You are the expert on your experience. I am interested in you and bring my toolbox: body awareness and movement techniques, mindfulness, EMDR, narrative inquiry, Brainspotting, and behavioral awareness. Together, we co-create the conditions to support you moving beyond problems to release creative energy, optimism and hope. I incorporate current research in the field of attachment, trauma, and neurobiology into my somatic orientation including social-justice and feminist intersectionality. My aim is to help you navigate relationships with self, loved ones, and the wider world with confidence and ease. My clients appreciate my truth-telling, non-judgmental curiosity, playfulness, and creativity. Diving into yourself and changing patterns can be hard, and I believe in having fun along the way. I am very accepting of non-traditional lifestyles, and delight in assisting clients who want to live outside the box.
I believe ~
We are interconnected with all living things. When you change, the whole system is impacted. Self-care is a radical act.
Who you are in the world matters: Where you have come from, the forces acting upon you, and also who you want to be now. What kind of impact do you want to have?
The body holds immense wisdom. I intend to support your natural healing process, restoring vitality to every aspect of you – mind, body, spirit.
The stories we tell matter. How we speak to ourselves matters. Many of us learned to speak to ourselves harshly. You can learn to be with yourself compassionately.
Imperfection is relaxing. Deep change can happen when you allow your real self to show up.
When we feel safe and valued for who we truly are, we thrive in ways we never imagined possible.
About me: Growing up in rural West Virginia, my family occupied various religious, cultural, and class positions. I was fascinated and angered by limits placed on people with the excuses of gender, race, class or sexual orientation. Though I loved the peace of the forest and open space, I knew that I was too sensitive to flourish in an environment where conformity was rewarded with safety, and difference punished with criticism and violence. So, as a young adult, I migrated to San Francisco seeking support to unfurl. My healing began with Re-Evaluation Counseling, yoga, and Earth-based spirituality. I have used dance, writing, painting, and ritual as expressive and therapeutic tools. Healing can happen through strength, connection, and desire.
I practiced massage therapy and Reiki before obtaining my master's degree in Somatic Counseling Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). Since then, I completed additional training in couples' therapy (Relational Life Therapy) with Terry Real. I'm fully trained in EMDR, completed level 2 Brainspotting, Expansion Brainspotting and practice the Tamura Method of hands-on therapy. I have also been self-employed for over a decade, and can offer clients assistance transforming their relationship to work.
"There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in." ~Leonard Cohen