I see your struggle and potential.
I know your suffering because of what I have suffered.
I feel the pain of the world and am called to help.
The first part of my story is how I made a commitment in my early 20s to seek healing. My mother suffered from Narcissistic Personality and Munchausens Syndrome. It took 20 years to unwind the trauma from her mental/emotional, physical, sexual, and spiritual abuse. She was a lost and confused soul filled with pain. And my best teacher. I loved her.
Along the way, I met my first Native American teacher and was swept along by my heart into a spiritual way of living and being that is deeply rooted in those cosmologies. I always say that my these luminous teachers saved my life. The practices of energy medicine, ceremony, sacred song, and meditation became my anchor. Because of them and the realizations of my healing journey, I eventually took the leap at the age of 46 in 2007 to leave my tenured academic career to follow my soul's calling to be a healer and spiritual teacher. That was 15 years ago. I have never looked back.
I know the pathways well out of trauma and pain into freedom and peace. It's not that I'm perfect or everything is resolved; no, I am ever called by life's challenges to go deep within to heal more layers of personal and ancestral imbalances. But it has gotten lighter and much easier. And I do now have place of safety and refuge inside.
So, now if you want the credentials, read on about how I have, continued to honor my calling to help others and this troubled and beautiful world. I am here for you and for all of us. Follow me.
The Big Picture
I have been a shamanic healer, spiritual teacher and sacred activist for peacemaking for 30 years. In all my work, I seek to provide a practical and spiritual pathway for healing the trauma that so many of us carry, both personally and collectively. I also have a special passion for ending violence and oppression, supporting human rights, and peacebuilding.
I am here to help those who are working on healing their pain and suffering, who want to live emotionally healthy, balanced, abundant, and meaningful lives. I believe all of this personal, transformational work contributes to a building vibration of peace on the planet. I have helped people from all walks of life. I have mentored psychologists, therapists, ministers, healers, and creatives--writers, artists, poets, and social activists. There have also been folks who stay at home and raise their kids or who are doting grandmas and grandpas.
I also bring my vision of healing and peacemaking into consulting with universities, non-profits, and NGOs working on the frontlines of peacebuilding and violence.
Related and Intersecting Pathways
Since 2007, I have been in service through 3 related and intersecting pathways:
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Providing Shamanic Energy Healing and Spiritual Mentoring to 2000+ clients around the world.
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Providing spiritual teachings on the making of inner and outer peace, an earth-inspired and soul-activating cosmology for spiritual deepening, personal growth, and activating action in the world.
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Providing training, consultation, and program development for organizations working on the frontlines of violence and seeking to foster peace. My clients have included Search for Common Ground, The Garrison Institute Contemplative-Based Resilience Program, the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance, and Naropa University’s BA in Contemplative Psychology.
Academic Rigor with Research and Training
In all of these domains, I have integrated my academic, interdisciplinary research and training in violence studies, trauma, and peacemaking, along with decades of study with spiritual masters and leading-edge practitioners:
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Peacekeeper training with Cherokee teacher, Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo of the Sunray Meditation Society.
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The sweet and powerful mesa tradition and cosmovision of the Q'ero medicine people of Peru, ancestor of the ancient Inka.
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Shamanic energy healing and ceremony, with Alberto Villoldo of the Four Winds Society and others.
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The teachings of compassion, mindfulness, and loving kindness of Vipassana Buddhism.
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Psychodrama and psychotherapeutic approaches to healing individual and collective trauma.
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Healing Historical Harms with the Eastern Mennonite Center for Peacebuilding.
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Action against Trauma with the Center on Violence and Community.
I have creatively parlayed 15 years studying the authoritarianism of the former Soviet Union during the Cold War with a BA in Russian Studies, an MA in Soviet Studies, and a PhD in Slavic languages and literatures into a profound understanding of how collective violence and trauma impacts individuals and groups and how creativity and spirituality heals.
From 1996-2014, as a faculty member at the University of Virginia, I developed innovative courses on the topics of ending violence and peacemaking. During that time, I was the recipient of several grants and received an award for a project co-sponsored with the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Action Alliance for The Art of Surviving, a digital and traveling exhibit of art, personal narratives, and poetry by survivors of sexual assault.
Current Faculty Member: Atlantic University
I am currently a faculty member in the MA programs for Transpersonal Psychology and Mindful Leadership at Atlantic University, affiliated with the Edgar Cayce Association for Research and Enlightenment (www.edgarcayce.org). I have developed and teach courses on Peacebuilding, Earth Stewardship and Shamanic Studies.
“It is time for those who carry the medicine within them to be the healers of the world.
Unveil and deepen your healing and offer it to a world in need.”