Testimonials

TESTIMONIALS
This work feels like it reconnects all the isolated parts of my body that start to talk to one another again. My tension lets go, and all the little fears my body holds on to, to protect itself, just melts away.
The “chronic” holding that my body does, finds safety to release and so I can come into balance. I come in limping with ache’s and pains, but I leave with lightness and body centred awareness that lasts. The work is gentle but profound.
G
After my first treatment with Leopi following a car accident, I immediately felt the profound and difficult to describe healing power of her practice. Although I was pregnant at the time of my first visit, I was not aware that Leopi was also a midwife, so my initial need for relief led to years of support during and well after both of my pregnancies. Leopi’s practice is one of deep intuition, expertise and openness that leads to healing, restoration and release. No two sessions are ever the same except for the fact that I always leave feeling less “stuck,” both emotionally and physically, and with a greater sense of vitality. There is no one who I would trust more with my body and soul!
Brita
Leopi has healers hands. I have been privileged to receive numerous sessions from her. Her work is profound and impacts many systems of the body – physical, mental, and spiritual. After a few years of limping in an orthopedic boot, a knee cart, and more, my hips, knees, ankles and feet were out of alignment, and my body was in protection mode. The work Leopi did on my fascia and alignment got me back to a place of balance and safety. She completely relieved the reccurring swelling in my ankles and feet, within just a few sessions. Her wise and gentle touch and her skill in ortho-bionomy, are unmatched in my experience. I float for days after the session.
Her peaceful studio is in beautiful Cerrillos, NM. I love the excursions there. Well worth the drive!
anon.
I came too Leopi in need of body work based on a great recommendation and have since learned so much about the way my body works and heals itself through her ortho-biomomy practice. Ortho-bionomy is not just a quick fix, for a stiff neck or an ailing back, but gives you a new understanding about your body, and how it works by changing holding patterns, rearranging bones, and moving and releasing energy throughout, in a very gentle way. Leopi brings her whole self into this body work. Imagine someone who delivers babies working on your body. Her healing hands and intuitive spirit encourages your to be a part of the work so when you leave the table and go home, you are more aware of the mechanics of the body, its construction and how it all connects . as you begin to listen and study what you have learned from the session, you begin to feel better and you begin to see the deeper progress until you are healed and while you are in the healing process your life begins to change in a lovely way as well. The whole experience is very empowering.
 Dima
Leopi is the real deal, a true healer — exceptionally intuitive, gentle yet grounding. Her presence itself is soothing, her energy is warm and nurturing. She approaches each session with so much depth, immediately accessing the parts of my body that call for adjustment. Her practice is both precise and mindful, and this combination is profoundly impactful — my body responds to her touch with various sensations depending on how she’s holding and guiding the different parts of my body: I often feel warmth, energy movement (circulating energy, upward towards my head, downward towards my toes), a tingling feeling up and down my body, and, of course, deep deep relaxation and release. I initially came to her because I was experiencing intense insomnia, and within a few sessions that had resolved — restorative sleep had returned to me, with active dreams. I schedule regular appointments with Leopi now as part of my health routine. Leopi has the ability to connect emotional healing with somatic healing, and I am forever grateful for her magic touch.
Hannah
When I first saw Leopi, I had sciatic pain that made walking and standing painful. Multiple therapies I had previously tried had produced few results. But after several months of her gentle, yet deep manipulations, the discomfort was gone and I have regained my flexibility and my ability to live a full life. It has been life-changing.
Scott
Don’t run, mindfully walk into the healing hands of Leopi. I first went to help with an old injury and continued to go back throughout my fertility journey of loss, eventual pregnancy, and postpartum. Every step of the way she acted as a caring guide for my body and soul. Her knowledge and ease aids in the experience making you feel truly held throughout.
Sarah
Leopi is a gifted body worker and I’ve experienced tremendous benefit from her OrthoBionomy sessions. The work is gentle but deep, and it is so nourishing for my nervous system. Leopi’s work has helped me with postpartum recovery, post-operative pain, along with relief from depression and anxiety. It’s hard to describe how OrthoBionomy works, but I have fallen in love with these sessions. I always come away feeling settled, spacious, open and at ease. Thank you, Leopi, for your continued support and care. You are a natural healer and a true gem!
Sydney
Absolutely incredible intuitive healing work. So grateful I met Leopi and received her treatment. I’ve been working on a chronic pain issue for years with various modalities (acupuncture, deep tissue fascial release, various massage types) which were only partly helpful. This is the only treatment modality/philosophy I’ve found which includes a deep respect and synergy with the innate wisdom of the body, that allows for a natural relaxation of the nervous system.
PJ
Leopi is one of the most incredible body workers I have ever been to! Her interpretation of ortho-bionomy is profound. The work is gentle but supportive. Different from massage, it uses your body’s knowledge of alignment to bring things back into right relationship. I leave her sessions with profound changes to my structure after every session. Her hands are the most caring and supportive and I cannot recommend Leopi enough!
Diane
I have never experienced ortho-biomomy before until I received a treatment from Leopi. After my pregnancy and a very long labor, my body had been holding patterns of physical misalignment and exhaustion. After just one treatment, these patterns started to unwind. Three days after my first session
I felt a surge of new energy, my mood improved and my body felt stronger than it had in years!!!!
Ortho-Bionomy is a whole body and spirit experience. Leopi’s touch is gentle and informed. We cannot heal ourselves, without integrating our spiritual, energetic AND physical bodies. I am a complete convert to this work!
Alima
Leopi is a gifted healer. I read up on Ortho Bionomy as I knew very little about it and wanted to be sure it would be the most effective and best healing my daughter and I could receive. I have arthritis, sacroiliac issues, and some past injuries and my daughter has Cerebral Palsy which creates increased muscle tension and spasms.
Leopi’s gentle and thorough healing explored my body and as her hands read my different muscle groups and she asked, (for example) what happened to your left ankle? And it happens to be where I’ve had two sprains.
Leopi’s knowledge of the body and how to effectively correct past bodily injuries and pain, is profoundly  in tune. Both my daughter and I have called upon her when our bodies have been in pain and we leave so much better that we stopped using any other healers. I highly recommend her to my family and friends.
Maggie
Leopi is actual magic. She has a nurturing quality that makes me feel safe and comfortable, providing a sense of warmth and care that’s unparalleled. Her listening skills are exceptional, making each session feel personal and tailored to my needs. She is also hilarious. I always leave her sessions with the biggest smile on my face, feeling heard and seen as a woman and also so rested, healed and sensual in my body.Her bedside manner is impeccable, always professional yet deeply empathetic. Leopi has provided so much relief to the tension in my body, significantly improving my well-being from the deepest core of my being. I started seeing her before my wedding, and it’s been almost five years now. I’m now seeing her during my first pregnancy, and I couldn’t imagine going through this journey without her support. I would recommend Leopi to anyone wanting to go deeper, needing support for pain or trauma, and wanting to feel beautiful in their body. Sarah
Leopi and Midwifery and Ortho-Bionomy

