Education and Experience

I created my own major at UC Berkeley, because I wanted to soak in classes that discussed social change and education. Several years and a handful of jobs in the non-profit sector later, I became more interested in personal healing, and did my own version of Eat Pray Love in Australia and Indonesia. After that I came back to California and received my M.A. in Counseling Psychology with emphasis in Somatics, from the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Much of my formal training as a therapist took place at the Center for Somatic Psychotherapy and the Center for Mindful Psychotherapy, which are both sliding scale trauma-focused counseling centers in San Francisco. I’ve also supported youth at Bay Area elementary and high schools, and supported teen girls transitioning from childhood to adolescence through rites of passage work with the Stepping Stones Project.

My most heartfelt work took place in the heart of the Pandemic, when I co-facilitated a surf therapy program for grief that was filmed by National Geographic. If you are a fellow water bug, you’re in good company. I weave surf and water metaphors into sessions often, and am continually inspired by the healing power of the Ocean.

You’ll be relieved to know that I continue to receive guidance from somatic psychotherapists who are trained in a wide range of psychodynamic and body/mind approaches. I was clinically supervised by a senior Hakomi trainer, Scott Eaton, LMFT and other practitioners of Hakomi for several years. I have completed 500 hours of yoga teacher training, been a devoted student of traditional Mysore style Ashtanga Yoga, and taught Vinyasa and Hatha Yoga at several studios. I’m also certified Reiki Master.