronic illness of both the brain and body. I started doing yoga as a teenager and when I learned pranayama, it was the first time I felt relief from my suffering. I became a yoga teacher at 18, a reiki master at 21, and a bodyworker at 23. My entire adult life has been about helping people reduce their suffering and improve their quality of life.
Share your one-sentence elevator pitch?
Life is short but also long, breathing is the only constant and the only thing we can genuinely control.
If you weren’t doing this, what would you do/be
Nothing, but would be cool to talk about books, movies, and tv for money.
Your Memoir’s title?
Alchemy, Tea, & Cats
If you had an entire day free with no limits, how would you spend it?
Morning cup of tea, walk my cat deep in a forest, reading in the sun by a waterfall and river, swim in the river.
What was your latest adventure?
Moving to Richmond!
Who would you have over for dinner and what would you serve?
Einstein, Candace Pert, Queen Esther, Husdon Williams, Persephone, all of my grandparents living and dead, Barak & Michelle Obama, and my sib Molly. Serving my greatest hits: beet & goat cheese salad w/ candied pecans, truffle mushroom & pea risotto, and smashburger tacos with guacamole & pico de gallo. Tiramisu and fruit tarts for dessert.
Most memorable thing a teacher has shared with you?
Protection ritual
Most memorable thing a client has shared with you?
That I have changed their lives; all the million little successes add up to a mountain of change.
Window or aisle?
Window.
10am or 10pm?
10am
Desert Island song, movie, and book.
Book: A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Can’t pick one movie, so tv show: Heated Rivalry
Song: Dreams by Fleetwood Mac
Favorite Boketto product (currently) and why?
All the beautiful jewelry, because it looks incredible but feels really sacred too.c
Motto to live by?
Patience & persistence