About Me

As a Body-Centered Psychotherapist and Energy Healer, I am constantly inspired by the resiliency of the human spirit and our tremendous capacity for self-healing. I consider it a privilege to support and follow that healing as it unfolds in each of my clients.  I have a private practice in Boulder, and have been teaching transformational workshops and classes for more than 10 years.

 
I hold the view that my clients are already healed, and I see it as my job to support them in living from their aliveness.

If You Want to Make The Universe Laugh, Tell It Your Plans: Chronic Illness, My Greatest Teacher

 
In 2003,  I traveled to South America, and returned with some great pictures of Machu Picchu, beautiful woven textiles, and a parasite that would change the course of my life for the next 4 years.

 
Shortly after I returned home, I started showing signs of MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivities). MCS is an illness in which the body loses the ability to process and detoxify even everyday toxins such as the fragrances found in shampoos, deodorants, fabric softeners and perfumes, and the volatile organic compounds found in new carpets, paints, and furniture. Often, as in my case, the illness affects multiple body systems including the digestive system, the nervous system, and the endocrine system.

With MCS, the world became unbearably small, and I learned first-hand about despair. Healing felt impossible, yet I was determined to find my way through and back into the world. I read everything I could on about what I was experiencing and about healing, I grieved, practiced several hours a day of meditation, Qigong, and yoga, did daily detoxification, did trauma work, changed my diet, took every supplement known to man, delved deep into my spirit and left no stone unturned, and eventually, with grace, patience, and love, began to heal.

 
Qigong and the Nervous System

Part of my healing process involved studying how energy moved, or didn’t move, in my own body. For this I turned to Qigong. From Qigong, I learned about the importance of energetic awareness, I developed the essential skill of shifting focus and re-training my energetic pathways, and began to remember how to feel good, despite my symptoms.

In addition to studying Qigong, I began to explore the nervous system and its role in wellness. Because of the prevalence of a history of trauma in individuals living with chronic illness, and the impact that learning how to regulate the nervous system had on my own healing, I decided to further my studies and train in trauma resolution (Somatic Experiencing), and hands on nervous system healing (Nervous System Energy Work).

 
History

From Poet to Therapist in Ten Easy Steps

I actually started my career in human transformation by teaching poetry workshops to homeless adults. I fell in love with poetry’s ability to express the inner world at a young age. After college, I began teaching poetry professionally and trained and taught with California Poets in the Schools. During graduate school (MFA in Poetry from Naropa University), I created and taught my first transformational writing workshop at the Boulder Public Library: Writes of Passage, an intergenerational writing workshop for teenage girls and elder women. I received grant funding for the project and offered several sessions over the next three years.

 
From there I went on to design other workshops including Soul Speak, The Soul’s Journey (which I co-teach with a local therapist and wilderness guide), and Entering the Darkness and Making the Invisible Visible, which I offered through Naropa University’s Extended Studies.

 
Hakomi

As I continued to teach, I realized it was not poetry alone which inspired me. I loved helping students navigate their inner terrain, discover hidden parts of themselves, and creatively express their truths.  In order to take these skills to the next level I enrolled in a mindfulness-based, body-centered psychotherapy training at the Hakomi Institute, and after two years of training and many years of practice, became a Certified Hakomi Therapist.

 
Integration

I now combine all of these—the transformational workshops, Hakomi work, Energy Healing, and my ongoing trainings—into an integrative, creative approach to supporting individuals with chronic illness. All the while, refining and “living” the question “how does transformation actually occur?”

 
I am grateful to have found my way from a “wounded healer” to a healing healer, and feel blessed to be able to bring my skills, passion, and experience in service to my clients.

 

Credentials

I am a Certified Hakomi Therapist (January 2008), and graduated with advanced training from the Hakomi Institute in 2003. I am also a certified Qigong (Chi Kung) Energy Healer, through the Body-Energy Center’s four-year practitioner program. I am currently advancing my studies by engaging in a three-year training in Somatic Experiencing trauma healing, and studying to become certified in Nervous System Energy Work.

 
My greatest teacher has been my own evolving process of regaining my health after chronic illness. I am grateful for all (well most) of its teachings.