Transpersonal
Integration
Finding wisdom in trauma,
courage in fear, power in pain,
joy in living.
My Approach
I find it easy to have unconditional positive regard for others. My care is deeply felt by my clients. I am inclined to be asset and strength focused. I provide trauma informed care. I have profound respect for the effects of systems of oppression on a person's experience and access to life. My therapeutic approach is a present moment, somatic mindfulness. I am also influenced by Internal Family Systems, Dialectic Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavior Therapy and other approaches. I weave my life experience, training and essential Self into a cohesive tapestry that creates the sacred containers that I have the honor to facilitate as a counselor.
I am excited to learn and engage in upcoming therapeutic approaches of EMDR and the therapeutic use of psilocybin.
MY STORY
I identify as a pansexual, cisgendered, white-passing woman of color. I have both a Hispanic and white racialized experience. I was raised at the base of Mount Bachelor in the high desert of Central Oregon. We were homesteaders and did our best to provide for most of our own food needs.
Our family was poor and we faced prejudice, poverty, isolation, and othering. We also experienced a strong loving culture of connection to our extended family who lived 500 miles away. We had access to the privilege of higher education which was strongly understood to be the best route out of poverty and into assimilation of conventional U.S. society.
I became a mother at age 39 and spent much of my 30's and 40's delving into digesting my own trauma so that I can have more space to be patient and relaxed as a parent. It is ongoing work.
Now in my 50's, I find myself able to reclaim the parts of my ancestral culture that were discarded in order to assimilate. I spend my free time relating with and advocating for Central American asylum seekers.
I am a novice herbalist and wildcrafter. I have a love relationship with valerian, lemon balm, mushrooms, and stinging nettle. I live in a residential community of my people conducting a living experiment of remembering what it means to be each other's clan.
I love to read, play catch and snuggle with my son. I take long walks in the oak savannah, the wetlands, and the ridges of the homeland of the Kalapyuya people with my partner and my peers.
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Education and Work Experience
I studied at the University of Oregon and Shippensburg University in PA. I began my work in social services at age 25.
I have worked with youth that were taken from their families as a result of their failure to comply with society norms. I have worked with women and children affected by familial violence by providing legal advocacy. The bulk of my experience has been providing therapeutic listening skills to support other humans in being seen, understood, held with compassion and genuine care. This alchemy of care has invariably led to improved life satisfaction, self-appreciation, improved relationships and reduced symptoms. I have engaged in these relationships with individuals, adults, children, couples and groups in both English and Spanish.