BBTRS® creator Giten Tonkov shares a mastery of body-oriented therapies that has evolved from decades of learning and work with thousands of clients. A Licensed Massage Therapist and certified Breath & Body Oriented Therapist, he developed BBTRS® on a years-long personal journey of recovering his own body, which carried the impact of a childhood accident. His body “remembered” the accident in ways his mind did not, and the suffering was trapped within him. Throughout many years of working with different bodywork modalities, conscious movement, and meditation techniques, he identified a series of tools that came together into a single practice that he has been sharing with thousands across the world for nearly 20 years. Giten documented this work, and its origins, in FEEL TO HEAL: RELEASING TRAUMA THROUGH BODY AWARENESS AND BREATHWORK PRACTICE [Hyperlink to book page].

Since developing BBTRS®, Giten—along with former students who have become leading BBTRS® facilitators, Nisarga Dobosz and Prema McKeever— also began offering body-oriented trainings in Poland. These now include specialized Acute Trauma trainings for Ukrainian refugees impacted by war, as part of the Ukrainian Training Resilience Project (offered in collaboration between BBTRF and IBF).

A native of Ukraine, Giten makes his home in the Santa Cruz mountains in California, USA, and the Greek Island of Lesvos. He previously lived and practiced in New York City for 24 years, as well as India and Bali, Indonesia, for more than ten years.