At heart I am an “alchemist”, meaning I guide and mentor others to turn the proverbial “lead” of their life into gold (wisdom, empowerment, self-compassion and new possibility). Learning to meet the challenges of the unfolding journey of my own life with self-acceptance and self-compassion has certainly been my most valuable, humbling and rigorous training ground. However, I also have been mentored and trained extensively in a variety of integrative healing modalities.
I have a passion for transformational healing, consciousness, spiritual awakening and human potential. Since 2011, I have been in private practice where I work with both individuals and groups through a unique blend of coaching, mindfulness practices, energy work and spiritual mentoring. I bring deep presence and compassion to my work along with intuitive guidance that allows me see quickly to the source of where my clients are hurt, stuck and needing support.
My Guiding Principles
Evolution of Consciousness as a foundational orientation, which includes the belief that life is always unfolding in service to our Soul and that we are not meant to be victims of life. The situations and challenges we face are opportunities for us to awaken to our true nature, grow in our empowerment, deepen our capacity for compassion and unconditional love and to fully express our creative life force and true essence.
Awakening to the awareness that we exist as an ageless, timeless consciousness beyond our thoughts, our bodies, our personalities and the roles we play in life-and that the nature of this consciousness is oneness and pure love.
Truth seeking by listening beneath the surface of our habitual thoughts and stories, for the wise and sacred knowings that are held in our body and heart.
Compassion and unwavering kindness toward even the most inconvenient parts of ourselves. This practice supports a return to our natural state of being, beyond judgment, fixing or improvement. Self-compassion is the key that allows us to be fully ourselves and to experience wholeness from within even the most painful parts of what it is to be human.
Courage to meet life as it unfolds and to meet ourselves truly as we are in each moment, unapologetically, undefended and with open-hearted curiosity. It is this willingness that begins our healing journey and propels us toward our fullest potentials.
My training
” I love the principle of “ubuntu”from the Zulu culture of South Africa, which translates to “I am because you are”. This speaks to the essential truth of our human interconnectedness. We each stand on the shoulders and become integrations of those teachers, mentors and allies who have believed in us and guided us and whose own life experiences, wisdom and gifts generously bootstrap our own. I have been graced with many amazing teachers in my life, in particular, Nancy Fay Partridge , a master practitioner of spiritual psychology, grief counseling, and energy medicine who I was privileged and blessed to be mentored by for over a decade, in an amazing tapestry of interdependent domains that inform the power of my work. This includes, grief counseling, family systems, spiritual psychology, meditation, group process, sacred ritual and practices for spiritual awakening.
My work is also deeply informed by:
Dr. Joe Dispenza
Peter Levine
Tara Brach
Caroline Myss
My formal/credentialed training includes:
- Credentialed Life Coach (400+ hours internationally accredited program)
Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC) - Credentialed with the International Coaching Federation (ICF) at Professional Certified Coach level (PCC)
- Shamanic Energy Medicine (2-year training)
Four Winds with Alberto Villoldo Ph.D. - Master Practitioner Neurolinguistic Programming (240-hour training)
INLP Center - Meditation/Mindfulness Practitioner
Center for Mindfulness Univ of Massachusetts with Jon Kabat-Zinn Ph.D - Principles of Energetic Healing and Transformation™(3-year internship)
The Center for Healing and Transformation with Mary Sise LICSW-DCEP - Reiki (Level I & II)
Reiki Jin Kei Do Lineage with Patricia Warren
Credentials
Education/Licenses
- MS Nutrition Science 1998 University of Massachusetts at Amherst
- BS Human Nutrition 1995 University of Massachusetts at Amherst
- RD/LDN Registered and Licensed Dietitian and Nutritionist
My Story
Sometimes it feels like a big wink from the universe, this notion that my life’s work has become about midwifing others to birth their authentic selves. For a good part of my own life, the paradoxical truth was that I felt most like myself when I was pretending to be somebody else.
In fact, up until the age of 18 I was planning to become a professional actress on Broadway. Performing in theater was my passion and my happy place. On stage I was fearless and outgoing, I felt alive and intimately connected with my audience in my ability to express the raw authenticity of my characters’ inner experience. In stark contrast, in real life I was quiet, awkward and painfully shy. My own inner experience in response to a whole host of difficult early-life circumstances, felt like a painful, unwelcome and inexpressible place that I would go to great lengths to hide.
For years I hid my pain, anxieties and insecurities behind the roles I played on stage and off stage- through academic achievement, perfectionism, pleasing and taking care of everyone, but myself. That is until my early thirties, when a series of life crises and the exhaustion and loneliness of keeping up with this type of “super-woman” invulnerability brought me to my breaking point. Following long illnesses and the untimely deaths of both my father and step-father, trying to support my grieving family while minimizing my own grief, all the while striving to be the “perfect” mother to my three young children and manage a career-I spun into depression and despair.
While at the time, this despair felt like the end of life as I knew it, in hindsight, it was the catalyst that initiated me onto a journey that has actually brought me to life in a much greater way than I had previously known. This journey has, over the past 15 years, taken me through some deep self-inquiry, soul searching, heart healing and personal discovery. It has led me to amazing spiritual teachers, healers and counselors who have been my great allies, guides, and mentors. It has led me to countless books, and courses and trainings in mindfulness, meditation, transformation, coaching, shamanic studies and energy healing.
“Coming to life” has had many facets for me, but most notably it has been about awakening to who I Truly Am beyond my body, beyond my personality, beyond my wound stories, and beyond who I ever thought I needed to be in order to feel acceptable, worthy, and loved. It has been about learning to welcome, without judgment and with great compassion, the imperfect, inconvenient and messy parts of myself. It has been about growing a relationship with my Soul, discovering its passions and purpose and reorienting my sense of self around an expanded, intrinsic and unconditional sense of wholeness, worthiness and lovability. Most of all, it has been about the moment-to-moment, courageous practice of intentionally living my life from this place.
So my acting days are over. The aliveness and authenticity I first made contact with by pretending to be somebody else, I can finally access by being ever more fully myself. In truth, I have gone from actress to alchemist, by making the parts of myself I thought I had to hide, into a crucible for transformation and awakening.
May I inspire in you the possibilities for the same…
