Jeannette Watson Sanger

Bookseller · Author · Healer · New York City

Jeannette Watson Sanger

For twenty years Jeannette was the owner of Books & Co, the renowned Manhattan bookstore. She wrote a memoir, and then a book told to her by a sofa. Today she has a private healing practice at home in New York, leads laughter groups, and writes. This page is her calling card. If you know someone who might like it, please pass it on.

Jeannette Watson Sanger seated in her healing room, in front of a library ladder and shelves of books, photographs and framed certificates
Jeannette Watson Sanger · in her healing room, 2026
The front of Books & Co at 939 Madison Avenue: six awnings lettered B·O·O·K·S above the windows, the shop sign, and a woman walking a dog past the door
The bookshop

Twenty years at Books & Co, on Madison Avenue.

Jeannette was the founder and owner of Books & Co, the renowned Manhattan bookstore at 939 Madison Avenue, and later of the Lenox Hill Bookstore. For twenty years the literary world came through the door, and there was a green leather sofa upstairs for anyone who wanted to sit down with a book.

It was, as she puts it, a satisfying career helping people with words, thoughts and books. And it was a natural progression into the healing arts.

“I always thought books were healing.”
— Jeannette

Books & Co, 939 Madison Avenue

Jeannette’s shamanic mesa laid out on a red and black Peruvian weave: a feather fan, smooth stones, a silver star and a rainbow-striped cord
The turn

When the bookstore closed, she trained as a healer.

The idea came out of nowhere, and she followed it. First came Healing Touch, which works in the energy field, in the way that Reiki does; she trained through all four levels and is a level 4 practitioner. Then she went to Peru with the Four Winds School and Alberto Villoldo, a medical anthropologist who studied with the shamans of the Andes, and graduated from its Healing the Light Body Program, where she learned ancient healing techniques: the rituals and ceremonies, and the work with the four directions.

Most recently she trained with Sonia Choquette and is a Certified Gifted Intuitive Coach.

Her mesa: the bundle of stones from her shamanic training, each one with its own meaning

The album

A few pictures, and two films.

01 / 10

Film · 2015

Laughing yoga on a clifftop in Maine, from her own YouTube channel.

Laughter

It will probably make you laugh.

A laughing yoga session on a clifftop in Maine

Laughter Yoga, created by Dr. Madan Kataria, is a unique exercise routine that combines group laughter exercises with yoga breathing. A session is a blend of laughter techniques interspersed with breathing, stretching exercises and rhythmic clapping, to improve our health and refresh our psyches. It fosters happiness and clears negativity. Ten minutes of laughter equals twenty minutes of jogging, and is much more fun.

Jeannette studied yogic laughter with Vishwa Prakesh and is a Certified Laughter Leader. She believes that laughter can provide profound healing, and her sessions combine elements of Buddhist teachings with yogic and shamanic techniques. She leads laughter groups in New York and in Maine, and is available for corporate groups, hospitals and nursing homes.

The room

A healing room at home, with lavender walls.

Jeannette works out of her apartment in New York. The room has a lot of green in it, the walls are lavender, and the books have followed her there. Her altar sits in a lit niche built into the shelves.

The literary side of her life has not gone anywhere. She is on the board of the New York Society Library, where she organizes events, and on the board of a library in Maine. She hopes to continue her literary career alongside the healing.

“Everyone is by word of mouth. They’re either friends, or known to friends.”
— Jeannette
An altar in a lit niche built into floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in Jeannette’s home, with a painting, candles and roses, and more objects on the shelf below

Her altar, set into the bookshelves

We are made of star stuff.

Carl Sagan · her favorite quote of all

Healing with Jeannette

An energy-based approach to health and healing.

When Jeannette works with someone she combines Healing Touch, shamanic techniques and intuitive guidance, and how far she goes with it depends on how open they are.

What is Healing Touch?

Healing Touch is a holistic approach to regaining and maintaining health by restoring balance and harmony to the mind, body, and spirit. As a complementary energy therapy, it supports the body’s natural healing process. Practitioners consciously use their hands in a light or near-body touch in a centered way to support and facilitate physical, emotional and spiritual health.

Rooted in the concept of compassion and positive intention, Healing Touch works to enhance and strengthen the body by balancing the energy system to create an optimal environment for healing to occur.

