I’ve spent my entire career getting to the source of healing and great health. At Prescott College, I investigated the connection between our lived experience and nature, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology/Human Development with a minor in Environmental Studies. From there, social work became my calling as a Family Involvement Specialist at West Yavapai Guidance Clinic and later as an Independent Living Specialist and Family Educator at the Arizona Children’s Association.
Though I was on a path to expand how I could help heal others, nervous system regulation work through Somatic Experiencing and Transforming Touch made a personal introduction. In graduate school, I was on my way to becoming a psychologist. The classes and subjects were fantastic, and I was eager to learn more. Alongside this, I was working full-time, and while I pushed myself through the grad program, my body was breaking down. Soon enough, I was diagnosed with cancer, and later, my thyroid crashed.
At that point, I was ultimately experiencing underlying symptoms of something greater, as though my body was saying, “It’s me or nothing.” This was significant.
When it comes to the nervous system, we’re still discovering more information about it. I’m grateful we have the resources we do. No doubt, the traditional talk therapy I was receiving up to then had the best of intentions, but my physical being was reliving the stressors I had encountered in my life, resulting in nervous system dysregulation and endocrine imbalance. On top of cancer and thyroid complications, this trauma continued into chronic symptoms, and I’ve been diagnosed with a range of illnesses, including Hashimoto’s disease, Lyme’s, Epstein-Barr virus, and chronic fatigue.
What really changed my outlook was discovering Somatic Experiencing touch work, a foundational component of SE that goes hand in hand with Transforming Touch. I am grateful for this because it opened the door for the healing my body needed at that time and has expanded into the ways I manage my daily symptoms. Now, I want to support others who might be in the same situation I was. At a crossroads in my life, I held the power to choose how I wanted to be in the world, and I know you possess this, too.
I’m constantly curious and never assume anything; I seek to create spaces of non-judgment and relief. I enjoy establishing a grounding, resonant foundation for others.
I'm certified and trained in the following disciplines and healing modalities:
