Her life’s work: healing others
Erin Saintil uses lived experience to reshape mental healthcare
Erin Saintil, LCSW, BCBA, CCTP, ERPSCC, Founder, NEUROLEASE
You are in your worst nightmare—trapped inside your own trauma, unable to escape. Pain pulses through your body.
Then, a woman’s voice cuts through the chaos. Another woman massages your skin.
You take a deep breath and begin to feel at peace. Soft music soothes you, and the scent of lavender lingers in the air. You open your eyes to a dim, bohemian room.
For the first time, you feel safe.
Erin Saintil (left) and Tara McHugh (right), a licensed massage therapist, perform NEUROLEASE at Tara J. McHugh Massage Therapy
“Your Neurolease treatment is complete,” says Erin Saintil, smiling.
Saintil, 55, is the founder of Neurolease—a specialized treatment designed for trauma survivors that combines talk therapy and massage therapy in a single session. While clients share their experiences with Saintil, a licensed massage therapist works to calm the body’s stress response.
“I activate their nervous system by talking to them,” Saintil said, “and then the massage therapist helps reset it.”
For Tara McHugh, the licensed massage therapist who has worked with Saintil for five years, the results are remarkable after each session.
“She’s almost like magic,” McHugh said. “You can feel when a client finally lets go of something they’ve been holding onto for years.”
One former clinical psychologist, Tara P., said her Neurolease outcomes exceeded her expectations.
Saintil’s friend of 20 years, Julie S., said the treatment helped alleviate her IBS and PTSD. She believes she could not have healed without Saintil’s support.
“She lights up a room,” Julie said. “She finds positivity in every nook and cranny.”
Saintil’s work is deeply rooted in her life experiences. A board-certified behavior analyst and founder of Collaborative Therapeutic Services, she studies behavior and develops solutions when dysfunction is present.
Her methods are something you experience the moment you step into her office.
Clients take a seat on a couch that feels like home. Saintil’s Labrador retriever, Dexter, enters the room, radiating positive energy. The air smells clean, and the sun’s warmth streams through large windows. The silence is calming. Relaxed, the client is ready to begin their talk therapy session.
Saintil working at her practice, pictured with her behaviorally trained dog, who sits in during client sessions
The calm she creates today was born from a past that was far less peaceful.
Saintil relates to her clients’ trauma through her own hardships. Her life changed overnight.
It was a bright, sunny day in 1995 in the Bronx, New York. Saintil was awakened in her bedroom by six men armed with guns and knives.
She couldn’t help but think of a joke.
“What kind of reputation do I have that you need six people to wrangle me?” she remembers thinking.
The men tied Saintil up and placed a gag in her mouth. Her boyfriend—who had put his hands on her the night before—was hog-tied and pistol-whipped on the couch.
Helpless, the couple watched as the men ransacked the apartment before leaving abruptly.
Saintil managed to call the police while still restrained, but the call was dismissed as a prank. The men were never identified.
The trauma remained. Consumed by fear and anger, she made the decision to move.
“I realized, if I don’t get away from this environment, I’m going to become a very mean person,” she said.
Eleven months later, Saintil moved to Tampa, Florida, to start a new life. She explored belly dancing, equestrian jumping, tax collecting, and bodybuilding. In 2007, she founded her own therapy practice.
By stepping away from her past, Saintil found the clarity to begin understanding it. She realized that her clients’ bodies often react before their brains can process emotional distress.
“They feel crazy and isolated, like I did,” Saintil said. “The body is firing off alarms, so nothing makes sense. You have to calm the body down to relax the brain.”
This insight became the blueprint for Neurolease, developed in 2018.
Saintil’s empathy extends even further. To better relate to her first responder clients, she participated in a firefighter simulation.
“The smoke was so thick I couldn’t see my own hand in front of my face mask,” she said.
Saintil dressed in firefighter gear for a simulation
Saintil treats her clients’ trauma as if it were her own.
She continues healing others while raising her children as a single mother. In 2001, she began fostering. Thirteen years later, she adopted her two children as toddlers—both orphans from birth who had been placed in multiple foster homes.
“By the time I got them to daycare, I had already been peed on, kicked, and bitten,” Saintil said. “They were both very traumatized and intense.”
Parenting her children requires the same compassion she gives her clients. She ensures they receive the support they need through various therapies.
Becoming a mother was not easy for Saintil. After struggling with severe endometriosis, she underwent a radical hysterectomy. Her decision to adopt reflects her own childhood—she grew up with an adopted brother.
That same sense of empathy and responsibility was evident long before her present-day role as a mother.
Saintil began helping others early in life. Her mother encouraged her to volunteer in prisons and nursing homes.
Those experiences gave her a unique perspective—she knows firsthand what it is like to be a mental health client.
As a child of divorce, she experienced different forms of therapy, often testing her limits.
“I’d plan how I was going to behave just to mess with the therapist,” she said. “Then one day I thought, maybe I should try being in their shoes.”
That curiosity became her calling.
Today, in addition to running her practice, Saintil serves as an expert witness. She studies the trauma of inmates to better understand behaviors associated with criminal activity and helps determine whether they are fit for rehabilitation. This work can be dangerous.
During one session, a schizophrenic inmate’s demeanor suddenly shifted—her instinct was to leave the room immediately.
“I went out, and I was shaking in the car,” Saintil said.
Still, she remains dedicated. Saintil believes many inmates were dealt the wrong hand in life—they just need guidance in the right direction.
Her work demonstrates that trauma can be overcome.
“I love helping people,” Saintil said.