Benefits of Healing Touch

  • Decreases tension and pain
  • Enhances the immune system
  • Deepens spiritual growth
  • Promotes healing
  • Facilitates recovery from surgery
  • Eases transitions
  • Supports cancer care
On the table

Healing Touch

A session is done on the treatment table, with a light or near-body touch, in a centered way. Some people want only this, and that is fine.

Ritual and ceremony

Shamanic techniques

Jeannette often enhances her healing sessions with shamanic techniques, helping clients to shift from the literal to the mythic and energetic levels. By externalizing the client’s story using ritual and ceremony, the client is able to move out of old patterns.

Guidance

Intuitive guidance

Jeannette trained with Sonia Choquette and is a Certified Gifted Intuitive Coach. This is the talking part of a session, and for some people most of it.

“It’s a combination of the Healing Touch, Sonia’s guidance, and also shamanic rituals and ceremony. It depends how open they are. Some people just want to come and lie on the table and have me do a treatment.”

— Jeannette
How it works

Jeannette has a private practice at her home in New York. The first step is an email: tell her a little about yourself, and she will write back.

Also

Being with the dying

Jeannette also works with people who are dying, and with their families. She trained in Dying Consciously with Alberto Villoldo and took a course in palliative care, and she was on the board of HealthCare Chaplaincy, which trains chaplains to be with dying people of any religion. Her own approach is not tied to a religion either.

Some of it is practical: helping to arrange a room so that it is calm and simple, with only the things a person really likes around them. Some of it is talking, about what a good death would be for them and what they want. Most people would rather not think about it. She helps them to.

The books

Three books.

A book about her bookstore, her memoir, and a book told to her by a sofa. She writes as Jeannette Watson.

Cover of Please Be Seated: a green sofa with a cheerful face, announcing the title in a speech bubble
For children and grown-ups

Please Be Seated

Memoirs of a Book-Loving Sofa

As told to Jeannette Watson

The sofa lived happily for twenty years in Books & Co. Then it went into storage, which it did not enjoy, and then to an island library in Maine, where it lived happily for twenty more. When people began to say how terrible it looked (the sofa felt it looked good for its age), the children at the library started a fund called Save Our Sofa. The leather was restored, and it is back in the library today, looking beautiful.

This is the sofa’s own account of all that, as told to Jeannette.

Buy a copy from Jeannette →

She packs and posts each one herself.

Cover of Bookstore by Lynne Tillman

Bookstore

The Life and Times of Jeannette Watson and Books & Co.

By Lynne Tillman · Harcourt Brace, 1999

A book about Books & Co, put together from the memories of the people who were there. It is out of print, but used copies are easy to find.

The next one

She hopes to continue her literary career alongside the healing.

If you would like to hear when there is a new book, leave your name and email. There is no newsletter. Just the news.

Only news of a new book. Your details are never shared.

Kind words

Clients speak about Jeannette.

“I was so fully restored to my body… All sense of danger was gone. The whole time of treatment with you was a treasure.”

— T.

“The treatment was amazing for me. It brought a calmness and centeredness that allowed more of me to merge.”

— W.

“Thank you. Your amazing healing sessions profoundly relax me, and restore me to grounded center and the possibility of positive change.”

— A.

Testimonials after a laughing yoga session

  • “I feel calm and optimistic.”

    — D.

  • “I feel so much lighter!”

    — B.

  • “Jeannette does a terrific job! I loved it!”

    — R.

  • “I feel like I can cope with any challenge.”

    — A.
Training & affiliations

She recently framed all her certificates. This is what is on the wall.

Training

  • Healing Touch, level 4 practitioner
  • Healing the Light Body Program, the Four Winds School, with Alberto Villoldo
  • Dying Consciously: The Greatest Journey
  • Palliative care
  • Certified Gifted Intuitive Coach, with Sonia Choquette
  • Certified Laughter Leader, trained in yogic laughter with Vishwa Prakesh
  • Sarah Lawrence College

Boards

  • New York Society Library
  • A library in Maine

Formerly

  • HealthCare Chaplaincy, board
  • The Open Center, board
The invitation

Everyone comes by word of mouth. You are welcome to write.

If something on this page speaks to you, or makes you think of someone, write and tell Jeannette a little about yourself. She prefers email.

Her email

And if you can think of anyone who might enjoy this page, please pass it on.