Today we’d like to introduce you to Susan Gaines.
Susan, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
For nearly two decades, my work has been rooted in one essential question: What happens when we truly listen to ourselves?
My first answers came through the body.
As the founder and owner of Embody Minneapolis, I have spent 19 years helping people reconnect with themselves through the gentle, rhythmic, three-dimensional movements of the Gyrotonic® and Gyrokinesis® systems. Drawing from principles of tai chi, swimming, and dance, these modalities invite curiosity rather than force, supporting balance, coordination, strength, mobility, and flexibility for people of all ages and abilities. More than exercise, the work becomes a conversation—one that teaches awareness, patience, and trust.
Over time, I noticed something powerful happening in the studio. As clients became more embodied, long-held patterns—emotional, psychological, and energetic—began to surface. Physical ease often unlocked deeper clarity. Movement opened doors not just in joints and spines, but in identities, relationships, and life choices.
That realization marked a turning point.
Inspired by the transformational impact of embodied practice, I expanded her work beyond the physical realm, training as a certified life coach with Co-Active® Training Institute (CTI) and founding Wild Hart Coaching in 2018. While Embody Minneapolis focuses on reconnecting people to their physical selves, Wild Hart Coaching supports clients in reconnecting with their energetic and psychological cores—the place where values, desires, and inner wisdom live.
The two practices are distinct, yet inseparable. One begins with movement; the other with reflection. Both are grounded in the belief that healing and growth emerge from within, not from external fixes. My coaching work helps clients navigate life transitions, redefine self-care, and move toward more authentic, aligned lives—often by gently uncovering what has been buried beneath obligation, burnout, or old stories.
This integrated philosophy comes into full expression in my book, Prioritize Your Self-Care: Reclaiming Your Path to a Magnificent Life, published in March 2025. Drawing from my years as a movement trainer, coach, speaker, and guide, I reframe self-care not as indulgence, but as a courageous practice born from our deepest struggles and most honest needs.
Whether I’M working with bodies in motion or guiding clients through inner landscapes, my mission remains the same: to help people come home to themselves. Through Embody Minneapolis and Wild Hart Coaching, I offers two pathways toward that reconnection—one physical, one energetic—each reinforcing the other, and both grounded in compassion, curiosity, and lived experience.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The greatest challenges I’ve faced have been deeply intertwined with the larger upheavals in our city and country. The COVID pandemic and the mandated shutdown of my studio were devastating, abruptly halting in-person work that depends on human connection and trust. Shortly after, the murder of George Floyd and the social, political, and community rupture that followed reshaped Minneapolis in profound ways. Most recently, the presence and actions of ICE in our city have spread fear and instability, particularly among immigrant communities, creating an atmosphere of anxiety and heartbreak.
Each of these moments significantly slowed my business, but they also clarified and sharpened my purpose. After George Floyd was murdered, I opened my studio to Black women who wanted to become Gyrotonic® teachers, offering pro-bono sessions as a way to reduce barriers and create access. During that same period, I serendipitously began working with George Floyd’s best friend, supporting him in rehabilitating nerve damage—an experience that underscored the deeply human, relational nature of healing work.
During the most recent federal actions in our city, I leaned fully into what I know how to do best: creating safety. I intentionally cultivated my studio as a small island of peace for people experiencing fear, anxiety, and grief, offering steadiness through movement, presence, and care.
While these crises have challenged me financially and emotionally, they have ultimately strengthened my work. They forced me to pivot, to lead with values, and to deepen my commitment to service. Each upheaval reaffirmed that my work—whether through movement or coaching—is not just about individual well-being, but about resilience, community, and the quiet power of creating spaces where people can breathe, reconnect, and heal.
How do you think about luck?
I don’t think luck has been the primary force in the creation or evolution of my businesses—though I’m grateful for moments of grace along the way. What’s carried me forward has been faith and continual recommitment. Faith in people’s capacity to transform their lives, and faith in the idea that real change happens when someone believes in themselves, invests in that belief, and is willing to do the work with trusted professionals.
There have certainly been moments that feel almost magical—unexpected connections, right-timing, doors opening just when I was ready to walk through them. But those moments didn’t arrive in isolation. They came because I stayed engaged, showed up even when things were uncertain, and kept aligning my work with my values.
So if luck is part of the story, it’s not passive luck. It’s the kind that meets preparation, courage, and persistence halfway. It’s faith in action—an ongoing choice to trust the process, to keep refining the work, and to hold steady to the belief that transformation is possible, even when the path forward isn’t fully visible yet.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.wildhartcoaching.com and www.embody.guru
