My Story
I see life as an adventure, and my life contains many stories.
One is my story about dancing, which I have loved all my life. In childhood, I began experiencing dancing as a gateway to joy. I danced in dance classes; I danced around the house; I danced outside; I danced on stage. Dancing was a way of moving through life. Looking back, I can see that dancing opened up a spiritual dimension for me.
I experienced the joy of fulfilling my childhood dream to dance professionally, and I experienced setbacks and disappointments. When I was 19, I felt so disillusioned by not being chosen for an elite group I wanted to be a part of that I intended to never dance again -- and I didn’t for five years. When I began dancing again, it was a labor of love vs. something I depended on for my identity: pride when I succeeded and shame when I failed. During my mid and late 20s, I danced in Los Angeles and internationally. My dance career spanned many techniques: modern, jazz, ballet, Afro-Cuban, musical theater, ballroom dance, and Latin / salsa. Twenty-five or so years ago, after performing, teaching, competing, and choreographing, I shifted my focus to dance and movement as a form of healing through improvisational dance, yoga, and simple embodied movements in daily life. That was the beginning of the kind of work I do today.
As a young person attending Methodist church with my family, I felt a connection with Jesus which resourced my heart with strength and compassion and impacted how I understood the world. Through this connection, I realized from a young age that people in all cultures and across history have access to the beauty of love and that no religion or person has a monopoly on that. While I didn’t share my perspective with anyone until a few decades later, feeling a connection with love through Jesus and perceiving love as available to and through each of us still informs my life today.
I was born to parents who were only twenty years old, and one of the impacts on me was emotionally taking on the role of an adult too young. The ways I adapted made me seem independent and strong and generous, and that was partially true. However, self-abandonment and self-denial were ingredients which contributed to later traumas I experienced, like domestic violence. My most difficult times became a threshold, motivating me to learn about complex and developmental trauma for my own healing and to contribute to others through my work. I know from experience that transformation and healing is available for all of us, to liberate ourselves from unhealthy patterns, and deepen capacity to give and receive love.
Birthing and raising two children who are now in their twenties has been one of the most significant initiations of my life. Before their birth, I gave most of my attention and energy to dancing. Early in raising them, I realized I wanted to be more mindful of the world I was bringing them into. I began learning about the state of the environment, medical systems, approaches to education, food production, health, community, etc. In studying systems, much of what I learned (which I now see as systemic trauma) was overwhelming. Having a clear vision of how I want us to live became a beacon and a resource. Supporting my now-adult children’s development while doing my best to nurture their essence has always been rewarding, even in difficult moments. Plus, they are each wonderful people, and I’m grateful to know them.
All my l life, I have listened to my inner muse and followed my path of learning, healing, creating, and sharing. Orienting to life as a process allows me to continue to learn through my own life experiences in addition to my formal education and professional certifications.
There are so many ways I have been blessed in life: through the gifts I was given, a loving family system I was born into, and privilege in many aspects. At times my life has flowed smoothly, with ease, joy, and expansion, and I have experienced difficulties. One of the things I appreciate about the difficulties is the motivation to make life better for myself, my family, and the world around me.
It’s become important to me to face how my personal experiences interconnect with the collective so I can be informed and contribute to a healing movement. Recognizing how the difficulties I experienced did or did not relate to cultural and systemic issues helps me understand what I need, how I can heal, and what I can contribute to others’ healing. For example, I have experienced trauma related to my gender. I have not experienced trauma in the same way related to my race. Being racialized as white, I am a part of a group who historically dominated other races, and white-body supremacy has become systemically embedded in the culture we live in. While white supremacy hurts everyone, it does not hurt everyone equally or in the same ways. Being racialized as white means I benefit unfairly - have unearned privileges - based on the color of my skin. To add complexity, I have mixed-blood ancestry, which includes Chickamauga Cherokee as well as English, Scottish, and Irish ancestry. My ancestors experienced various traumas of colonizing and being colonized, religious trauma and all kinds of hardships. They also gifted me with much resilience. Realizing the specific ways I plug in to our collective increases my compassion for myself and for everyone around me who is experiencing or carries trauma of any kind: systemic, collective, ancestral, or personal. Being aware is an invitation for me to discover right relationship, and do whatever I can to restore a world that is healing for all of us.
