Why work with me?

My joy has been hard earned. I had a mother who would tell me that no one likes me or wants to be with me. I had a dad who would say that I have no right to be happy. I can be with my pain and I can be with yours. I have great capacity for joy and can be with and celebrate yours. I have deep faith in possibility and transformation.

My unusual background feels a little overwhelming to describe. I love science. I was a grad student in a Molecular and Cell Biology PhD program at UC Berkeley. I dropped out after my second year and became a massage therapist, and have been practicing for the last 17 years. I performed professionally in contemporary dance. I still dance and take class almost everyday. There are times I feel like I’m experiencing childhood in mid-life. I’m also a yoga instructor and personal trainer.

I continue to study with my meditation teacher Phyllis Pay and began doing so in 2007. Her work weaves somatic psychology and perspective informed by Tibetan Buddhism.

I received certification from Levin Life Coach Academy. I’ve completed a year long Compassionate Inquiry Professional Training program associated with Gabor Maté, a physician known for his work with trauma and addiction. In addition, I’m in a three year Somatic Experiencing training. I have also received education to be informed in Internal Family Systems, Dynamic Attachment Re-patterning experience, Somatics, grief, social justice, collective/ancestral healing and neurobiology.

What would coaching with me look like?

 

I trust your system. Sessions are centered around your vision, priorities, and what your body-heart-mind communicates, including number of sessions and frequencies of sessions. I am committed to supporting to your highest self.

I see my role as a facilitator and that your system knows the map to your healing. I believe when activation (our triggers) are met with enough regulation, change is the only thing that can happen. When we experience activation without enough internal or external resource, we’ll likely re-experience existing patterns. Neuroscience tells us our brain’s default is to experience each moment more through the lens of our history (with our learnings and expectations) than from the here and now (of actual sensory input). Slowing down and noticing sensation, imagery, impulses, faint background thoughts and emotions can help us connect to these numerous history colored lenses. Once the implicit is made explicit, we gain degrees more freedom. And the neural networks that hold these learnings can be updated and changed when enough electricity is running through them simultaneously with a subjectively disconfirming knowing, all held with enough witnessing and compassion.

My work is most influenced by Somatic Experiencing and IFS informed parts work. I believe we are fundamentally good and intrinsically worthy, and that every challenge, irritation, and joy can lead us back to our light that can sometimes be covered over.