About Me
Bio
My intention is to offer my clients a synthesis of my academic training and licensure as a somatic psychotherapist with experience as a lifetime navigator of my own inner world. Rather than moving toward a goal of a conflict-free life, we work together to learn about exploring and regulating your relationship to the experiences you have, (highlighting your personal meaning-making and understanding.) Mindfulness and conscious embodiment are cornerstones here as is recognizing how the shaping that comes from your early life and other experiences impacts and informs your current choices and behaviors. Most importantly, we’ll strategize to clarify your mental health goals and work together to reach them; making use of my tools and your strengths in an environment of curiosity and exploration.
My love in this work is in being in the presence of the softening heart and in helping people remember a sense of home in the body and in the self. I’ve been told that I create a space of welcoming and good-nature where people feel a deepening call to be themselves, free of judgment and alive in curiosity and presence. I’m happy doing what I do and I am privileged to be part of such personal work.
I appreciate your interest. I welcome your call, knowing that it’s not always the easiest call to make. I will be the first to say that if you can muster your courage and reach out, I can likely facilitate the next steps with you. And if I can’t, I will help you find someone who can. I look forward to joining you in finding your way toward a life of greater vitality, authenticity and self-direction. I extend myself in your service and will do all that I can to assist.
Credentials
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BA in Child Development with a psychology emphasis at Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA 1987
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MA in Somatic Psychology at California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA 1989-1992
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Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in CA 1997
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Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in NC 2005
My Teachers
When I think about my work and the various traditions, trainings and life experiences that inform who I am and what I do, an 'about me' page is not complete without a bow to the teachers from whom I have learned so much and in whose presence I have been able to cultivate the therapist and healer in me.
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Jack Kornfield introduced me to mindfulness in 1988 when Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA., was in its infancy. Attending his talks in those initial weeks and eventually years, began what is now a decades-long practice for me and is one of the underlying foundations of who I am as a person and as a therapist.
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From my graduate training at the CA Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, CA., I hold a deep respect and well of gratitude to Maryanna Eckberg (deceased), Don Hanlon Johnson, Ian Grand (deceased) Judyth Weaver and Tina Stromsted. I could never name all that I learned from this solid group of somatic practitioners, academics and theorists; all brilliant, heartfelt and committed, each in their own way, to relieving the suffering in others.
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As an intern at one of the few somatically-informed and mindfulness-based community agencies in the country, I learned to synthesize theory into practice at the Lomi Psychotherapy Clinic in Santa Rosa, CA. It was there that I was able to ground all of the wonderful exploration and clinical study from graduate school into practice with the richness of sitting with people and their stories, wounds and celebrations. I can not express how imperative it was in my training to have access to a group of experienced and willing teachers who, though from varied backgrounds, were all deeply steeped in mindfulness and somatic understanding. I am forever grateful for Thomas Pope, Robert Hall (deceased), Ernestine Ward and Mary Reiter for their contributions to shaping me as a somatic psychotherapist with both heart and clinical prowess.
Additional Training
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Attachment and Bonding Through Touch; Infant Massage Training, Arcata, CA 1986
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Home Hospice Volunteer Training, Santa Rosa, CA 1988
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Certified Massage Therapist, CIIS/McKinnon Institute, San Franscisco, CA 1990
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Authentic Movement (graduate training) San Francisco, CA 1990 and 1991
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Internship in Somatic Theory and Practice at The Lomi Psychotherapy Clinic, Santa Rosa, CA 1995-1997
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EMDR Part I—Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (trauma treatment) Atlanta, GA 2005
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Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Asheville, NC 2013
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EMDR Part II—Charlotte, NC 2015
*Currently in private practice in Weaverville, NC since 2008
*Member of the United States Association for Body Psychotherapy (USABP)