Tracey Vincel, PT, M. Phty, CBBA, Founder of KNÓSIS Physiotherapy & Wellness, is refining the path to well-being through the lens of the body. She is a physical therapist who goes beyond the physical to explore how matter relates to consciousness and how our personal and collective well-being depends on it.
With 25 years of clinical experience, Tracey travels the world, gathering the tools and practices needed to eliminate and prevent pain and suffering. She believes that humanity stands on the precipice of a transformative evolutionary shift. This shift in consciousness involves developing long-ignored innate feminine capacities and balancing them with traditional masculine resources.
Tracey’s work as a physical therapist has given her a profound sense of purpose, allowing her to uncover these insights. She has pursued advanced education, gained master’s degrees and certifications, and journeyed with her husband to seek embodied knowledge guided by Earth’s wisdom traditions and keepers.
With a deep understanding that our bodies can be our greatest teachers, Tracey emphasizes the importance of letting our bodies guide us, of knowing both pain and pleasure, thinking and feeling, masculine and feminine as integral parts of the human experience.
At the forefront of this philosophy is Tracey’s NYC center, KNÓSIS, where a team of specialized physical therapists and wellness practitioners guide clients through self-discovery to understand how their bodies work, tuning in to restore health and well-being from the inside out.
Charting a Unique Path to Becoming a Leading Spinal Specialist in NYC
From a young age, Tracey was drawn to biology, and the human body, which eventually guided her to become a physical therapist. Growing up in Virginia, she always felt a pull to live in New York City. Following her intuition and inspired by what NYC represented, she moved there when she was 25. She took a job in a busy sports therapy center seeing four patients an hour but soon realized she wanted to work differently.
“In life, I have found that some of the greatest lessons come from experiences that you don’t resonate with,” Tracey reflects, highlighting how these experiences inspire you to push boundaries and to create something new. Within three years of practice, she realized she needed to go deeper in her understanding of getting to the root cause of pain. In 2003, Tracey traveled to Australia to learn from leaders at the forefront of motor control and pain research at the University of Queensland. She gained a second master’s degree with specialization in spine and became an expert at clinical reasoning.
Tracey learned to look for patterns, diagnose movement, and use cutting-edge science to eliminate pain. This experience taught her the importance of having a niche in her industry. After completing her spine master’s and returning to New York City, she gained recognition from top MDs and medical professionals who regarded her clinic as the preferred destination for patients dealing with complex pain. Tracey stresses the importance of having a unique quality in your work.
Her exploration led her to delve into the realms of mental, emotional, and energetic well-being.
A Personal Journey to Well-Being
Tracey describes her journey of creating and leading KNÓSIS as a path guided by her gnosis, or experiential knowledge. “I am very lucky to have found my purpose through my work,” she reflects. “To guide others on their path to well-being, I must know the feeling myself.” She engaged in practices involving physical movement, including Pilates, Gyrotonic®, Gravity Fit, Qi Gong, and various others, integrating them into her professional endeavors. Despite the emphasis on the physical body Tracey soon realized “For many of my patients, I needed to go deeper to consider how their thoughts, beliefs, and emotions all influenced their pain,” she explains. The physical was just one piece of the puzzle.
This began Tracey’s exploration into the realms of mind and emotions. She started with her daily meditation practice and took an eight-week mindfulness training. She studied with world-renowned experts in mind and pain neuroscience. To understand the link between body and mind she learned the science of breath and gained certification as a breathing behavioral analyst.
Driven by curiosity and the desire to go deeper Tracey explored many alternative states of consciousness through practices of sound therapy, hypnosis, breathwork, and shamanism. She sought out teachers in India, Japan, Mexico, Egypt, and South America to guide her.
“In one 5-hour meditation I had a profound sense of self – an all-encompassing knowing of the feeling of wellbeing,” she shares. Tracey later discovered this spontaneous insight or experiential knowing as gnosis – complete integral knowing uniting body mind and heart.
Tracey came to realize that true knowledge comes from both intellectual understanding as well as an embodied experience. This ‘think/feel’ sensation was central to sustainable change and vibrant health. This is what she wanted to offer in her center and share with clients. The hands-on therapy and the explanation of the diagnosis were not enough – they had to give embodied experience and help their clients feel.
