My Story

I was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta near the majestic Rocky Mountains, and have lived most of my life between there, California, and Alaska, finally settling in Portland, Oregon in 2011. I'm a mother to a wild and magical 4-year-old, and I've been with the love of my life for over 14 years. We met while fishing in Bristol Bay, Alaska, where I worked in the commercial salmon fish for 20 years—five of which I captained the F/V (Fishing Vessel) ‘Silver Kris’ (pictured below).

Before becoming a therapist, I spent a decade working as a massage therapist while living by the ocean in Monterey, California, eventually specializing in Oncology Massage. I complete my B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on Women’s Studies and Integral Psychology at CIIS (California Institute of Integral Studies) in 2008. I've always been passionate about love and what creates thriving relationships, which led me to study Compassionate Communication (NVC) and Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). After completing a year-long coaching certification in 2013, I spent several years coaching couples and individuals around love and relationships before and while pursuing my Master's in Counseling Psychology in 2015.

After graduating, I ran a beautiful private psychotherapy practice for nearly eight years. While that training and professional experience deeply influences how I work with clients today, I always felt confined by the limitations of traditional talk therapy. Even while utilizing every non-traditional modality I could, I knew there was more effective ways of helping people heal, transform and make real change in their lives. I made the decision to leave licensed work behind and devote myself fully to the trauma-informed, relational, attachment-focused, and somatic approaches to healing I practice today.

I am currently a PhD student in Visionary and Regenerative Leadership, through Southwestern in Santa Fe, NM.

Psychedelics Have Supported my Own Growth and Transformation

Without question, I would not be who and where I am without the healing impact of psychedelics. I've utilized them for connection, play, pleasure, manifestation, and consciousness expansion.

More often though, I've utilized them in therapeutic ways, always unearthing and processing deep wounds and trauma - transmuting shadows into gifts and integrating fragmented parts back into wholeness.

Healing is an ongoing, emergent process. Life continues to humble me, but time and again, the intentional use of empathogens and entheogens has helped me access difficult material and shift into healthier, more aligned ways of being with myself, with my closest relationships, my community and with the natural world.

Spiritual Influences

I have a deep reverence for, and am honored to be influenced by, contemplative studies and Buddhist philosophy, Deep Ecology, Ancestral Healing Approaches, Animism and the Earth-Based Spirituality of Indigenous peoples and the Nordic and Celtic Pagan roots of my own ancestors that hail from Scotland, Sweden, England, Germany.

Wounds I’ve Carried & Grown From

I survived years of soul-crushing childhood bullying. I'm a survivor of rape and sexual violence. I'm the child of a father who suffered from unprocessed trauma that manifested as deep shame, addiction, and ultimately led to his death when I was 24. I carry wounds from religious trauma on both sides of my family.

I identify as bisexual, have been in two deeply transfrormational ‘equilateral triangle’ throuples, though I carry the privilege of passing as heterosexual. I'm in an ongoing journey of discovery about my particular expressions of neurodivergence; ADHD, giftedness, and being a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP). I also live with an autoimmune disease that has inspired a lot of humility, grief and resilience.

Being in the midst of my own midlife emergence, I love supporting others experiencing this significant life transition - a process of learning what it means to shed old identities and step more fully into who one always has been, and is becoming. My deepest intention is to grow into a wise elder, be a good ancestor, and someday, die well.

Why This Matters

I share this not for sympathy, but for transparency, and so that you know: I understand the complexity of being human. I know what it's like to carry wounds, to feel broken, and to wonder if healing is possible. I also know, from lived experience, that transformation is real. You don't have to have it all figured out. You just need to be willing to show up and follow your wish for yourself of healing, growth and tangible change. I'll be right there with you, along the way.

I’ll be an anchor for you in the wild seas of your life, and ultimately help you become an anchor to your own truest self.