What Guides My Work

approach

What are the ways that the nervous system, ritual and myth give us more access to a felt sense of well being, freedom, and the capacity to feel our way in the dark? How have current indigenous cultures and those of our ancestors utilized these tools for thousands of years, and how might we recover them without appropriation? What does it mean to be fully human sharing this Earth with other living unfolding beings? These are some of the questions that guide my life and work.

My own healing experience with and training in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy as well as Somatic Experiencing trauma resolution therapy inform all of who I am and what I do. Guided by the wisdom of the body, which speaks through the language of sensation, I’m always at the loom—weaving in the healing power of storytelling, myth and archetype with somatic exploration. Becoming fluent in our felt sense is, in large part, what allows us to rewire the nervous system to increase our capacity to grow through life’s inherent challenges, leading to a life that is no longer subconsciously controlled by the limitations of our wounds, but consciously informed by the wisdom within them. As the story of the body unfolds, as we reconnect to ourselves and the living Earth around us, ways to create rituals and ceremonies begin to naturally present themselves. Storytelling, ritual and ceremony are ancient practices humans have developed to bring more presence, space and coherence to challenging experiences for understanding, integration and healing to be possible. They are ways of staying in conversation with the world around us. Not to find an answer, but as a way to live the questions, in relationship with all of Life.

In our Western world, we have lost contact with these tools as well as the body’s inherent wisdom. As a result, most of us carry multi- generational trauma in our nervous systems. Our survival response helps us to cope with the overwhelming charge of trauma in our bodies by staying busy, dissociating, or collapsing (experienced as many mental “illnesses” anxiety/depression and also as physical disease). In order to safely remember our way home to our bodies and these ancient tools, we must take extra steps. By utilizing the newer tools of trauma informed therapies that work with the inherent intelligence of the nervous system, we are able to integrate the overwhelming charge of trauma. We end up growing and thriving from the challenges that had once left us overwhelmed and traumatized. This additional capacity gives us the ability to experience the full spectrum of life, and what Joseph Campbell describes as embodying the “rapture of being alive". To experience this in ceremony safely, we bring in steps to attune to the social nervous system, as understood through Polyvagal Theory, so we can create a safe and grounded space for ceremony to truly be healing and transformational.

Training and Experience

Somatic Experiencing saved my life in 2013 and I have continued to receive SE based therapies ever since. I have collaborated twice with the founder of Somatic Experiencing—Peter Levine—to speak about my healing experience combining SE with my own work weaving ritual, ceremony, myth and archetype into my healing journey. The most recent talk was for his master class “Archetypes and Developmental Trauma” February 2020 where I told my personal (on-going) healing journey woven in with the Greek myth of “Demeter and Persephone”, along with mytho-somatic interpretations of “Medusa and Perseus” and “Psyche and Eros” as examples of how stories are crucial roadmaps for healing that arise out of the Essential or Archetypal realm and are told through the body’s instinctual impulses and gestures.

I was brought in as a guest coach for Zach Bush’s Intrinsic Health Coaching program and facilitated a relational embodiment practice to help coaches notice where they are coming from in their consciousness and how this directly impacts the flow of inner wisdom arising in themselves and their clients.

I graduated in 2022 from The Colorado School of Energy Studies--having studied with Anna Chitty in both Verbal Skills Blueprint Resonance class, and Biodynamic Craniosacral training.

I study with master storyteller and Jungian analyst and curandera, Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés—author of “Women Who Run With The Wolves,” in her Heart of the Wounded Healer Training. I am always deepening my understanding of myth and the importance of becoming fully embodied to move beyond our current self and human-centric ways to include all Beings with whom we share this Earth.

I have a deep respect for the role of Pre and Perinatal dynamics in our wounding and healing. Understanding and supporting the life giving force of the feminine is perhaps the greatest necessity of our time. To re-center our culture around protecting the Mother-baby relationship so that resilient nervous systems and thriving humans can walk this Earth. I completed Rachelle Garcia Seliga’s Innate Physiological Baby Care course in Winter of 2021. I have since been on a journey to integrate Ray Castellino’s Principles into my life and participated in a Womb Surround Workshop in fall of 2022.

Click HERE for my full CV.

Offerings

I am currently available to work with for tea ceremony, as a consultant, a group facilitator, and for “speaking/presentations.”