My Story
Twenty year ago I participated in a two summer guide program in the mountains of British Columbia. One week I came down to basecamp with an injury that kept me from going back out for my next trip. During my time down from the mountain I decided to rub the shoulders of aching guide bodies and discovered that I loved it. Looking back, I had no idea how much connection through touch, listening, and witnessing the story of our bodies would guide and change my own relationship with my body and her story.
My acute awareness of how trauma is stored in the body took root in my 30’s during my time working with those who identified as women that were surviving on the streets of North Seattle along Highway 99. I was honored to be in community with survivors through co-founding an organization called the Aurora Commons. For ten years I was welcomed into sacred stories of beauty and trauma, of body and spirit. It was here that I lived and discovered that to bear witness is a profound act. To be present is invaluable. To be seen and known is what we all long for. The act of holding hope which is void of the pressure to fix or be somewhere a person is not ready to be is paramount. I carry this with me in my life and practice today.
“Trauma is not what happens to us, but what we hold inside in the absence of an empathetic witness.”
― Peter A. Levine
Background and Credentials
15 years of experience working with individuals through movement, touch, and verbal direction.
Collaborations of Ritual and Body Workshops with:
Jenny Wade with Haven Yoga
Heather Stringer with Life in Ritual
Christy Bauman with Womaneering
Knox Burnett with Knox Burnett Counseling
Cathy Loerzel with Redeeming Heartache
Graduated from Bellevue Massage School in 2005.
Received The Allender Center Certificate in Narrative Focused Trauma Care
Co-Founder of the Aurora Commons
CranioSacral Certification in progress