History



I have 25 years of experience working with private clients and leading workshop groups in Canada and the U.S. My work as a teacher, healer, and counselor includes a range of integrative holistic methods with the common thread being the unbiased support and development of women's empowerment. I have a talent for illuminating what is hidden beneath the surface. For the past two decades I have worked therapeutically with private clients and groups in both embodied (yoga, movement, qigong) and psycho-spiritual modalities. I am comfortable in front of individuals and groups with a diverse range of needs and interests.

My non-judgmental respectful approach incorporates cross-cultural ideas and draws from many healing methods and perspectives. I have the ability of relating to clients and students just where they are and moving forward in a way that is encouraging, sensitive, and supportive. I create a safe environment where the exploration of long held secrets and feelings of stigma and shame can be gently explored and transformed. My work is available equally to women of all ages, ethnic backgrounds, religions, and politics.

I am trained and certified in clinical hypnotherapy. I am a state-certified sexual assault crisis counselor, I have skills in a number of counseling and body-mind integration healing methods. I have been a workshop facilitator and presenter on many topics in Canada, the US and elsewhere. A group leader for both the residents and the outpatients at Marin Services for Women, a substance abuse recovery program.

My training includes Focusing, Gestalt, and Reichian counseling and breath and bodywork. Mythic and archetypal perspectives, cross-cultural and intertribal native methods, dreams, healing rituals, natural health, herbs, homeopathy, and embodied practices of yoga, dance, movement, and Chinese energy exercises.

Years of experience teaching stress reduction, meditation, healing imagery, yoga, and integrative movement for local and international groups (with classes as large as one hundred people from many countries). I have taught in the jungle in Brazil, at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, the Omega Institute, in New York, and for the California Institute of Integral Studies, in San Francisco.

I was a presenter at the June 2004 International Transpersonal Association conference in Palm Springs speaking to a large group of men and women on the need for unbiased post-abortion support as a response to the cultural void that exists around this important topic. The call for non-polarized respectful care for women and men who have been through an abortion experience is a true need, though it is overlooked in our society as a taboo topic that is swept under the rug. My findings from years of work with women contributed to my presentation.

My clients report that they feel very safe with me, no matter how taboo their problem feels to them--they say they can tell me anything without fear of judgment. They have commented that it seems to them that I shine a light into the darkness and that I am able to guide them across a life threshold. I help navigate difficulties with sensitivity and strength. I am a good mediator, respectful, empathic, and intuitive. I am nourished by the joyful emancipation experienced by my students and clients.

I am also the creator of a women's healing audio CD series on womb loss and empowerment. Plus my book on women's wisdom (integrative methods for connecting body-mind-spirit and coping with infertility, miscarriage and abortion distress) is in development. I have published articles on abortion and infertility. Additionally, I teach regular ongoing self-defense classes for women. I am Canadian born, living as a permanent resident in the U.S. since 1991. I see clients in my San Rafael office by appointment, as well as through phone consultations, and I lead inner growth workshops throughout the Bay Area.

Certifications

-therepeutic massage

RAD self-defense instructor

State-certified sexual assault counselor
- Certified Clinical Hypnotherapy a three-year training
- Certified instructor of women's self-defense, yoga and qigong
- Five-year intertribal native teachings with the Twisted Hairs Medicine Society
- 500 hours trained in Reichian breath work and body mind integration therapy
- Ordained non-denominational minister, AIWP, The Association for the Integration of the Whole Person
- Herbalist, natural health coaching, aromatherapy massage and essential oils, Energy healing; Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, -Polarity, Shiatsu, Thai massage
- Private practice and workshops
- Writing and speaking on women's issues
- Creator of an audio Cd series for healing womb loss

Memberships:
CALCASA, California Coalition against Sexual Assault
AIWP, The Association for the Whole Person
ATP, Association for Transpersonal Psychology
The Foundation for Shamanic Studies


I have a great appreciation for the martial arts and self-defense methods
kempo karate
Wen-Do ( Women's Way, self-defense)
Rape Escape, Defend Univierstiy
Qigong w/Mantak Chia
Qigong, Wuji, Grandmaster Fu
Gong, a Wuji style qigong (chi kung).
RAD instructor certification

movement and yoga instruction include participation with:
Yoga studios
Healing centers
Private coaching for athletes
Corporate training for yoga-stress reduction
Specialty-Healing themed therapeutic workshops
Presenter at international conferences

Teaching background and training include:
Yoga instructor in Laguna Beach CA, for teens and adults for the city’s recreation department

Regular ongoing teaching for the Yoga Place studios in Southern CA

I have led workshops as a presenter and yoga instructor for the International Transpersonal Conferences in Brazil and in Palm Springs, the Esalen Institute in Big Sur California, the Omega Center in New York, the Hindu Cultural Center in Toronto Canada, and for the PCC graduate students in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program, at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.

Gifts

Intuitive ability since childhood

A talent for working with dreams, images, symbols

A good teacher

Able to leap tall buildings in a sinlge bound, and fly ;-)