The Vision for KNÓSIS Physiotherapy and Wellness
Located in the heart of NYC, KNÓSIS Physiotherapy and Wellness, founded by Tracey, is a sanctuary for holistic body health. “We offer physical therapies, innovative tools, and immersive wellness experiences that align and harmonize the body,” she explains. The clinic aims to shift the paradigm of viewing physical therapy as a reactive measure for pain, emphasizing instead the importance of regular care for the body’s ongoing well-being.
The approach at KNÓSIS is about guiding clients through self-discovery to understand how their bodies work, considering the whole body and mind. “We look for patterns, wisdom, discernment through felt experience – We go beyond symptoms to get to the core of the issue,” Tracey explains. The center provides individualized assessments and bodywork plans for a diverse range of clients, including New Yorkers, artists, actors, entrepreneurs, and professionals seeking to release restrictions and activate new patterns to discover their body’s potential.
The services at KNÓSIS include physical therapy sessions, a range of innovative body work and massage, therapeutic Pilates, Gyrotonic®, Gravity Fit, vibro-acoustics, energy sessions, hypnotherapy, and more. The center aims to build a community around sharing knowledge and experiences, recognizing that while knowledge is easy to find, knowing the feeling of well-being is not.
Achieving Success: A State of Holistic Well-being
According to Tracey, “Achieving success in business goes beyond financial prosperity. She defines a successful business as one that generates wealth encompassing not only economic aspects but also physical, relational, emotional, and spiritual dimensions, all while serving humanity.
Tracey sees the pinnacle of leadership as the integration of these elements, where an enlightened entrepreneur fosters creativity and collaboration to enhance the well-being of the whole. “Leading from this state means taking responsibility for your evolution and the evolution of others,” she notes “Evolution is an unstoppable force. By aligning with it you will benefit yourself and everyone around you.”
A Shift in Consciousness and Purpose in Business.
Tracey reflects that “for thousands of years the prevalent narrative of our social systems and our leadership has emphasized hierarchy, domination, and control.” This mindset with its emphasis on individualism and competition, the suppression of women and feminine values, such as empathy, collaboration, and nurturing all contribute to a sense of isolation, pain, and disconnection”.
Tracey advocates that “especially on occasions like International Women’s Day we as leaders need to look to and cultivate long-ignored feminine capacities. She believes that shifting this perspective and “elevating our consciousness serves as the most potent catalyst for unlocking leadership capabilities”.
“To drive creativity and innovation, we, as leaders, need to change at a deeply intuitive level, combining embodied experiences with analytic cognitive skill development. The culmination will result in shared prosperity and collective flourishing,” Tracey insists.
“At the core of wellness and leadership is balancing the masculine and feminine”
Embracing the Feminine in Balance with the Masculine
“Tracey emphasizes her own experience of wellness and leadership as a journey to self-mastery, highlighting the essence of becoming one who masters two worlds: the outer and the inner, the collective and the personal, the masculine and the feminine. When one learns to unite both, they can unleash the force of creation.”
The feminine is associated with qualities of intuition, openness, inclusivity, receptivity, softness, slowness, self-awareness, empathy, gentleness, beauty, and creativity. The masculine is associated with qualities of intellect, independence, focus, forcefulness, directness, assertiveness, quickness, hardness, and control. The goal is to find a harmonious blend.
According to Tracey, masculine energy has been much more cultivated in most of us (male and female alike) through our educational systems and cultures. “We cannot fly with one wing! It is like going to the gym and only working out one side of the body. We need to develop all these other parts. It is time that we all know and develop the neglected feminine and bring it back into an equal balance,” she asserts.
Genuine well-being and effective leadership arise from harmonizing these inner aspects, rather than favoring one over the other. Tracey explains the importance of not associating these aspects with being a man or a woman. She clarifies that “thinking because I am a woman, I have to be more feminine” or “because I am a man, I have to be more masculine” is like forcing yourself to choose between inhaling and exhaling.
