Rita has deep respect for and experience with both non-traditional and Indigenous medicines and practices a non-pathologizing, body-centred, attachment-based, mindfulness and bio-psycho-social approach to healing.
Though she is now a retired dancer and actor she will always be a creator and performer. Her first novel, When I Was Better, released in 2022 is a winner of the Firebird Book Award, and is a finalist for the 2022 Goethe International literary award for Late-Historical Fiction. She is currently writing PUNK Therapy, drawing on her clinical work with psychedelic medicine in combination with somatic relational practices. Her podcast PUNK THERAPY: Psychedelic Underground Neural Kindness launched on Feb 16th, 2022 and has over 16,000 downloads.
Born to Hungarian refugees who fled during the 1956 Revolution, Rita honours and remembers the long line of serfs and peasants who are her ancestors. She is devoted to the work it takes to become a kind and wise human, decolonizing the body and cultivating cherished and cooperative communities.
In 1997, Rita reinvented herself through her studies in Shiatsu Therapy and graduated from Sourcepoint Shiatsu Centre in Vancouver receiving a Shiatsu Practitioner’s Diploma. Upon graduation, she began a part-time practice in Vancouver while concurrently pursuing a career in theatre, film and TV. She spent many busy years in Vancouver appearing in TV episodics including the X-Files, The Adams’ Family, Cold Squad and the Chris Isaac Show. She wrote, produced, toured and performed in collective creations for theatre and taught part time at Langara College in the Shiatsu Practitioner Program.
In 2001, Rita moved her life to Calgary to work for one season with One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre and taught movement and physical theatre at Mount Royal College for several terms in the department of Theatre, Speech and Music Performance.
She wrote, created, produced and co-starred in The Damage is Done – A True Story with her great mentor Dr. Gabor Maté which was performed to sold out audiences at The Banff Centre, at the Van East Cultural Centre and in Whitehorse in 2014 and 2015. In 2018 she performed for the last time in her solo show My Fair Lady – the Punk Version.
Rita’s other passion is writing. Her first novel, When I Was Better won the International Firebird Book award in the holocaust category and is a Goethe 2022 Finalist for Late Historical Fiction. She is still receiving royalties for 52 Pick Up, a play she performed, co-wrote, co-produced and co-directed with TJ Dawe which has been performed internationally in Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, France and the United States. The play received the Chapters’ Best Text Award at the Montreal Fringe in 2000 and appeared at the High Performance Rodeo in Calgary. In 2012, 52 Pick Up was translated into Icelandic and French.
In 2012, she won 3rd Prize for Creative Non-Fiction with her piece State Controlled Paprika in the Great Canadian Literary Hunt by THIS Magazine. Rita has published fiction and creative non-fiction in THIS Magazine, The New Quarterly, Pages of Stories, Unlikely 2.0, WritingRaw.com and articles in FFWD Weekly on lifestyle and international travel. Her travel stories have been heard on CBC Radio.
Rita has found her private practice and creative endeavours to be mutually complementary. She brings love, commitment and curiosity to both. She is devoted to inspiring others to live embodied, rich, creative and soulful lives.
Brilliant Healing Inc. Director 1995 to present
Somatic Relational Trauma-informed Facilitator 2015 to present
Somatic Psychedelic Therapist 2017 to present
Somatic Transformation Educator 2024 to present
Teaching Experience
Somatic Relational Trauma-informed Practices for Medicine-Assisted Facilitation Cohort Training 2019 to present
Touch Lab and Embodiment Lab On line Workshops
Brilliant Labs (Canada, US, Sweden, Australia) 2021 to present
Psychedelic Association of Canada - When Wise Interventions are Required in Medicine Spaces (to Intervene or Not?)
