Welcome . . .

Thank you for being here.

A bit 'about me'...

I am a mystic. I am a friend and sister, a wife, a cat mama, and 'YayYay' (auntie). I am a daughter to my Spirit-side parents. I am a dancer and lover of nature, the world, Life.

I am a cisgender woman of European descent with paternal grandparents who immigrated from Ireland, maternal great grandparents who immigrated from Sweden, and maternal great-great grandparents who immigrated from Ireland and England. I am in deep inquiry and practice about my ancestral legacies, trauma, and colonialist roots.

I was raised Catholic and later opened my spiritual life studying world religions in college as a focus of my Anthropology degree. My present spiritual paradigm is open and respectful of all religions and philosophies.

I am constantly learning. I practice, practice, practice. I am a student first, a reflector, a teacher, and a psychotherapist. I am here to be with you and offer my loving reflection to your being.

While my professional role doesn't define me, the act and experience of being deeply, gently, and playfully present with others is a beloved vocation for me.

Rounding out the end of my fifth decade this sunloop, I feel the potency of how my life experiences, decades of personal inquiry and therapy, and learnings have seasoned and resourced me. I love to share with others what supports me along my winding path.

My gratitude abounds for those who have gone before, supported, and taught me - I have a practice of feeling them at my back and leaning in to resource their wisdoms.

• We are multidimensional beings living within and as expressions of a biosphere; our awareness of this intra/interconnectedness supports our experience and the collective.

• We have an innate and biological drive for completion, integration, homeostasis, balance, and connection.

• We heal in relationship. Our healing affects the collective whole.

• 'Awareness leads to Choice leads to Trust.' (Dick Price) - My witnessing of you provides an external location of awareness that supports your feeling present and seen and amplifies your internal capacity to witness, practice awareness, choose, and trust.

• The issues live in the tissues. 'Set the body in motion and the psyche will heal itself.' (Gabrielle Roth)

• 'Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.' (Mary Oliver) - Learning how to relate to and be resourced within the Unknown can be empowering and wonder-full.

Values essential to my way of being with you

My Core Teachers

I am in awe of the capacity of the human being to survive, tolerate, integrate, transmute, forgive, become new, create, belong, rest. I learn from the brave souls - my client teachers - as we sit and move together, opening awareness to what was, what is, and what could be.

My way of being and work are shaped by the presence of the following skilled humans that I have had the privilege of sitting with, learning from, and being reflected by. I bow to them and their life practice, to their teachers, and their teachers' teachers:

• Christine Price and Dorothy Charles (Dick Price and Fritz Perls), Gestalt Practice

• Craig Penner, Natural Processing

• Aline LaPierre, NeuroAffective Touch

• Andrea Juhan, Open Floor Therapy-in-Motion

• Bruce Tift, Already Free

• Jody Mosher, Soul Touch

I honor the wisdom, experiences and sacrifices of the ancestors, the unseen support that permeates the Field, the universal and planetary energies that reflect and support us. I extend my love and appreciation to the seen beings and places that nourish, rejuvenate, become, and teach me and so many through nature connection with my beloved birthplace California's wild coastal lands and oceans, cetaceans, rivers and streams, redwood, oak and pine forests, native plants and herbs, four-legged and winged ones great and small, rocks and mountains, minerals and gems, vast mycelial web.

Lifelong Learning

San Diego State University

Master’s in Social Work - Administration / Health and Aging / Generalist Practice

Master’s in Public Health - Health Services Administration
August 2005

University of San Diego

Bachelor’s in Anthropology - Departmental Honors

January 1998

Open Floor International

Therapy in Motion Teacher Training
August 2015-October 2017

Tribal Ground

Gestalt Awareness Practice - Christine Price, Dorothy Charles June 2017-2020 (long-term study); 2020-present (groups)

California Holistic Institute

Certified Massage Practitioner (200 hours) - December 2011

Education

Licenses

Trainings

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

California Board of Behavioral Sciences. January 2017, # 75239

Certified Massage Practitioner, Certificate

California Massage Therapy Council. January 2012, # 31690

Professional Memberships

National Association of Social Workers

EMDR International Association

US Association of Body Psychotherapy

California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists - San Diego Chapter

Anthroposophic Health Association

Climate Psychology Alliance

Proficiencies

Professional Working Spanish

Ordained Universal Life Church Minister

EMDR Institute

2018 - EMDR Therapy Basic Training

Natural Processing

2018-present - Somatic-based EMDR Training

Bruce Tift

LMFT and Vajrayana Buddhism practitioner, Already Free, Private study and consultation, 2019-present

Jody Mosher

LPCC, Soul Touch, Peer Consultation and Creative Collaborations, 2015-present

NeuroAffective Touch

September 2017-January 2018 - Dr. Aline LaPierre

Hendricks Institute

February 2015 - Conscious Living and Loving, Big Leap Coaching Program - Drs. Gay and Katie Hendricks - Body Intelligence Workshop (48 hours)