Leopi was recommended to me by my prenatal yoga teacher for my pelvic bone pain which made even walking painful. After my first session the pain greatly lessened and by the second, it was gone. I’vealso never felt so relaxed in my entire life! I had a horribly uncomfortable pregnancy and Leopi’s sessions were a wonderful reprieve.

I also had a pre-birth session to prepare me for my hospital birth when I was 38 weeks pregnant. My baby came a day after my due date and my body felt ready. Leopi helped get my body and baby in alignment so they could work together for the delivery. We had a lovely, uncomplicated hospital birth!  Karina

Leopi offers a true sanctuary with her services. She’s is full of knowledge, warmth and intuition. I encourage anyone who enjoys bodywork to see Leopi and let her work her magic on you! I can’t wait to go back.

Birth center client: I found Leopi online with all the wonderful reviews and was intrigued that she was a midwife and did ortho-bionomy.  I immediately scheduled an initial consultation and ortho treatment.   Leopi was compassionate and generous with her time, she answered all my questions with knowledge and insight. Though I ended up choosing to give birth at a birth center due to family circumstances and other reasons, I continued ortho – bionomy treatments with Leopi. These sessions helped me with my tailbone pain, neck pain, and kept me in balance throughout my pregnancy. I would enter the session worried and tired, but would leave full of energy, and feeling positive. Leopi is encouraging, skillful, experienced, and intuitive. During the treatments, she would make comments about my labor that turned out to be true. Such as, “your labor will be fast” or “the baby is holding his hand near the head”. Ortho-bionomy has also helped me and my newborn during postpartum. After the treatments, my baby would be able to sleep much more soundly. I believe the work of Leopi’s hands played a important part in making my pregnancy a smooth and wonderful experience. Angela

I cannot offer enough lovely feedback for Leopi, both as a midwife and ortho-bionomy practitioner. Leopi’s masterful midwifery skills extend well beyond amazing pre-natal and birthing care – her post-natal offering of ortho-bionomy has brought a tremendous level of intention and love to both myself and my daughter.
The sessions Leopi has provided for my daughter have been thoughtful, serene and filled with care. Leopi speaks the language of babies – in her time with our girl she was able to melt away newborn discomfort and listen to what was needed in her little body. I witnessed my daughter’s state slowly transform from fussy to relaxed in her sessions, a wonderful experience for a new Mama.
And the same can be said for my own sessions, as well. After my first time giving birth, Leopi was perfectly in tune with what my body and spirit needed. Her healing touch and understanding way of holding of my experience freed tension and pain and invited a deeper connection to myself and what I needed. I left our sessions feeling relaxed and open, such a gift! I am very grateful for Leopi and her loving, intuitive wisdom – her ortho-bionomy care has been a wonderfully healing and restorative post-natal practice for us, one I can’t recommend highly enough! Amy

