Like most therapists, Dee Wagner—originator of Chi for Two—had a rich personal therapeutic journey. This journey led Dee to want to become a therapist. Sharing personal discoveries of strength and hope in the service of others’ healing creates awareness of the deep richness gained when we find the path to well-being. 

When Dee was born, her father had his first psychotic episode. This meant that these “crazy” feelings were brewing in the family as Dee was forming in the womb.

In 1985, Dee had the first of two children—Stephen Wagner—a co-developer of the Chi for Two practices. This pregnancy came as Dee’s mother was dying of cancer.

The birth was a difficult cesarean section. However, Dee’s undergraduate degree was in theater with a focus on dance so Dee and Stephen maintained mindfulness of the trauma by dancing together, both around the house and in a dance concert called Thicker Than Water.

The expressive arts take people into deep healing places. When Stephen was 4, Dee and Stephen brought theatre games and body-awareness work to mothers and their children in shelters through a program called Arts for All. 

Dee decided to get a master’s in counseling with training in dance/movement therapy, and to begin an eight year study in complex trauma. Trauma training helps therapists pay more attention to process than content.

Yoga teacher Caroline Gebhardt and massage therapist Mary Lou Davidson began to study trauma healing with Dee. Caroline, Mary Lou and Dee all began to recognize in very nuanced ways that there is a lot going on in the “dance” between a helping professional and client.

Meanwhile, Stephen was getting a BA in anthropology with a focus on alternative healing. His deep studies in the healing arts from many cultures helped us in our creation of Chi for Two. His sensitivity to these healing arts helped us to honor ancient practices, while anchoring the Chi for Two partner practices in the nervous system science that illuminates multigenerational trauma patterning.