Born and raised on the East Coast, my journey began as a watery & creative child who grew up in the woods, dancing and fantasizing about what the world had to teach me. Following my desire to explore, I escaped rural life to painting & illustration in Baltimore, Maryland (at MICA). There, beyond the deepening of my creative language, I birthed the beginning of a more conscious version of myself; one who would learn to heal her own traumas as a way to cultivate the holding of complexity,,diversity, and curiosity in others.
12 years ago, I closed the chapter in Baltimore and journeyed to San Francisco. This migration catapulted me into the reclaiming of my body through yoga, somatic psychotherapy, and social justice work. Deeply transformed and always inspired by the narratives of others, it didn’t take long for my art, social justice & community involvement and personal healing process to lead me to pursue my MA in Somatic Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Throughout my training at CIIS, I worked in diverse communities including working with patients at California Pacific Medical Center, Alzheimer’s residents at Irene Swindell’s Alzheimer’s facility, with women at the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department’s Women Center in SF and the private practice sliding scale clinic, The Center for Somatic Psychotherapy.
Today, I am passionately indebted in facilitating the healing work that is somatic psychotherapy weaved with ancestral trauma work, nervous system regulation, and social justice healing, but bringing it both to individuals and community mental health.
I currently am:
Practicing virtually providing support to clients here in the Bay Area and throughout California.
Supporting our Oakland creative youth and educators at Oakland School for the Arts located in downtown Oakland, CA
Collaborating with my colleague and friend Amy Ruben in facilitating radical & ancestral healing work for white people who want to confront their whiteness and fragility, in our Deconstructing Our Embodied Whiteness Group (click to read more)
Additional training and studies include:
Certified Somatic Educator- trained with The Moving On Center – connecting somatics and performing arts to social change.
Arnold Mindell’s Process Work & Deep Democracy theory with Lily Vassilou
Theatre of the Oppressed with Jiwon Chang
Direct Democracy Facilitation Training (via NYCGA -New York City General Assembly) – which covered how to effectively facilitate conflict, recognize marginalized voices, discuss privilege and exercise position of guidance and neutrality rather than power
Participated in anti-racism trainings for clinicians with ARTIC LCC (Anti-Racism Trauma-Informed Care)
Certified Past Life Regression Practitioner – studied with Niki Cozmo
Facilitated therapy groups at the Women’s Resource Center of the San Francisco Sheriff’s department providing mental health support to women during their reintroduction to society post-incarceration. Blessed with extensive trauma-informed training and supervision.
Reiki Level II Practitioner
Above and beyond specific trainings, I am inspired by my teachers of all kinds: clients, personal teachers and medicine carriers in my life, and guides of all dimensions such as Audre Lorde, Adrienne Marie Brown, James Baldwin, Resma Menakem, Anodea Judith, Jack D. Forbes, Joy DeGruy, Staci Haines & Generative Somatics, Tara Brach, Gabor Maté, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen & Body Mind Centering, Joanna Macy, Janaya Future Khan, Joan of Arch, Isis, Mary Magdalene, Mother Earth.