Hospital birth planned: Leopi’s support was invaluable as we prepared for our first birth. Because we were to have a scheduled cesarean birth we wanted to have natural and personalized support as we were not good candidates for most birth classes out there. It was a fabulous decision to have a Concurrent Midwifery Care! We had our regular 15 min prenatal appointments at Kaiser and the tests we needed to have, but our incredibly supportive, relaxing and nourishing appointments with Leopi are what really prepared us. Leopi was not just supportive in talking out the details as we created a birth plan, but in the calls and emails in between as the interesting symptoms of pregnancy presented themselves, and even in the form of a text when I was in the hospital after birth. She gave us some wonderful perspective as we were preparing as a couple to bring another being into our family. We felt incredibly thankful for access to such holistic care. It was so great to have Leopi come to our home after our babe was born, to support with nursing, and questions regarding infant care as well, she even met with our family to help us explain some important ways of caring for a mom and dad newborn after we came back from the hospital. We would totally recommend Leopi for anyone preparing to give birth in all of the many ways people give birth. Angela M

I loved working with Leopi!! She was my midwife and she was fantastic.  Leopi was so nurturing, professional, intuitive, warm and loving. She provided care for the whole family, acknowledging everyone’s role and feelings in this transformational process. Her guidance during the prenatal, birth, and postpartum time was so valuable and really put us at ease. Many of the supportive comments she made were like mantras for us postpartum. Leopi’s approach is very intuitive – knowing when to provide more guidance and when to provide us with space and privacy. She respects all the participants and the sacredness of birth. Kathy M

Leopi was so nurturing!! She provided mama and baby with orthobionomy sessions. I’ve had many experiences with holistic therapies and I’ve never had orthobionomy before. It was such a treat! My body was able to unwind and move into such a deep state of rest and relaxation. Many of my pregnancy and postpartum aches disappeared and I felt a deeper connection with my body and being in my body. Leopi’s work on my baby was the only thing that helped her feel more embodied and stopped her constant screaming. It was amazing! Watching Leopi work with my baby was so special. Leopi held my baby gently in her hand/arms while listening and connecting with my baby. Then she provided gentle movements and held my baby in positions to unwind tension and stress from my baby’s body.

I highly recommend Leopi! She is an amazing practitioner! Try out her orthobionomy bodywork – it is so effective in addressing pain, stress and tension in the body. Her work with my baby was the only thing that helped my baby stop screaming constantly and connect to her body.

I have never taken the time to write any kind of online review before which is the first testament to Leopi and how passionately I feel about her talents as a midwife. Leopi helped me give birth to my second son at home. I had some trepidation around a second home birth after bleeding excessively with my first. Leopi helped me and my husband work through our fears and create a plan early on. When interviewing midwives, I wanted someone with tons of births-‘old salt’ as I like to say. As my pregnancy progressed, I began to realize the deeper knowledge and gifts Leopi possesses. She truly is a healer. I’m not waxing poetic nor do I use the term lightly. It’s the kind of thing you only discover about a person as you spend time with them. It goes beyond her holistic approach, her openness, and her compassion. This on top of having complete chops when it comes to birthing babies. The greatest rave is that unlike most midwives, her follow up is extra ordinary. This wasn’t something I thought much about or paid much attention to but she came many times and visited until our son was over 6 weeks old.  We had no birth complications but still, she came to visit and tend to us. She also offered to do some real deep healing and restoration for me after the birth. This again was unexpected yet deeply profound which I am eternally grateful for. She is an advocate for moms healing and babies thriving and the tools she offers are tremendous. I think her care helped keep me from slipping into a bit of a funk as well after the birth.  If you are in doubt about having too ‘crunchy’ an experience or wondering whether or not when push comes to shove Leopi will meet every need, rest assured that she is the one.  The REAL DEAL.

Elkhanah

“I want to comment on midwife Leopi Sanderson.

“It hardly needs me to tell the world what an amazing midwife Leopi Sanderson-Edmunds is; all her families know it and between them passes nothing but praise for her and the knowledge that they and their children that she has ushered into this life share a very special thing. As a newly pregnant and trepidatious mother-to-be, my partner and I moved to the Bay Area when I was six months along. Leopi took us on as clients and stepped right in, spending the time to get up-to-speed with us and to make sure that the midwife-birthing couple relationship was as developed as it needed to be. By the time I called her to tell her that I was in labor and she’d better hurry up and come to us, I knew I was 100% certain that I was happy to trust her during the next few amazing and terrifying and wonderful hours! Beyond the great relationship Leopi developed with us as clients, I realized after the fact that her after-the-birth care is another aspect that makes her really special. Other mothers I talked to were surprised when I told them that Leopi came out many times after the birth, both to check on me and check on our baby. The level of this post-birth care went way beyond a simple how are you feeling and extended to talking about my birth experience, good advice and verbal and hands-on education on postpartum recovery, all the legal bits and pieces, and finally, cranio-sacral work for my baby and ortho-bionomy sessions for myself. Overall, Leopi is a midwife in a thousand, and anyone fortunate enough to have her help with birthing a child knows just what I’m talking about. Also, try the Moxa treatment after birth! It is Amazing and I think was one of my very favorite events in my post-partum care! ” – Sarah

