About Me
I began my bodywork journey in 2012 at the Pacific Center for Awareness and Bodywork on Kauai. From the get-go, my bodywork training included not only techniques to work with the soft tissues, but also somatic and mindfulness practices that engaged the whole person in a process focused on physical healing. I began my practice in the Bay Area after graduating, working both in clinics and in private practice, continuing to research and experience the connection between mind, body, and the emotional world.
As I developed my bodywork practice, I was simultaneously deeply involved in the worlds of contemporary dance, somatics, and physical theater. I was most drawn to those experiences of release that freed the body, voice, and breath from its habitual armor through practices of movement and the cultivation of internal awarenesses. As I felt myself transforming, growing more grounded and confident in myself through these practices, more able to work consciously with the gift of my emotional world, I grew curious about how to bridge this with my healing work.
An eternal student, I dove into various trainings from Energy Class to Yoga Therapy to Neuro-Muscular Reprogramming. All of these gave me a plethora of tools and sensitivities, but when I eventually found Somatic Practice, the work really clicked in a new way. Somatic Practice is a clinical modality with enough specificity and research behind it to consistently facilitate deep and lasting healing, but also open enough that I could bring my own intuition and experience into the process. Most importantly, Somatic Practice puts the client at the center of their own healing process and focuses on empowering them to build a more resourced way of living the moment-to-moment experiences of their life. This was the work I'd been searching for that could bridge the experiences of release I had encountered through the arts with clinical results on the table.
I feel blessed to do work in which I get to everyday encounter the very core of human experience, and in which I get to support and witness profound insights and transformations.
I live in beautiful Humboldt County with my partner, dog, and new infant daughter.
Education and Experience
Professional Background
May 2013- current
Founder, Alchemical Body
Offering clinical bodywork, somatic process, and movement education to support the resolution of acute and chronic pain, stress reduction, and trauma recovery.
July 2017 - June 2019
Associate Practitioner, Healus Neuro Rehab Clinic
Providing Neuro-Muscular Reprogramming, soft tissue release, movement education, and nervous system regulation for clients healing from chronic and acute pain and injuries.
September 2021-March 2022
Touch for Trauma Certification with Kathy Kain (Somatic Practice)
Supporting regulation through touch and awareness of various physiological systems, resolving the experience of medical, shock, and developmental trauma, working with coupling dynamics, titration, pendulation, somatic shame, and trauma structures.
June 2021
Somatics of Emotions with Kathy Kain (Somatic Practice)
Supporting clients in expanding their range and fluidly moving through the somatic experience of basic emotions such as fear, gratitude, anger, sadness, excitement, and joy.
Certified August 2022
Open Source Forms Teacher
Three-year certification to teach Open Source Forms (Releasing Dance), a creative practice combining deep-states work, imagery, alignment, and expressive movement.
October 2016 - July 2017
Neuro-Muscular Reprogramming Certification (Healus Neuro Rehab Centre)
Muscle testing to determine which muscles are not working optimally, releasing over-efforting muscles through soft tissue work and adrenal relaxation, and re-coordinating muscle groups for optimal movement function. Includes study of kinetic chains, reciprocal muscle groups, spirals, torsions, opening of the breath, and supporting parasympathetic regulation.
January - June 2012
Pacific Center for Awareness and Bodywork, 700 hr. Certification in Structural
Bodywork
Training in Massage Therapy including Myofascial Release, Structural Integration, Pressure Points, Pre-natal, and Swedish Massage. Study of anatomy and body-reading for postural mis-alignments. Included training in mindfulness and somatic awareness practices drawn from Hakomi, NLP, and Focusing.
September 2015 - August 2017
Energy Class with Lynda Caesara
An in-depth experiential study of Steven Kessler's 5 Personality Types, psycho-physiological armoring mechanisms taken on in response to developmental challenges. Study of the challenges and strengths of each type, as well as energetic tools for grounding and staying in one's center, ritual, boundaries, reaching, and holding.
September 2014- March 2015
Yoga Therapy 100 hr. Certification (Shakti School of Yoga)
Using yoga asanas to support the healing of acute and chronic pain and injuries through strengthening, posture, and isometric stretching.
January - February 2016
100 hr. Certification in Thai Massage, Luang Prabang, Laos
Training in Osteopathic Thai Masssage including body manipulations and dynamic stretching, reflexology, energy lines, and abdominal massage.