How I work

 

In growth and healing, as we all learn differently, I believe in a model of choice and eclecticism. So, I draw from a palatte of many modalities and maps. I take time to learn who you are and along with my professional assessment, intuition and your self-knowing, our sessions move.  I synthesize both left and right brain approaches  from the sacred to the mundane, with a style that always engages mindfulness, teaching  you to access your body for its wisdoms, creativity and assisting  you in self-discovery.  I create a compassionate and warm place where you can also be appropriately challenged toward your growth and healing and where

all parts of you are always welcome! 

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I offer lots of ways forward, including....

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Hakomi

I am a Certified Hakomi Therapist (CHT). Hakomi is an experiential, gentle, mindfulness-based, body-centered therapy that through a process of “assisted self-discovery” can help you to slow down the noise in your mind in order to access the “felt sense” of what is happening in your body in the present moment. Through loving presence and gently guiding/ following you into the wisdom that occurs in your body,  I will help you to safely access images, sensations, feelings, or memories that contribute to what we call your core material; the beliefs, habits and physical ways of being that live right under our awareness and greatly shape much of who we are in the world.  Through the non-judgmental awareness of mindfulness, the Hakomi method can help bring these core experience into awareness so that you can fill in the missing pieces, integrate new ways of being into your immediate experience and live more fully as your truest self in your world.  As both a client and practitioner of Hakomi, I believe it to be an incredibly effective and beautiful form of  therapy. www.hakomi.org

 

Somatic Experiencing

I completed Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced trainings in Somatic Experiencing, or "S.E." Somatic Experiencing is a powerful yet gentle body-centered modality for working with trauma. While the word "trauma" is quite loaded with meaning, the truth is, we ALL have experienced some sort of trauma, as trauma is a basic facet of being human. Trauma is what happens when ANY intense life event does not get released through the body/nervous system and psyche. Peter Levine, the founder of S.E. studied that animals in the wild rarely hold onto trauma in their body, despite the regularity of life-threats, whereas we humans seem to store these patterns in our bodies and minds. SE helps a person to gently release these traumas through working with the resilience and wisdom of the body and learning to regulate one's nervous system. www.traumahealing.org 

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Somatic Art Therapy

As a Registered and Board Certified Art Therapist I believe very much in the ways that line, shape, color, texture and the freedom in the creative process can be a language of expression both for people who are familiar with art and for those who have not picked-up an art supply in many years. Sometimes making art in and of itself is the healing. Other times, it is about specific art projects and materials that will help you move forward. Art, like words is a language and is an effective and satisfying way to express where words cannot and to release emotions in a non-threatening way.  Additionally, making art is often very enjoyable on multiple levels from the sensory experience to learning or becoming proficient in working with a variety of art materials and completing meaningful art projects.​ What I have coined "Somatic Art Therapy" or "Embodied Creativity" is my own approach which combines aspects of Hakomi and the ability to study and learn from the rich images that come to us when we are in a state of mindfulness with engagement in the creative process of artmaking. This innovative practice continually results in deep, profound and gratifying healing for my clients. www. arttherapy.org

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Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP)

Ketamine has gained rightful notoriety as a significant game-changer when used in low doses as a legal psychedelic for various mental health challenges as well as for helping us become unstuck through its ability to forger new and helpful neural pathways. It is also very supportive in spiritual development and growth. As a trained ketamine assisted psychotherapist in partnerhsip with prescribers, I have been offering ketamine assisted psychotherapy since 2020. The ketamine may either be taken via oral lozenges (troches), or  through  intramuscular injection administered by a medical professional. Your experiences will be profoundly deep. Ketamine can support significant life- change.  We begin with preparation sessions followed by a series of  ketamine sessions and deeply important integration sessions which may or may not involve the potency of art therapy to anchor the work.  

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Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy

The power of  a small mushroom and particularly, the psilocybe molecule to create lasting change through forging new neural pathways is a tremendous and miraculous gift bestowed to us from the earth. I extensively trained in a Colorado state approved program  to become a psilocybin-assisted therapist and guide. I believe in this work enthusiastically and whole-heartedly. Through preparation sessions,  active journey sessions and integration sessions, the potency of this work speaks for itself.  www.elementalpsychedelics.com

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Shamanic Therapy and or Shamanic Healing Sessions

I have professionally and personally trained in the practices of Core Shamanism since 2005 and W. African Shamanism since 2000,  and I have an active shamanic journeying practice in my own life.  Shamanism is found in every culture across the globe and is one of the oldest forms of healing. Way back when,  your ancestors most certainly sought help through shamans in their communities.  I believe that all people, regardless of one's belief systems, have unseen benevolent "helping spirits" and "guides" that are with us at all times.  Consider this: When you sit on the beach and look out at the sea, you may only see a seagul, a dolphin or a boat, but underneath that sea is an entire  teeming world  that you cannot see with your eyes. Similarly, there is an entire world of the unseen that exists and is available to us as we move through our daily lives. In this powerful healing work,  I will contact and work with these unseen realms on your behalf for your healing, revitalization and life-guidance and or teach you to do the same.