“When we found out we were pregnant, my wife told me that she wanted prenatal care from a midwife, but wanted to deliver in the hospital in order to have every option of modern technology available during birth, “just in case.” At first I couldn’t understand why we’d need what seemed to me like redundant care – if we were going to deliver in the hospital, why not just see an MD for prenatal care? Since my wife has worked in women’s health advocacy for more than 15 years and trained as a doula, I deferred to her expertise to create the birth team she envisioned. Plus, she was the one who would be pregnant and birthing our baby, so it was important to me that she feel supported and safe throughout the experience. In the end, I feel that using a midwife was the best decision we made concerning the pregnancy and birth of our daughter.
After meeting with a few hospital-based midwives, we weren’t finding quite the right fit. Then we met with Leopi, who came very highly recommended. Given my wife’s vision, Leopi suggested we work concurrently with her during the pregnancy and labor and a obstetrician colleague of hers during delivery in the hospital. She said she could come to our home to be with us during early labor, and then she would join us at the hospital in the role of a doula. The doctor also supported this plan and we felt excited to have this unique birth team that met all of our wishes.
With each prenatal visit, we grew to love Leopi more and more, and we were so glad to know she would be by our side during the most important time in our lives. She is so knowledgeable, she answered all of our questions, offered sound advice and alleviated our concerns throughout the pregnancy. When we got a diagnosis of partial placenta previa, Leopi gave us her thoughtful recommendations to try get the placenta to move naturally, but she also talked with us candidly about the possibilities of needing a c-section (luckily the placenta moved before labor started). As we got closer to the birth, she walked us step-by-step through what we could expect in the hospital during delivery, explained what her role would be in the hospital and gave us suggestions for how to make the experience as positive (read: non-invasive) as possible. I really appreciated how she was able to share our vision and give us tools for non-invasive strategies, but was also realistic about the interventions we could expect if necessary. Leopi also spent time talking with me about my role as a partner and soon-to-be father, which helped me feel like an integral part of the pregnancy and birth, rather than just a bystander. She also talked with us about the changes and challenges we could expect in our relationship, both during pregnancy and after the baby was born.

In addition to being a wealth of knowledge, Leopi was our spiritual guide through our journey to starting a family. She routinely spent two or more hours with us during our visits, paying import not only to the biological miracle that was unfolding before our eyes, but also to the psychological and spiritual components of bringing a new life into the world. With a gentle hand and deep compassion, she guided us through this magical time; teaching us the wisdom of women’s bodies and how to work together as parents. We felt a strong bond with her right away and I always looked forward to our time with Leopi.
During early labor at home, Leopi was by our side, there for anything we needed but also gave us space to be together and labor alone as a couple. Without words, she always seemed to know when to come check on us and offer her wisdom, and when to give us space. For both my wife and myself, Leopi’s steadfast support and calming presence gave us the serenity and confidence to have the kind of peaceful yet powerful birth we had envisioned.
I can’t imagine our experience without Leopi there with us on our journey. She has helped us become strong as a couple and even stronger as a family. It has been six weeks since Leopi helped us bring our daughter, Talia into this world and I write this note just before out last visit. I will miss our visits with Leopi, but the impact she has had on our family will be with us always.” – Kevin

“(A Father’s Perspective)Â Leopi is amazing… choosing a midwife is obviously a very personal thing. Several people recommended Leopi to us as a midwife. We chose her because of a clear connection to her as a person, and because my wife saw in Leopi a person capable of guiding her through this initiation in woman-hood. Our birth started started strong and fast… You cannot describe the intensity of a birthing to someone who has not been there, and when Leopi arrived it was obvious just how many of these she had attended. There was an air of calm serious presence to Leopi that held the room. She was incredible throughout, and showed her gifts in full when our baby girl got stuck with an umbilical cord wrapped around her head and neck. Leopi never flinched, our daughter is a happy healthy little girl, and what was life and death for an infinite moment became life. Leopi’s support after the birth was just as incredible, both for my wife and my daughter (and me). She has a whole tool kit of physical and emotional support that she opened without hesitation to our family. I cannot recommend Leopi strongly enough… she has been a midwife for our family in every meaning of the word.” – Zayin Fischer