I (she / they) am in awe of mystery beauty Unfolding~ of Body, heart, psyche, spirit, pain, joy, wholeness, Everything-ness & Nothing-ness.
I am honored to support & bear witness, with each session & Client... in our discovery of Embodiment, Vulnerability, Courage, Integration, Trauma-Healing, Vast Awareness & Clear Here-ness.
~Background, Experience & Training~
Anti-Racism & Social Justice Awareness (mini-background) :
~ I've been attending webinars, engaging with friends (BIPOC & white-bodied), & reading (including powerful book, "Me & White Supremacy" by Layla F. Saad (2020), as well as exerpts from: "The Inner Work of Racial Justice" by Rhonda V. Magee & from "My Grandmother's Hands" by Resmaa Menakem). I strive to become more educated/ informed/ responsible for deep painful issues of our human society ~ including Racism, Gender-ism & more. I welcome this awareness & client-support in our sessions.
~ Alive & Free Training~ Prescription to End Violence (24 hrs) w/ Joseph Marshall (author of "Street Soldier"), & the Alive & Free / Omega Boys Institute (2023).
~ Intro to Restorative Justice Conferencing (18 hrs) w/ San Francisco Community Boards / Mark Thomas (2023).
~ Mini-Webinar: Healthy Coaching Support for African American Women (2 hrs) – Zur Institute (2021).
~ Please see web-page "Anti-Racism & Social Justice Awareness" for other info.
Bodywork (Training/Experience) :
~ Professional Bodyworker since 2007. Over 15 years' formal training and practice:
~ Training/ Schools include~
.Hugh Milne Institute~ Visionary Cranio-Sacral Work, Levels 1-5;
.Jin Shin Jyutsu Inc, JSJ Practitioner (energetically-attuned practice/ techniques);
.Art Riggs' Advanced / Clinical Deep Tissue (tho' I no longer practice "deep-tissue" as primary modality, this well-developed experience/ awareness weaves its way into my subtler work);
.San Francisco School of Massage & Bodywork ~ Swedish Massage, Positional-Release, Myofascial work, Prenatal Massage, Trigger Point, Elder-Massage, Lymphatic, & more;
.Specialty-Touch-Training workshop~ “Complex Trauma: Touch Based Methods” w/ Kathy Kain (involves subtle touch/ dialogue which attunes to trauma-oriented patterns/ responses in the body);
.BodyTalk Access (introductory 8-hour course);
.& more...
~ I also draw on deep Intuition, the wisdom of my hands'/ body's felt-experience, and your own sense of your body/ being/ experience... All important.
Coaching (Training/Experience) :
~ Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner (S.E.P.). Completion of 3-year professional training, Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute (2016). (see "Somatic Experiencing®" tab in side menu bar.)
~ "Attachment and Trauma Mastery Program" w/ Diane Poole-Heller (2019). 6-week course, equivalent to Diane's DARe-1 training ("DARe"= "Dynamic Attachment Re-patterning experience"). Explores several basic developmental/Attachment/relational patterns, tending/healing approaches, and ways to support clients' more satisfying capacity for healthy relational connection.
~ 26-hour intensive training in Jon Eisman’s "R-CS" Model (2018)~ a spacious self-exploration model for re-connecting w/ our Organic expansive sense of Wholeness. The R-CS model of self-exploration holds this premise: When, in our development, our sense of organic expansive Self felt opposed/violated, we accommodated these hurts by unconsciously fragmenting our consciousness into various trance-like imagined “self-states.” Long held as habitual neural networks in the brain & body, these fragmented states-of-consciousness perpetuate our sense of wounding, & our limiting behaviors. R-CS helps us recognize & dis-identify from (rather than deeply believing & repeating) these now less-than-helpful perceived "selves" /neural-networks. It instead supports our re-immersion in a more innate expansive sense of organic Wholeness (even on very human level!), from which we can move & enjoy life more fully/freely.
~ "IFS-Inspired Coaching: Aligning the Inner System" (2020). IFS~ "Internal Family Systems"~ approaches our inner voices / "parts" / "neuro-patterns" with care & respect~ discovering how these "parts" got programmed in ways which no longer serve us, & discerning them from our more "essential self." IFS then tends / "updates" the helper-parts to serve our life more clearly, in present-time (& / or to retire), as feels wise / appropriate.
~ Intensive workshop "Experiential Therapy for Couples" Training (2018), Hakomi Institute of California.
~ Zen Hospice Project, Volunteer Training (50 Hrs) (2010).
~ Partial Training: Initial 7 months of 2-year Clairvoyant Training, Psychic Horizons, SF (2010).
~ Misc. Mini-certificates/mini-trainings:
.Live training: Intro to De-Escalation (2 hrs) - SF OCEIA / David McKinley (2023).
.Webinar: Autism Spectrum Disorder for Clinicians (2 hrs) – Zur Institute (2021).
Misc. Other Trainings :
~Qigong Teacher Training~ partially-completed ~ 2022 (w/ Instructor Lee Holden)
~Medical Intuitive Training, Basic Level 1 (of 2) ~ 2022 (w/ Instructor Tina Zion)
~End-of-Life-Doula / Home Funeral Guide (all 3 levels completed; certificate pends practicum-completion) ~ 2022 (w/ Instructor Jerrigrace Lyons, "Final Passages")
Spirituality:
I've been exploring Meditation, Retreats, Spirituality and deep Awareness/ Presence, for over 25 years (ongoing)…
Various inspirations/ supports for which i'm very grateful: Adyashanti, Pema Chodron, Eckhart Tolle, Sonoma Mountain Zen Center/ Jakusho Kwong Roshi, Jon Bernie, "The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying," Meditation (including Body-Aware Meditations), Expansive Outdoors / Nature, the City, the Immense grittiness & Beauty of this mortal body, & of Life Itself .
Greatest Inspiration... Profound Call of Presence, Infinity, Love, Silence, Here-ness ... such Spiritual discovery / Opening / Intimacy = utmost Awesome-ness i know.
Other / Personal:
i've worked as SF Community Ambassador, including doing urban outreach/support for vulnerable unhoused folx (2023). i've Lived in & volunteered in rural Cameroon, West Africa (lived & volunteered with locally-created/ locally-run awesome Cameroonian non-profit "BERUDA" (2006)... Big love & big thanks to Pa Ngwainmbi Simon & my Brothers Mawoh Godwin & Nkain Isaac, & Sisters Adeline, Anna, Fidelia & Cecilia). i've care-given for both young children and elderly Alzheimers patients (misc yrs) & Volunteered with San Francisco's Zen Hospice Project (2010).
i Enjoy ~ Spending time in beautiful nature, practicing Qi Gong, resting/napping, hanging out at the library, learning basic wilderness-survival/ eco-living skills, occasional art-making, and dancing.
i hold BA w/ double-focus in Biology & Theater-Acting.
My own experience of deep personal difficulties, esp. during late-twenties & into late-thirties (including intense physical & psycho-emotional pain), led me on decade-plus exploration~ from un-satisfying visits w/ mainstream doctors & psychotherapy, to rich beautiful modalities of support/ healing~ including Somatic Experiencing®, Developmental/ attachment/ relational healing-work, subtle profound bodywork, Meditations, Spacious-movement, & more. I'm still a 'messy'/difficult/beautiful human, like most of us. :) ..... ongoing journey.
~ ~ ~
~ With great Love, honoring the poignant & Infinite Being we ALL are ~
CAMTC #21584.
Doctor of Divinity Certificate w/ Universal Life Church Ministries.