It is important to understand that they are complementary qualities and together they can be leveraged to raise your game. “This equilibrium is not just vital for leadership but also for leading a fulfilling life,” says Tracey, noting that she’s encountering more and more of her clients who are intentionally balancing these qualities.
A New Level of Accountability in Self-Care
Tracey advocates for a higher standard of responsibility in self-care, stressing its relevance to both individuals and organizations. She promotes seeing the body as a projection of your consciousness – more than your thoughts, feelings, and words which come and go. “A new level of accountability starts with attuning to the body with increased respect and mindfulness. Our body is our experiential mirror. If we put it under sustained stress, it will either repel or collapse. The body is there like a set of finely tuned scales,” she expounds.
Tracey believes that every leader wants to be tuned in. You cannot tune in without a body. All feedback loops begin and end in the body. Once you see your body as a projection of all that you are, taking responsibility for it is self-evident. This new accountability brings us closer to a simple truth: your body is here to serve you. If you see the body as a consciousness that has taken material form, it is clear that it has more to give you through its awareness. When our bodies are light, flexible, energized, balanced, and quick, we are more effective leaders.
By embracing this interconnectivity and maintaining a continuous and conscious balance within ourselves, individuals, leaders, and organizations can surmount challenges, foster development, mend relationships, and become impactful agents of change.
NYC Flatiron – The Heart Of Wellness
When entire neighborhoods start prioritizing wellness, it’s a clear sign that we’re headed in the right direction. Within fast-paced New York City, the Flatiron district has evolved into a global hub for wellness. At the epicenter is KNOSIS Physiotherapy & Wellness.
Tracey’s presence in this district for nearly two decades underscores her unwavering commitment to the wellness journeys of countless individuals who have sought her expertise. The Flatiron district has one of the most concentrated areas of wellness business in the world – offering diverse services including spas, fitness studios, yoga and Pilates centers, and healthy cafes.
In addition to physical wellness, there are mindfulness and meditation spaces, wellness retail stores, and practitioners offering holistic health services. This area is impacting lives beyond its physical location and embodying the ethos of well-being in the heart of NYC – the Flatiron district.
Tapping into the Feminine Essence
Tracey reflects on her journey of discovering her feminine aspects, a concept she was unaware of in her youth. Her biggest realization is that the true nature of the Feminine is a mystery. “The very essence of the feminine is to tune your energies inward, until at the deepest level balancing the feminine and masculine becomes a part of us. When that happens, the techniques will naturally drop away and one’s whole life will be transformed,” she explains.
When asked to share how she taps into her feminine in honor of International Women’s Day she highlights important practices for turning inward, quieting the mind, and allowing the cultivation of presence and receptivity:
Meditation: No practice has changed Tracey’s life more than a 20-minute daily meditation. When she enters this deep inner silence, she removes stress faster than she accumulates it. Tracey’s meditation practice aims to transform her mind, quieting it to hear the more subtle messages that come from the body. By transforming her mind, she transforms the way she perceives things, transforming the quality of her life.
Mindfulness: Jon Kabat-Zinn, a pioneer in the field of mindfulness, defines mindfulness as “paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.” Tracey offers his eight-week mindfulness training at KNOSIS and incorporates the feeling into her life and work. Her favorite realization about mindfulness is “that it is not about changing yourself – it is about recognizing the beauty inside yourself already.”
Contemplation: Tracey’s greatest teacher of contemplation has been Richard Rudd. In The Art of Contemplation, he suggests that as a synthesizing art, contemplation brings together both left-brain techniques and right-brain leaps in awareness. Contemplation makes use of the practice of mindfulness in the background while using the power of imaginative thinking in the foreground. Contemplation is an art, and because it is an art, it is something that can be learned. However, sometimes a powerful intellect can be a hindrance in learning this simple art. Paradoxically, for many of us, contemplation begins as a form of unlearning as we let go of reliance on our intellect and open new pathways of awareness inside ourselves.
Listening: At the core of tuning into her femininity, Tracey believes, is listening and receiving. Mark Brady’s book Noble Listening has impacted her deeply.