ATMA Guest Facilitator 2024 to present
University of Victoria - A Human Response to Medicine Lecture
Rita’s Training in Alternative Health Care
Somatic Transformation Educator Practicum – Sharon Stanley PhD
Somatic Transformation/Basic + Advanced Training – Sharon Stanley PhD
Creative Fire Training – Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés Reyes
NARM Basics Training
Spiritual Trauma and Redeeming of Soul – Sharon Stanley
Compassionate Inquiry – Gabor Maté
Psychedelic Therapist Training – Dr. Devon Christie, Sasha Cuff
Body, Brain and Trauma – Bessel Van der Kolk
Authentic Movement – Judith Koltai
Consultant Facilitator – One Brain System
Three in One Concepts
Tools of the Trade
Under the Code
Advanced One Brain
Louder than Words
Structure Neurology
Relationships in Jeopardy
Advanced Structure/Function
Body Circuits, Pain and Understanding
Childhood, Sexuality and Aging
Adolescence, Maturity and Love
Consultant Facilitator Training
Sexuality
Craniosacral - Upledger Institute
Craniosacral I, Craniosacral II
SomatoEmotional Release I, SomatoEmotional Release II
Visceral Manipulation I
Certified Body Talk Practitioner
PaRama College
PaRama Unit 1 – Practical
BodyTalk Modules 1,2,3,4/7,5,6,9
Orthopaedic Evaluation
Breakthrough 1
Mindscape
Certified Shiatsu Practitioner
Shiatsu Practitioner Program – Diploma, Sourcepoint Shiatsu Centre
Reiki Level I, Reiki Level II
Flower Essences: Spiritual and Emotional Evolution
Non-Violent Communication
Landmark Forum
The Consultant Facilitator
Rita Bozi is a multidisciplinary Somatic Relational trauma-informed Facilitator, Psychedelic Therapist, Somatic Transformation Educator, author, and podcast co-host. With twenty-nine years experience in the healing arts, she is the director of Brilliant Healing Inc. She works with individuals and groups, leading unique, experiential and creative healing retreats. She trains, mentors and supervises individuals in her 3 Module program: Somatic Relational Trauma-informed Practices for Medicine-Assisted Facilitation. Rita is teaching Cohorts in Canada and Australia and is guest faculty at The Synthesis Institute. She has been invited to lecture at the Psychedelic Association of Canada , for the Psychedelic-assisted Therapy Graduate Certificate Program at Vancouver Island University and at ATMA Journey Centres in the Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Program.
Rita is a colleague of Dr. Gabor Maté and studied his "Compassionate Inquiry” model when in its infancy, as an advanced student while on retreat in Mexico. She was mentored by the late visionary Carol-Anne Bickerstaff and spent four years in a practicum with Sharon Stanley PhD, studying her Somatic Transformation Model. She is a Consultant Facilitator of the One Brain System, has a Diploma in Shiatsu Therapy and is a former instructor at Mount Royal College in Calgary and Langara College in Vancouver.
The Artist
Rita is devoted to the work it takes to become human and cares deeply about people and the world. At 15, training to be a professional dancer, she made a pact with herself: slow suicide. She attempted this with anorexia, drugs, cigarettes, abusive relationships and by making herself responsible for other people’s pain. Drawing on her own experience of relational and developmental trauma, attachment and autonomy wounds, her mandate as a somatic relational therapist is to cultivate the embodied witness; to create gentle and accepting spaces for healing, integration and transformation. She remembers to laugh when the shit gets tough.
Rita’s other life involves a long career in the arts. Her varied career spans writing for theatre, radio, weeklies and on-line publications; acting in theatre, film and television; and dancing professionally in both classical and modern companies across Canada. Internationally she has performed in Germany, Hungary and Iceland. After graduating from the National Ballet School in 1983, Rita worked for twelve years as a dancer in Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver. She apprenticed with both the National Ballet and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.
In Vancouver she danced with critically acclaimed dance contemporary companies Jumpstart, Lola Dance, Judith Marcuse Projects, Karen Jamieson Dance, Dancecorps and Mascall Dance. She retired from dance at the age of 30.