About Me

As a Body-Centered Psychotherapist and Energy Healer, I am constantly inspired by the human will to grow, the power hidden deep inside our greatest challenges, and our tremendous capacity for healing. I consider it a privilege to support my clients as they unleash their own potential. I have a private practice in Boulder, and have been teaching transformational workshops and classes for more than 15 years. I hold the view that my clients are already whole, and I see it as my job to support them in embodying that wholeness.

If You Want to Make The Universe Laugh, Tell It Your Plans: Chronic Illness, My Greatest Teacher

In 2003, I traveled to South America, and returned with some great pictures of Machu Picchu, beautiful woven textiles, and a parasite that would change the course of my life. Shortly after I returned home, I started showing signs of MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivities). MCS is an illness in which the body loses the ability to process and detoxify even everyday toxins such as the fragrances found in shampoos, deodorants, fabric softeners and perfumes, and the volatile organic compounds found in new carpets, paints, and furniture. Often, as in my case, the illness affects multiple body systems including the digestive system, the nervous system, and the endocrine system. With MCS, the world became unbearably small, and I learned first-hand about despair.

I spent four years nearly housebound due to my sensitivities. At my worst, in order to spend time with friends I had to ask them to shower in my products and wear my clothes so that I could tolerate being with them. Going out to dinner or to the movies was out of the question and it took me six hours or so to recover from my weekly grocery shopping expedition. Healing felt impossible, yet I was determined to find my way through and back into the world. For four years I read everything I could about what I was experiencing and about healing, I grieved daily, raged when I could, leaned on my friends and family for emotional support, practiced several hours a day of meditation, Qigong, and yoga, did daily detoxification practices, did trauma work, radically changed my diet, took every supplement known to man, delved deep into my spirit and left no stone unturned, and eventually, with grace, patience, will, and love, began to heal.

Qigong and the Nervous System

Part of my healing process involved studying how energy moved, or didn’t move, in my own body. For this I turned to Qigong. From Qigong, I learned about the importance of energetic awareness, I developed the essential skill of shifting focus and re-training my energetic pathways, and began to remember how to feel good, despite my symptoms.

In addition to studying Qigong, I began to explore the nervous system and its role in wellness. Because of my own experience with PTSD, the prevalence of trauma in individuals living with chronic illness, and the impact that learning how to regulate the nervous system had on my own healing, I decided to further my studies and dive into the nervous system. When I was well enough I immersed myself in Peter Levine’s three-year Somatic Experiencing trauma resolution training, and also travelled to Cleveland twice a hear to study a powerful hands on nervous system healing modality, Nervous System Energy Work.

History: From Poet to Therapist in Ten Easy Steps

I actually started my career in human transformation by teaching poetry workshops to homeless adults. I fell in love with poetry’s ability to express the inner world at a young age. After college, I began teaching poetry professionally and trained and taught with California Poets in the Schools. During my first graduate program (MFA in Poetry from Naropa University), I created and taught a series of transformational writing workshops at the Boulder Public Library. The series was called, Writes of Passage, and it was an intergenerational writing workshop for teenage girls and elder women. I received grant funding for the project and offered several sessions over the next three years. From there I went on to design other workshops including Soul Speak, The Soul’s Journey (which I co-taught with a local therapist and wilderness guide), and Entering the Darkness and Making the Invisible Visible, which I offered through Naropa University’s Extended Studies, and Finding Our Way Through, an expressive arts workshop for women with chronic illness.

Hakomi

As I continued to teach, I realized it was not poetry alone which inspired me. I loved helping students navigate their inner terrain, discover hidden parts of themselves, and creatively express their truths.  In order to take these skills to the next level I enrolled in a mindfulness-based, body-centered psychotherapy training at the Hakomi Institute, and after two years of training and many years of practice, became a Certified Hakomi Therapist.

Integration

I now combine all of these—Hakomi, Somatic Experiencing, Qigong Energy Healing, Nervous System Energy Work, ongoing training with Douglas Brady in the Psychology of Symptoms (click here for more information), and the wisdom I’ve gained through my own journey—into an integrative approach to supporting individuals in the midst of trauma, chronic illness, and other powerful thresholds.

I am grateful to have found my way from a “wounded healer” to a healed healer, and am blessed to be able to bring my skills, passion, and experience in service to my clients. I’m truly living my purpose in the world, which is the most satisfying feeling I know.

Credentials

• MA/PhD in Somatic Psychology in process–Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, with upcoming Doctoral Research in Post Traumatic Growth.
• Certified Hakomi Therapist–Hakomi Institute, Boulder, CO
• Certified Qigong Energy Healer–Body-Energy Center’s 4-Year Practitioner Program, Boulder, CO
• Completed Somatic Experiencing, Three-Year Trauma Resolution Training–Foundation for Human Enrichment, Boulder, CO
• Certified Psychology of Symptoms Practitioner–Douglas Brady’s Psychology of Symptoms, Boulder, CO
• Completed Four Years of Nervous System Energy Work Training–Pathways for Healing, Cleveland, OH
• My greatest teacher has been my own process of regaining my health after chronic illness. I am grateful for all of its teachings.

What I’m Currently Up To:

In addition to being in private practice in Boulder and offering in-person and distance phone sessions, I also educate therapists and coaches about how to work with trauma (see www.SomaticTrainingInstitute.com), teach Qigong classes and workshops, and am working on the manuscript for my first book. In my down time (yes, that exists ), I practice radical self-care, spend time wandering the Boulder foothills, and connect with my powerful community of wild, soulful, truth telling friends.