about

My path has been a circuital one, more of a flowing river with plenty of offshoots and u-bends than a clear highway. Far from linear and straightforward, I’ve learned to embrace the multidimensionality that has found me in this life. I wear many hats — artist, writer, illustrator, designer, creative explorer, compassionate listener, bodyworker, somatic practitioner, meditator, patient and advocate — and through all of these different roles, I am one whole human, bringing my curious mind, compassionate heart, and inquisitive nature to learn, connect, grow and awaken through these experiences.

Since I was young, I’ve always had one foot in the world of science, and biology –wanting to understand how things work, in our bodies, in animals and ecosystems, in nature and the world — and one foot in the world of the heart and mind, philosophy and spirit, and in art and the creative process — where there are more questions than answers, and focus on process and practice and being with. I have always enjoyed the rich interplay of questions and visual dialogues that have arisen in my practice and in my artwork from bringing these worlds together. In the outer world, for many years I’ve kept these separate, having one website for bodywork, and one for my artwork and design. But increasingly, I am finding that bringing these together, allowing them to mix and mingle, brings about many interesting connections with others.

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training and experience

When we ask someone what their training and experience is, what are we looking for? Below I have listed some of my official trainings, the kind one receives in classes, in schools, that are marked at the end by a degree or certificate. This is important to get a sense of what they have learned about, and indeed, I’ve learned a great deal through schools and the teachers I’ve encountered along these routes, for which I am very grateful. 

And there is another kind of learning that we miss when we only look at a school transcript or CV. Some of my most important training has come in the form of life experience, and the ways I’ve had to learn to meet what life has given me, namely chronic illness, including the seven years long road of living with, diagnosing and healing a cerebrospinal fluid leak. This experience has deepened my capacities for self-compassion, deep listening, learning how to be with pain, discomfort and difficulty, and allowing for a process to unfold at it’s own time and pace—more than any week-long training could ever teach me. It has been a great teacher in more ways than I can say. I have not been alone — I have had wonderful teachers by my side along the way helping to guide me as I’ve walked this unknown path.

This is the kind of thing, that I cannot put down as a line item on a CV, but that definitely comes with me as I meet someone for the first time, in the way I listen, in the capacity of my heart to expand into the space that can hold what they bring, and in trusting that their process and their inner wisdom will move them towards healing. So, along with important information I’ve learned from books and classes, I bring these other capacities, less definable, but very real, and very important.