ABOUT ME
Born and raised in a small beach canyon town in Los Angeles, CA., I spent much of my childhood in the brackish: the space where fresh water (creek) merges with the ocean. The merging of these two bodies of water has become symbolic of the confluence and bridging of worlds that I embody and inhabit. With a multiracial background: Black, Eastern Band Cherokee and White (Norwegian & Scottish), I’ve learned to navigate and embrace the complexity of my racial/ethnic identities. In my early professional career I taught conflict mediation and restorative practices to students at UC Berkeley and also developed and ran a conflict mediation program at an Oakland public high school. I also conducted mediations between adoptive and birth parents for visitation agreements. All of these experiences granted me a deep teaching in holding multiple, often contradictory truths and the expanding multivalent truths of what we consider reality. In addition to my racial and professional background, even as a young girl I was acutely aware of a transcendent context to the world that we inhabit; a spiritual world that has given me deep sources of guidance and reverence. As an adult I have been able to bridge the spiritual and secular worlds through my own practice of meditation and my involvement in the Lucumi / Yoruba (West African) spiritual tradition. In addition, in 2018 I became certified in Psychedelic Assisted Therapy through California Institute of Integral Studies, and was one of the first 10 Black clinicians certified in the country. Thus plant medicine has become yet another tool to help bridge the liminal space of secular and spiritual.
My theraputic work began in 2005 after graduating from Pacifica Graduate Institute, a graduate school dedicated to the foundations of Depth Psychology. I began practicing within various communities and contexts, with the majority of my time in communities of color working with adolescents and their families. In 2011 I began a small private practice in which I used an integrative approach working primarily with women of color around issues of trauma, grief and depression. As a clinician my approach is warm, direct and I incorporate both clinical as well as spiritual technologies to bring forward a more integrated Self.
My belief is that when an individual is struggling, whether it be mentally, relationally, physically and/or spiritually, they are often at a crossroads point in their lives. This inflection point can often be a signal from the Universe that it is time, and that some part of them is ready to begin a process of healing and growth. While the journey to this transformation is incremental and often a lifelong process, there are tools that can move a person out of hopelessness and constriction, into one of more agency, self-love and expansion. Through my unique therapeutic approach, I offer my clients tools and perspectives that can significantly shift their experience of themselves and the life they inhabit.