I have been involved in the healing arts since 2004, confidently guiding others towards ever-deepening ease, clarity and well-being with a compassionate, peaceful and grounded presence. I offer Therapeutic Massage, Craniosacral, Yoga, Self-Inquiry Workshops and Individualized Sacred Rituals. I have passion for connecting with others in heart-centered honesty and exploring this mysterious journey of embodied unfolding.
I grew up as a wild and exuberant athlete on the coast of Maine. Captivated by the beauty of the Green Mountains, I was led to the The University of Vermont, earning a BA in Sociology with focusses in Community Development and Nutrition and spent quite a lot of time jumping into hidden river gorges and flying down snow blanketed forests on my snowboard. It was during this time that a friend brought me to an Ashtanga Yoga class.
In my first year of yoga practice, in 2002, with the morning summer sun streaming in through the window, dripping with sweat in a forward fold, I saw my feet, seemingly, for the first time. This life-changing first awakening revealed a thread that led down a long, winding road: a new reality I had not known existed. One that allowed my mind to slow and focus and that encouraged the sensations of the body to be felt and listened to. I landed into my body with awareness, and it was life-changing.
Following the breadcrumbs on the path of embodied healing, I completed Ana Forrest's 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training in 2004 in Seattle, WA, spent time traveling in India and then working as an apprentice farmer through the Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association before being pulled back to Seattle for its high standards in massage education. I attended a 1,000 hour massage training at The Brian Utting School of Massage, learning the techniques of Swedish Massage, Circulatory Massage, Deep Tissue, Neuromuscular Therapy, MET, Sports Massage, Craniosacral, Pregnancy Massage and Treatment Massage while continuing yoga studies with many premier teachers in Seattle. Providing massage as a volunteer at a group home for people living with AIDs, I found a deeper sense of compassion for suffering and the beauty and sweetness that comes through vulnerable human connection. In February of 2007, following my massage school graduation, I was invited to join Paul Perrotta Massage Associates, a massage group nestled within a larger community of Healthcare Practitioners at the Seattle Healing Arts Center. Here I gained a significant amount of experience with injury treatment, pre and post surgical massage, pregnancy massage, working with those in chronic pain and pain resulting from repetitive stress, overuse and postural misalignment.
Concurrently, I taught weekly yoga classes, assisted other teachers providing hands on adjustments in large classes and began a private bodywork practice in a peaceful office, where there was more time and space for the personal connection that supports and assists the therapeutic process.
As my hands gained greater skill and intelligence and, ever-intrigued with the nervous system and mind-body-spirit connection, I added new layers to my bodywork practice by taking Pat O'Rourke's 260 hour Craniosacral Certification Program, an Intraoral Certification with Lauren Christman, a Birth Doula Skills Workshop with Penny Simkin and also began participating in Shamanic Ceremonies of the Lakota and Shipibo Traditions. In 2012, I went through a Vision Quest in the high desert of Oregon seeking to heal deeper patterns of outdated belief systems and surrender layers of ego. The insight gained from this purifying meditation guided me to close up my practice and life in Seattle and leave on an adventure to South America. Along the way, I was introduced to Kerry Chinn, a highly skilled empathic intuitive who opened the doors of my mind to a new world of non-duality. After six months of traveling in South America, deep in the trenches of an exploration of honesty and presence, I was hospitalized in Ecuador with sepsis and came very close to dying. Following a week of transformative experience in surrender while being treated, I continued traveling in Peru and Columbia for another four months on a slow road to recovery.
I returned to the USA and settled on a raw, ten acre piece of land in the beautiful Sierra Foothills outside of Yosemite National Park. There in Mariposa, CA, the perfect place to integrate this experience and heal my own physical body, I established a new bodywork practice, began teaching yoga once again and leading workshops, participated as a guest teacher in the 2018 Balanced Rock Yoga Teacher Training and also became a homesteader, improving the health of the forest land and growing a large vegetable and herb garden. In 2014, I was introduced to Vipassana Meditation in the style of S.N. Goenka and have since completed three, 10 day meditation retreats and volunteered at two, in the role of the Woman's Manager. I am a student with the Milne Institute, studying Visionary Craniosacral Work and additionally, in the process of re-certifying as a Yoga Teacher in the 500 hour YTT program with the Kaivalya Yoga Method. I am incredibly grateful to live in the Rogue Valley with my supportive and loving partner David and his magical daughter Sophia.