I lost my parents when I was eighteen months old - an age when we don't yet have the resources to process such a loss. My body began a process of fragmentation that deepened as I experienced complex trauma. In my twenties, I felt simultaneously full of life and stuck in relationship patterns that caused me a lot of suffering. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was so afraid of relying on others and losing people again, that I kept loved ones at arm's distance and ran whenever things got too intimate or too difficult. I manage myself by trying to control myself. I didn't know what it was like to live with ease, to be truly available for life.

 

In my late twenties, the story began to change when I came in contact with somatics and expressive arts. My body responded with recognition, relief, and trust. I began to relate with myself, my life, and people from my genuine desire for connection, rather than my fear of losing it.

 

It was my body that brought me back to myself and my sense of agency. Through my body, I learned that I could be strong in my softness and experience nourishing relationships. 

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I love working with people who have experienced hardship, and feel that there is more for them - more to life - while also feeling a bit stuck and unsure how to move forward.

 

My clients are usually highly capable, sensitive, and curious people who sense their bodies are wise and have resources to offer that go far beyond what intellectualizing their past could ever give them. They come to me longing to reconnect with their inner wisdom and creative fire, hungry to feel alive without knowing how to tend the flame.

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Many people come to me understanding their history and patterns, but feeling that intellectual understanding isn't enough to experience meaningful transformation. They sense that their bodies need attention, and I am here to support them in listening and responding. 

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I have been working with groups for a decade, and in private practice for five years, with a focus on supporting women and girls (but not only) to harness the power of their creativity and intuition into the medicine they need to flourish and live authentically and soulfully. 

 

I am a somatic therapist and educator, working primarily with somatic movement and expressive arts, fully certified in the Halprin Life/Art Process® (an expressive arts therapy methodology of the Tamalpa Institute), registered as a Somatic Movement Therapist and Educator with ISMETA (International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association), and certified as a meditation and mindfulness teacher, having studied both secular and Buddhist philosophies. I am currently studying Jungian depth psychology at the graduate level. My practice is also informed by studies in trauma, humanist and depth psychology, psychoanalysis, feminism, Internal Family Systems, and embodied spirituality.

My work addresses both the individual's experiences and the spaces they inhabit, exploring the intersections between the personal and the collective. I celebrate diversity through a lens of cultural humility, feminism, and anti-discrimination, and am particularly passionate about sharing my work with women from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and with marginalized communities.

 

My style as a therapist and teacher is collaborative, reflective, and imaginative, rooted in fostering growth that aligns with each client's personal values and desires. I have worked with women from their early twenties to their mid-eighties, with cancer patients, at-risk teens, and elderly populations affected by dementia.

 

My own breast cancer diagnosis in 2023 deepened my understanding of the essential role of the expressive body in healing and living well.

 

I lean on an intentional and inclusive ethic of care to create healing spaces and foster meaningful connections through transformative offerings.