Upledger Institute

Sept 2023 - SomatoEmotional Release 2 (32 hours); July 2014 - SomatoEmotional Release 1 (32 hours); February 2013 - CranioSacral Therapy 2 (32 hours); November 2012 - CranioSacral Therapy 1 (32 hours)

Supreme Science Qigong

Level 1 Instructor Certification. August 2007 (95 hours)

Workshops, Courses and Self Study

I also pay deep respect to these teachers and thought leaders with whom I have studied more briefly or have encountered via online trainings, webinars, workshops and self-study. Their wide-reaching insights, perspectives and teachings support and strengthen my holistic approach:

• Báyò Akómoláfé, Ph.D, The Emergence Network (enrolled in live online program Sept-Nov 2024, "Where Do We Go When Healing Becomes Ill? Navigating the Empire of Trauma")

• Susan Harper, Continuum Montage (7-day residential intensive, Body of Relating, 2015)

• Stephen Jenkinson, Griefwalker & Orphan Wisdom (in-person weekend intensive 2016 & four in-person events, as well as being his tour guide & host during a 2018 visit while my husband was in his Orphan Wisdom 2-year in-person study in Canada)

• Robert Litman, Continuum and The Interior Life of Breath Live Online Class (8 hours, 2020)

• Stan Grof, Grof Studies, "Healing our Deepest Wounds", Holotropic Breathwork and Psychedelic Psychotherapy (24 hours, 2021)

• Renn Butler, Archetypal & Holotropic Astrology Live Online Class (100+ hours, 2022-23)

• Michael Brian Baker, Breathwork 101: Fundamentals Live Online Training (36 hours, 2022)

• Chas Perry, SomatoEmotional Release 2, In-person Training (32 hours, 2023)

• Lucia Horan, 5Rhythms®: Heartbeat (5-day residential workshop at Esalen, 2013)

• Vincent Martínez-Grieco, Soul Motion: Sanctuary (5-day residential workshop at Esalen, 2015)

• Anna Halprin & Daria Halprin, Empowering Creativity through Movement/Dance and Life/Art Metaphors (5-day residential workshop at Esalen, 2015)

• Joanna Macy, Active Hope Training 2022 (online)

• Joann Lutz, LICSW, MSW, Trauma-Informed Yoga and Psychotherapy (9 hours, March 2015)

• Julie McKenna, Reiki 1 Attunement (12 hours, March 2015)

• Stacey Butcher, "Embodying the Sacred", Open Floor (June, 2015).

• Jenny Mackeand Bella Dreizler, "5 Rhythms & Deep ReleaseRetreat - Cultivating Space Inside and Out" (18 hours, June 2015)

• Lorca Simons and Amber Ryan, 5 Rhythms Live Wire: A Ritual Theatre Experience weekend workshop (12.5 hours, 2015)

• Amber Ryan ,5 Rhythms: Presence - (July 2015, 3 hours)

• PESI, Complete IFS Therapy Immersion: Integrating the Internal Family Systems (IFS) Model Across Clinical Applications (Jan 2024 Online Course), Richard Schwartz, Internal Family Systems

• PESI, Certified Dialectical Behavior Therapy Professional (C-DBT) Training: An Advanced Online Skills Training for Adapting Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Everyday Clinical Needs (Jan 2024 Online Course)

• PESI, Trauma Treatment with EMDR, CBT and Somatic-Based Interventions: A Certified Clinical Trauma Professional Training Course (May 2021Online Course)

• PESI, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy with Pat Ogden, Ph.D.: Body Oriented Therapy Techniques for Trauma and Attachment (Apr 2019 Online Course) Pat Ogden, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

• PESI, Peter Levine's Trauma Master Class: Somatic Experiencing® in action with deep-rooted trauma, attachment wounds, and chronic pain (May 2018 Online Course), Peter Levine, Somatic Experiencing

• Raja Selvam, Integral Somatic Psychology, USABP workshops and self study

• Daniel J. Siegel, Interpersonal Neurobiology, Mindsight Institute, conferences, books and self study

• Steven Porges and Deb Dana, Polyvagal Therapy

• Thomas Hubl, Healing Collective Trauma, Conferences, lectures and self study

• John Upledger, Craniosacral Therapy/SomatoEmotional Release

• Francine Shapiro, Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

• Ron Kurtz, Hakomi, self study

"Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable."

- Mary Oliver

Prior to becoming licensed as a therapist, I supported the dying and their families for more than seven years as a hospice social worker/counselor.​

I have also been fortunate to support and witness six births.

My immense respect for the miracle of life and the mysteries that weave through it are greatly influenced by these experiences at 'the veil.'

My personal experiences with and witnessing of non-ordinary states of consciousness achieved via dance, trance, singing circles, sound healing, breathwork, medicine work, drumming and ceremony also inform my open and transcendental approach.

So often I see the unimaginable come to fruition. I've come to 'keep room in my heart for it' as I sit with those who seek my counsel, until they are ready to do it for themselves.

Have questions?

If you have any questions about my background or approaches, feel free to reach out.