Mark suggests that like many creative acts, the more one listens, the more surprised they are by what they discover. Many people know the exquisite feeling of being attuned to and validated by a truly skillful listener – of feeling deeply heard, acknowledged, accepted, and understood; of “feeling felt.” Being listened to enlivens and inspires opportunities to explore what one thinks, how they feel, what they want, who they are, who they’ve been, and who they’re becoming…as individuals, and even more importantly, as members of the human community.
“We listen with the whole body, our Whole self.”
Finding Center: As Tracey stopped struggling and began listening to her inner voice, she found her center. Her center is a place of power and creativity, and when she remains there, the universe will channel everything she needs. What does the center feel like? Quiet in mind, relaxed in the body, confident and safe, carefree in mood, a strong sense of being, energy flowing, all while being present in the moment.
Trusting the unfolding: One of Tracey’s greatest manifestations of feminine qualities is trusting the unfolding of her life. She used to think she had to make life happen, but now she knows that when she sets an intention and is present, she can allow it to unfold.
Intuition: Tracey has spent years intentionally cultivating her intuition. She trusts her intuition to guide her next move, whether its being drawn to the far corners of the world or connecting with important people in her personal and professional life. She describes this feeling as an antenna for knowing what is right for her and her business at any given moment.
Synchronicity: As a leader, Tracey is expected to produce results, and she relies heavily on the secret of synchronicity. It is like an invisible power that comes to her aid. Tracey expects synchronicity to be there when it is needed, and it is. As her awareness expands, she receives clear messages that are unmistakable. Through people, books, symbols, and chance encounters, she pays attention to the signs and is blown away by the incredible coincidences that unfold. The more Tracey opens to them, the more she receives. In sharing this message with CIO Views a beautiful synchronicity occurred. She found herself exactly in the center of the Earth – on the equator – in Equator. Exploring the Galapagos learning about the evolution of species, she contemplates our own evolution.
“Regard Synchronicity as normal. Look for the hidden messages, go where you are guided.”
Motivation in Life and Work
Maintaining a balance between personal and professional life is crucial for Tracey, especially since she works with her husband, Galen. “During the pandemic, my business partner and I separated, and the best thing that could happen happened – my husband joined me in business,” she shares. She describes him as her solid rock, helping to keep her grounded and focused.
Tracey reflects, “I am a better person, and leader in my business because of my relationship with Galen. He has been one of my greatest teachers in cultivating and balancing my feminine nature and who I am as a woman. Having a partner to share life with, to grow and evolve with is a major source of motivation.”
Traveling and experiencing the world, its cultures, and biodiversity with her husband is a source of inspiration, and owning their own business allows them to set systems in place to take time away. Immersing themselves in nature helps them to stay connected to themselves, each other, and the Earth.
To stay motivated while living and working in the intensity of NYC, Tracey, and Galen both take care of their bodies by maintaining a routine of Pilates, Gyrotonic®, and acupuncture at KNÓSIS. They meditate daily and engage in bodywork with a physiotherapist or massage therapist at least once a month.
Lastly, Tracey emphasizes that nothing has been more motivating in her life and work than the experience itself. “Gaining self-knowledge and celebrating her physical body daily as her vehicle for evolution is one of the most rewarding experiences I can have. Witnessing the unfolding in another only expands the feeling multifold. I can only imagine what the world would look like if we all joined in this lunar year of the dragon – to embrace the upward-spiraling ascending energy of the feminine,” she muses.
Conclusion
Tracey Vincel’s journey as a physiotherapist and wellness advocate embodies a holistic approach to health and leadership. Her dedication to understanding the intricate connection between the body and mind has led her to explore diverse modalities and incorporate them into her practice at KNÓSIS Physiotherapy & Wellness. Through her work, she not only helps individuals alleviate pain but also guides them toward a deeper understanding of their bodies and a more harmonious way of living.
Tracey’s passion for sharing knowledge and her commitment to raising awareness about the importance of holistic well-being is evident in her leadership roles and her innovative approach to wellness. As she continues to inspire others to prioritize their health and embrace a more integrated way of being, Tracey Vincel serves as a beacon of hope for a healthier, more balanced future.