For me, success is being aligned and cultivating congruence in my mind, emotions, and body. Sucess is bringing my inner and outer worlds into resonance. Sucess is living on purpose, connected to being-ness and moving in my chosen direction. Success is loving my life.
I intend to contribute in a way that benefits people who experience systemic trauma that I have the privilege not to experience. My intention is to make the dynamics of systemic and collective trauma more visible, so more people are informed and can turn towards a restorative healing process. Doing this increases my own joy and sense of belonging in this world.
Post-traumatic learning is real, and it is possible for everyone. Life’s difficulties stimulated a desire to learn about many healing modalities that have helped me, influenced my family, and are present through my work. Some of the modalities I have dived into deeply are yoga, meditation, nonviolent communication, body-mind coaching, transformational leadership, individual, ancestral, and collective trauma healing, NARM (the neuro-affective relational model for working with complex trauma), and Somatic Archaeology(c) which restores historical trauma. I want to convey the message that to continue transforming ourselves and the systems we live within -- which privilege some and harm others -- all our creativity will be needed.
In my work over the last few decades, I’ve worked in many contexts and environments, from churches and synagogues, to schools, businesses and non-profits, community groups, treatment centers, and with hundreds of individuals from all walks of life. I’ve worked with people who want to heal from trauma, befriend their emotions, improve their relationships, deepen communication, experience inner peace, manifest their creative purpose, be more embodied, feel supported facing a serious medical diagnosis, or address other inner questions or dilemmas.
I’m known for creating a space that feels “safe enough” for people to show up authentically and where people make discoveries that radically open possibilities for them. I support people to enhance their inner communication networks so their minds, hearts, and bodies can flow together, blind spots become illuminated, and their experience of life shifts.
In my trauma-informed coaching and facilitation, I support people to connect with their chosen path, whether they experience that as internal or external, individual, relational, or professional. I support people to connect with their creativity and purpose. I help make visible whatever is getting in the way of aligning with their vision / purpose, so blocks can be alchemized into fuel.
One is my story about dancing, which I have loved all my life. In childhood, I began experiencing dancing as a gateway to joy. I danced in dance classes; I danced around the house; I danced outside; I danced on stage. Dancing was a way of moving through life. Looking back, I can see that dancing opened up a spiritual dimension for me.
I experienced the joy of fulfilling my childhood dream to dance professionally, and I experienced setbacks and disappointments. When I was 19, I felt so disillusioned by not being chosen for an elite group I wanted to be a part of that I intended to never dance again -- and I didn’t for five years. When I began dancing again, it was a labor of love vs. something I depended on for my identity: pride when I succeeded and shame when I failed. During my mid and late 20s, I danced in Los Angeles and internationally. My dance career spanned many techniques: modern, jazz, ballet, Afro-Cuban, musical theater, ballroom dance, and Latin / salsa. Twenty-five or so years ago, after performing, teaching, competing, and choreographing, I shifted my focus to dance and movement as a form of healing through improvisational dance, yoga, and simple embodied movements in daily life. That was the beginning of the kind of work I do today.
As a young person attending Methodist church with my family, I felt a connection with Jesus which resourced my heart with strength and compassion and impacted how I understood the world. Through this connection, I realized from a young age that people in all cultures and across history have access to the beauty of love and that no religion or person has a monopoly on that. While I didn’t share my perspective with anyone until a few decades later, feeling a connection with love through Jesus and perceiving love as available to and through each of us still informs my life today.
I was born to parents who were only twenty years old, and one of the impacts on me was emotionally taking on the role of an adult too young. The ways I adapted made me seem independent and strong and generous, and that was partially true. However, self-abandonment and self-denial were ingredients which contributed to later traumas I experienced, like domestic violence. My most difficult times became a threshold, motivating me to learn about complex and developmental trauma for my own healing and to contribute to others through my work. I know from experience that transformation and healing is available for all of us, to liberate ourselves from unhealthy patterns, and deepen capacity to give and receive love.