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​Brainspotting

Brainspotting is an innovative method that works by identifying, processing and releasing core neuro-physiological sources of emotional/body pain, trauma, dissociation and other "stuck" challenging symptoms. It can also be used to deepen and anchor resources and strengths.   It is the next generation of brain-based therapy beyond  EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing). Brainspotting identifies and works with  eye positions that correspond with the issue of disturbance/trauma,  or strength and resource in tandem with listening to music/sounds that bi-laterally stimulate both the right and left hemispheres of the brain. brainspotting.com​

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PACT (Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy)

I have completed one year of training for PACT. PACT is a powerful and very effective therapy model for couples developed by Dr. Stan Tatkin, Dr. Tatkin wrote the books "Wired for Love" and "Love and War in Intimate Relationships."  PACT's  lively model for working with couples emphasizes developmental neuroscience, arousal regulation and attachment theory. What this means, is that the PACT model can help couples and individuals understand how the others' brain works and therefore how we react in relationships. It looks at how we bond (or don't) in relationships based on our early experiences with our primary caregivers and how those patterns affect our current relationships. www.stantatkin.com

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Movement and your body

As is the language of art, so is movement a language. We speak volumes with our bodies whether through outward expression like dance or through more subtle cues like the way we hold our postures.  Some are comfortable with movement as a form of expression and therefore, and for others, movement work may be much more subtle as we invite inquiry and curiousity into habitual and non-habitual, subtle and obvious and conscious/unconscious ways that your body speaks.

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Gestalt

Gestalt is an expressive form of therapy that explores how you make contact with the world and create blocks to this contact. It invites full expression through the body, the voice or art of what is true in the present moment through a variety of expressive techniques. Gestalt helps you to see how you can take personal responsibility for areas in your life that are not working and helps you to see how you can change that.

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Mindfulness,  Meditation and Breathwork

I embrace what I call a contemplative, mindfulness approach in working with people. As a meditator since 1998, I can guide and teach you mindfulness-based practices and meditation,  guided imagery, muscle relaxation, breathing techniques for nervous system regulation and overall somatic awareness.   Mindfulness techniques can help slow-down the noise of your mind and regulate your nervous system so that you can feel and hear what is happening inside and experience more spaciousness, well-being and freedom in your life. 

 

Dreamwork

I believe that our dreams, as Carl Jung said, “are the royal road to the unconscious.” Because dreams are rich in  imagery, I introduce techniques such as art, journaling, active imagination, and dream-dialoguing  to help you uncover the meaning and wisdom in your dreams.

 

Nervous System and Neuropsychology

An official “brain-geek” I love learning about the brain and helping my clients understand some of what is happening for us during mental and emotional states such as in trauma or anger or whenever we are feeling flooded with strong emotions.  I am fascinated and delighted by the ways in which various therapeutic techniques and mindfulness-based practices can change neural pathways in our brain (neuroplasticity) for the better so that we can  live more fulfilling lives and be free from habitual patterning.​

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Dagara Cowry Shell Divination Sessions

Having been blessed to have studied for 25 years with my now ancestors of spirit, Elder Sobonfu Some and Elder Malidoma Some from the Dagara tribe in Burkino Faso, W. Africa, I am fortunate to have been taught the art of Cowry Shell Divination from this lineage. These sessions forge a direct relationship between you and your ancestors of blood and spirit to assist in answering questions you  have about your life. Through your engaging with the cowry shells and many other symbolic objects that lay on my divination cloth, a spread of truth and guidance will be provided for you to help you navigate your life questions. Divination sessions offer a wonderful opportunity for guidance as well as introducing many to the concept and practice of engaging with our ancestors; something that has been lost for many westerners.  
 

Death Doulaship

I am trained as both a living and dying coach as well as a being a death doula. While much of western culture fears the inevitability of death, as a living and dying coach and death doula, I am eager to help you have a different and positive experience of death. I love helping clients at all life-stages to reflect on and be proactive in the life you want to be living now so that when it is your time to die, you'll feel as complete as possible. As such, I help clients who are in their aliveness or closer too death to create "Living into Dying Vision Maps" which are essential maps for ourselves and for our loved ones. As a Death Doula, I will be with you every step of the way to create a death that comes with your empowerment and the depth of my care, love and wisdom.