My Story
It is my calling to help you calm your anxiety, soften the edges of your pain, and help you feel alive and free in your body so that you can shine in all you do.
I’ve always been someone with excess energy; I didn’t realize it was anxiety until at least my late 30’s. Compounding this, for nearly two decades I lived with chronic pain. I suffered silently for many years, before we knew as much about the nervous system and the mind body connection. Now, I am passionate about supporting people on their journey so they don’t have to go through decades of pain, anxiety, and loneliness. Working with the human energy field, and the body/mind/spirit complex, we co-create a healing partnership that allows people to discover the truth of who they are and the joy that is our inherent state of being.
My greatest joy is helping people who have experienced emotional, physical or sexual abuse, that manifests as pain and anxiety, to befriend their bodies so they can live their fullest life and shine in all they do. Indeed, I’ve helped hundreds of people to do this and now to see them shine literally lights up my day!
Over the past many years I’ve taken a deep dive into the philosophies and practices of yoga & yoga therapy, the nervous system, the human energy field, the pain loop, shadow work, and so much more. My passion for understanding the mind body connection has led me to study and practice with some amazing teachers resulting in numerous certifications. This work is a huge benefit to my clients as I share tools from a wide range of disciplines. I am dedicated to not only understanding the myriad factors that influence our system and overall well being but also providing a direct connection for each client and their own bodies.
I now have a very different experience of relating to my anxiety and am no longer ruled by it on a day to day basis and I have since dedicated my career to helping others.
But I didn’t used to feel so grounded and centered!
I had chronic pain of one sort or another for most of my life. When I was young, I used to have headaches of unknown origin; they were pervasive throughout my pre-teen and teenage years. It is more commonly understood now that constant headaches in adolescents are often due to anxiety. Later on, when I was in graduate school spending many hours hunched over books or the computer, I developed a repetitive motion shoulder injury. This was also when my anxiety started to skyrocket, and I had few tools to deal with it or even an understanding of what it was about.
Over the years, my headaches lessened somewhat, after I got a full-time job and was able to afford somewhat regular massages; however, the pain in my shoulder continued almost unabated for nearly 15 years. In addition, the anxiety stuck around… for many, many years.
At one point, when I was preparing for a presentation on yoga therapy at an international conference in Romania, I spent three months nearly immobilized with anxiety. I would get up and pretend to go about my day - I could function well enough to prepare meals, send some emails, stand at the computer, and have some ‘normal’ chats with friends, but underneath I was a mess. And pretty much nobody knew it.
It was after that experience I knew I had to make a change. I started working with my own yoga therapist, got serious about integrating daily practices into my life, and I took a deep dive of learning about how trauma manifests in the body and how to work with it.
In truth, I believe that anxiety is a companion to me in some shape or form most of the time. What’s different, is that now I have practices that help me turn it around in a day, whereas before it could have taken weeks to months and cost me needless time, energy and a plethora of self-critical thoughts. I am able to sense when it’s creeping in and immediately begin to work with and relate to it, rather than be overcome by it. This is a game-changer.
Thankfully, I’ve come to understand how much emotional health is connected to physical health; how we breathe, think, and express emotions all impacts how we feel in our bodies, for better or worse. I’ve also come to understand that trauma - whether a “capital T” Trauma (such as assault, abuse, or war) or a “little t” trauma (such as lack of nurturance in early childhood, being bullied, or witnessing the suffering of others) - stays in the body unless or until we find ways for it to be released. As Bessel van der Kolk so aptly coined the term, ‘the body keeps the score’. I’ve learned to stay curious about what’s happening in my body/mind/spirit long enough for me to transform it. This is HUGE!
Now I have the privilege of helping people make these connections between their beliefs and emotions, including sometimes deeply seated beliefs or ‘stuck emotions’, and the pain and anxiety they are experiencing in their body. This pain is generally physical, oftentimes mental or emotional, and always very, very real. The pain and anxiety may be clearly connected to a specific traumatic event or may be so widespread that there seems to be no clear reason or rationale for what they are experiencing. Regardless of how it manifests, everyone can benefit from this work. My mission is to help others carve a new reality for themselves, one that is free of the paralyzing grip of pain and anxiety.
We can’t do this work alone. We are relational beings and heal in community. It is important to find someone who can be a guide and companion along the journey to finding an embodied sense of calm and connection with our own bodies. That’s why I am committed to helping people who have experienced pain and anxiety to befriend their bodies so they can live a life full of joy and shine in all they do. Please contact me to schedule a free 20-minute consult call to see if working together would be a good fit.