mary c.

(greenfield, n.y.)

I showed up to Suze a hot mess. My mom just died. My dog just died. My husband and I were struggling to get pregnant. My friend made me go to yoga with her.

Suze told the class the poses didn’t matter. What mattered was that we were breathing. I tried to believe her. I tried to breathe.

After class, she mentioned her cooking classes starting up. I had no interest in cooking, but I signed up anyway. Just so I could hang out more with this girl who got me breathing again.

The next thing I knew, I was cooking. Things I never made in my life, like big pots of soup and one day, it dawned on me. I was taking care of myself. Eating well, sleeping more, calming down. I started to cry, thinking how happy my mom would be right now. That I was taking care of myself the way she used to take care of me.

About a year later, I got pregnant. And named my baby after my mother.

Susan C.

(Clifton Park, NY)

I’m a very rigid person and I always refused to eat green things.

But I am also a cancer survivor and knew I needed to start eating better. Someone suggested Sue and I’ve been eating kale every single day since I met her.

Sue said she wasn’t here to change me. She let me stay rigid. She just taught me the right things to be rigid about. I like that she worked with me, instead of against me. And I loved that she didn’t try to fix me. Whenever I was with her, I didn’t feel broken.

Working with her made me feel real and proud.

jennifer j.

(albany, N.y.)

When I started working with Sue, I was waiting tables at a steak house. I was a strict vegetarian at the time. Sue was the first person who asked me how this made me feel.

She got me to connect to the things I needed to connect to. And disconnect from the things that were hurting me.

I hired her to teach me how to eat. But she ended up teaching me how to live.