About Rachel
Rachel Shapiro, Founder of Equilibrio, is a midwife and bodyworker. She is passionate about bridging the worlds of birthwork and bodywork to restore physiological balance, and to improve the pregnancy, birth, and postpartum experience for mom and baby.
Rachel began her training and experience as a bodyworker in 2007, specializing in prenatal, postpartum, newborn, lymphatic and deep tissue massage therapies, along with a focus on polarity therapy treatment.
She then became a licensed and certified out-of-hospital midwife in the US, specifically to learn holistic midwifery, working in birth-centers and at home births, with additional specialization in gynecological care. She then earned her BSN and CNM, gaining experience in high-volume hospital settings, always looking at birth through the eyes of a bodyworker.
As Rachel continued to deepen her studies, she had the opportunity to work with several amazing women who influenced her journey: Gail Tully with Spinning Babies®, physical therapist and medical illustrator Blandine Calais-Germain, and chiropractic doctor and bodyworker Carol Phillips.
As one of the original Spinning Babies® trainers, Rachel teaches balance and physiology in settings all over the world. She’s also involved in ongoing medical research in hospitals in Israel and Sweden, and co-founded Mechanisms of Balance® (a project creating updated medical illustrations of the uterus and pelvis,) all with the purpose of increasing understanding and ways to improve people’s experiences and comfort in pregnancy and birth. A caregiver who believes in deep, personal connection, Rachel provides her clients with warm and thoughtful care in her private clinic.
Informed by her knowledge of bodywork and midwifery, Rachel created training programs for professionals wanting to integrate birthwork and bodywork, and in early 2019, established Equilibrio.
Rachel lives with her husband and two boys and their dog Little Moon on the edge of the Jerusalem forest.
