What a session with me is like:

I genuinely want to co-create a warm, inviting space with you for us both to experience safety and wellness. I want to know what’s going on that’s working or not working for you and be in real-time, here and now connection with your parts that long to heal. I listen a lot and ask questions too. I’m not here to judge you. I want to meet you where you are and be with the parts that have always felt unseen, unheard, misunderstood, and alone while we explore your options for being all of yourself, the Self you want to be. I excel with holistic therapies involving talk, movement, play, art, outdoors, and appropriate therapeutic touch. I will be your collaborator, accomplice, guide, and witness. With a background in research, I balance evidence-based, body-oriented, relational approaches with liberation work and spiritual concepts to bring awareness to wounds, choices, and the possibility of healing. You get to decide what elements we explore. 

You can do this, and I’m so excited to be with you.

Education:

I earned a graduate degree in Somatic Psychotherapy at John F. Kennedy University in 2015, which honored me as Outstanding Student of the Year. I’ve offered instruction in emergency preparedness, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and volunteered as a rape crisis counselor. I taught as an adjunct professor at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in their somatic psychotherapy department and engage in ongoing study in mindfulness and meditation practices, as well as, Somatic Abolition, and Relational Somatic Healing to activate healing potentials. My superpowers are gratitude, kindness, and love.

Therapeutic Trainings:

  • Certified Rape Crisis Counselor, DeKalb County, GA, 2006 & Bay Area Women Against Rape (BAWAR), Alameda County, CA, 2007

  • Certified Disaster Services Instructor, City of Oakland, Communities of Oakland Respond to Emergencies, 2010

  • Master of Arts in Somatic Psychotherapy from John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill, 2015

  • Art and the Body: Creative somatic healing practices, Edgewood Center for the Arts with Eleanor Ruckman, 2016

  • Urban Nature: Creative Strategies to Increase Resiliency for Social Service Practitioners with Eleanor Ruckman & Gabriel Kram, 2016

  • Effectively Supporting Safe and Inclusive Spaces for LGBTQI2S Clients and Colleagues within the Child Welfare System, Natalie Thoreson, M.Ed., 2018

  • Transgender Medicine, Surgery and Mental Health Care Clinician Training Institute; 2019 Transgender Health Summit, UCSF, 2019

  • Fathers Corps & Father Friendly Provider Network: Digital Media 101: Digital Citizenship for Families, First 5 Alameda County, 2019

  • Hakomi Professional Skills, Level 1, SF Hakomi Institute, 2020

  • California Telehealth Law, Simple Practice Learning, 2020

  • Suicide Assessment, Intervention, and Treatment, Simple Practice Learning, 2020

  • Foundations in Relational Somatic Healing, Embodied Touch in Psychotherapy, Character Map, Bonding Beyond Attachment, Relational Somatic Therapy, Shirley Dvir, 2021-2023

  • Ultimate Couples Therapy Toolkit, Gay Couples Center / Couples Training Center Academy, 2022

  • Certified Integrative Mental Health Professional (CIMHP) Training Course: Nutritional and Integrative Medicine for Mental Health Professionals, Leslie Korn, Ph.D., November 2022

  • Somatic Approaches to Healing Trauma, Albert Wong, Ph.D., Somatopia, 2022

  • Wilderness Skills and Survival Clinic, Adventures Out, March 2023

  • Neuroscience & Yoga in the Treatment of Complex, Developmental or Repeated Trauma, Irina Diyankova, Ph.D., August 2023

  • Affirmative Therapy with Trans/gender Expansive Clients, Melle Browning, MFT, RECAMFT, 2023

  • Therapy with South Asian American Women, Shipra Maurya, PsyD, RECAMFT, 2023

  • Treatment Resistant Depression and Psychosis: A Biopsychosocial Perspective, Anish Shah, MD, RECAMFT, 2023

  • Traumatic Attachment and Affect Dysregulation, Janina Fisher, Ph.D., 2023

  • Narcissistic Relationships, Emotional Abuse & Gaslighting: Treating and Empowering Survivors of Relational Trauma, Lindsay C. Gibson, PsyD, 2023

  • Intuition: It's Your Birthright!, Dr. Stella Park, ND, 2023

  • Chronic Pain Assessment and Brief Intervention, Simple Practice Learning, 2024

  • Socratic Dialogue: Improving Therapy Outcomes, Simple Practice Learning, 2024

My Journey:

Even when I had everyone else fooled, I couldn’t fool myself. I have been through a lot. I have seen things as a child that I didn’t know how to heal for a long time into my adulthood. That looked like me not knowing how to take care of myself, what needed to change, how to nurture healthy relationships, how to handle boundary strained or toxic relationships, or how to love and honor myself.

I know what it’s like to not want to go home. I know what it’s like to not want to leave home. I know what it’s like to feel outcast.

The nightmares weren’t, “real,” but insomnia was. I trudged through pointless work, wounding my body in the process, while navigating intersections of my history and how my Black skin and my visible queerness was perceived at any given time. My traumatic past weighed heavily on me, and I felt hopeless. Sometimes I’m still not sure where I found the strength to choose to heal. I knew I couldn’t continue to wander in lost uncertainty.

I turned my attention inward and used many types of daily movement practices, though it was tough to strike a balance. I committed to ongoing healing in myself in body, mind, spirit as a gift to myself and the world. I pursued interests that led me to study martial arts, healing arts, spiritual practices in Eastern and Western traditions, and somatic psychotherapy. In time, I cultivated healing gifts that I’m fortunate to be able to continue to share with those who come to see me. I’ve emerged from the grip of a painful past, and I’m grateful for my life and to be able to be here with you.

If you’re ready to shed the heaviness of the past, please do reach out. I really do want to know what’s going on for you. 

A Little More About Me:

Among other identities (Black American, Creole, queer, intermittently able-bodied and embodied, naturist and naturalist, festival hippie punk, lightworker, and wayshower), I’m a somatic psychotherapist and a ThetaHealer practicing online and in Napa, California.  I enjoy eating things I grow and making herbal salves. I’m passionate about writing, living well, loving well, and being well.