Birthing and raising two children who are now in their twenties has been one of the most significant initiations of my life. Before their birth, I gave most of my attention and energy to dancing. Early in raising them, I realized I wanted to be more mindful of the world I was bringing them into. I began learning about the state of the environment, medical systems, approaches to education, food production, health, community, etc. In studying systems, much of what I learned (which I now see as systemic trauma) was overwhelming. Having a clear vision of how I want us to live became a beacon and a resource. Supporting my now-adult children’s development while doing my best to nurture their essence has always been rewarding, even in difficult moments. Plus, they are each wonderful people, and I’m grateful to know them.
All my l life, I have listened to my inner muse and followed my path of learning, healing, creating, and sharing. Orienting to life as a process allows me to continue to learn through my own life experiences in addition to my formal education and professional certifications.
There are so many ways I have been blessed in life: through the gifts I was given, a loving family system I was born into, and privilege in many aspects. At times my life has flowed smoothly, with ease, joy, and expansion, and I have experienced difficulties. One of the things I appreciate about the difficulties is the motivation to make life better for myself, my family, and the world around me.
It’s become important to me to face how my personal experiences interconnect with the collective so I can be informed and contribute to a healing movement. Recognizing how the difficulties I experienced did or did not relate to cultural and systemic issues helps me understand what I need, how I can heal, and what I can contribute to others’ healing. For example, I have experienced trauma related to my gender. I have not experienced trauma in the same way related to my race. Being racialized as white, I am a part of a group who historically dominated other races, and white-body supremacy has become systemically embedded in the culture we live in. While white supremacy hurts everyone, it does not hurt everyone equally or in the same ways. Being racialized as white means I benefit unfairly - have unearned privileges - based on the color of my skin. To add complexity, I have mixed-blood ancestry, which includes Chickamauga Cherokee as well as English, Scottish, and Irish ancestry. My ancestors experienced various traumas of colonizing and being colonized, religious trauma and all kinds of hardships. They also gifted me with much resilience. Realizing the specific ways I plug in to our collective increases my compassion for myself and for everyone around me who is experiencing or carries trauma of any kind: systemic, collective, ancestral, or personal. Being aware is an invitation for me to discover right relationship, and do whatever I can to restore a world that is healing for all of us.
For me, success is being aligned and cultivating congruence in my mind, emotions, and body. Sucess is bringing my inner and outer worlds into resonance. Sucess is living on purpose, connected to being-ness and moving in my chosen direction. Success is loving my life.
I intend to contribute in a way that benefits people who experience systemic trauma that I have the privilege not to experience. My intention is to make the dynamics of systemic and collective trauma more visible, so more people are informed and can turn towards a restorative healing process. Doing this increases my own joy and sense of belonging in this world.
Post-traumatic learning is real, and it is possible for everyone. Life’s difficulties stimulated a desire to learn about many healing modalities that have helped me, influenced my family, and are present through my work. Some of the modalities I have dived into deeply are yoga, meditation, nonviolent communication, body-mind coaching, transformational leadership, individual, ancestral, and collective trauma healing, NARM (the neuro-affective relational model for working with complex trauma), and Somatic Archaeology(c) which restores historical trauma. I want to convey the message that to continue transforming ourselves and the systems we live within -- which privilege some and harm others -- all our creativity will be needed.
In my work over the last few decades, I’ve worked in many contexts and environments, from churches and synagogues, to schools, businesses and non-profits, community groups, treatment centers, and with hundreds of individuals from all walks of life. I’ve worked with people who want to heal from trauma, befriend their emotions, improve their relationships, deepen communication, experience inner peace, manifest their creative purpose, be more embodied, feel supported facing a serious medical diagnosis, or address other inner questions or dilemmas.
I’m known for creating a space that feels “safe enough” for people to show up authentically and where people make discoveries that radically open possibilities for them. I support people to enhance their inner communication networks so their minds, hearts, and bodies can flow together, blind spots become illuminated, and their experience of life shifts.
In my trauma-informed coaching and facilitation, I support people to connect with their chosen path, whether they experience that as internal or external, individual, relational, or professional. I support people to connect with their creativity and purpose. I help make visible whatever is getting in the way of aligning with their vision / purpose, so blocks can be alchemized into fuel.
