I've had a longstanding interest in cross-cultural approaches to healing, consciousness exploration, psychology and spirituality. I trained in Transcendental Meditation and became a Reiki Master in the early 90's, and attended the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. There I studied the spiritual and archetypical dimensions of health and healing, along with somatic and earth-based psychologies and consciousness studies. I had the great fortune of studying with many accomplished teachers, mentors and guides. I graduated with a Masters Degree in Integral Health in 2000, completing graduate thesis research in the bodily experience of women recovering memories of childhood sexual abuse. My study of the Rosen Bodywork Method deepened my understanding of the important role the body plays in healing.
From there, life took me on an unexpected journey. My mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer and I supported her until her early death in 2002. Her courage, strength and compassion for others inspired me to look more deeply into the meaning of life and my own fear of death. I found myself, quite unexpectedly but in perfect synchronicity, working with death and dying.
Because of my love of spiritual exploration and my interest in death and dying, I was drawn to study Buddhism more deeply. I found this path to be extraordinarily fulfilling, helping me to learn how to work with my mind and habits, and to be present and compassionate to myself and others.
This exploration led me to work with Rigpa's Spiritual Care Program, providing training to health care professionals and caregivers in meditation and contemplative approaches to care. I served as faculty in the Contemplative End of Life Care Program originally offered through Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. I also had the opportunity to live on the wild Beara Peninsula in Southwest Ireland to support the creation of a spiritual care center for the ill, dying and grieving at Dzogchen Beara Retreat Center. I am honored to have been able to contribute in a small way to this beautiful and inspiring center on the clifftop overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
Upon returning to the United States, I expanded my understanding of spiritual care from other spiritual traditions and completed chaplaincy training in Clinical Pastoral Education. Providing spiritual care and guidance in a level one trauma hospital taught me the importance of holding my seat in the face of overwhelming human illness, atrocity and suffering.
Returning to my roots in somatic psychology, I became certified as a Hakomi Therapist (mindfulness-based, body-centered psychotherapy), and have studied Internal Family Systems (IFS). I have been working with individuals and couples in private practice since 2011. I am trained in MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy through MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies) and served as a Cohort Leader in the first Naropa Certificate Program in Psychedelic Assisted Therapies.
Additionally, I led an interdisciplinary team of therapists, physicians, guides and healers offering psilocybin-assisted therapeutic grief retreats in Jamaica to parents who experienced the tragic loss of a child. I left this work, unfortunately, to attend to my own grief after the death of my husband in 2022.
Life continues to offer lessons and learnings. I continue to try to show up and be present, to pay attention to what has heart and meaning, and to release attachment to outcomes, as best I can.
In private practice in Colorado since 2011 (Registered Psychotherapist through DORA Colorado and Spiritual Director)