40 years ago, I left more left-brain studies, which had seemed like the safer path, to then follow my soul’s deepest calling, and now am forging a marriage of both.
I enthusiastically embraced transpersonal psychology – where the mystical, spiritual and shamanic were validated and included in psychology studies. California Institute of Integral Studies provided the ideal foundation, while yoga, Reiki and Holotropic Breathwork® gifted me with further training, eventual certification and potent psycho-spiritual practices for life.
I left the US first in 1984, and made Mexico a home away from home to learn Spanish and better integrate my father's lineage. I then made my way to Peru to study, and experience first-hand the indigenous practices of the Incan and pre-Incan cultures and how they interfaced with modern psychology. Paris called next, where I learned French and started a private coaching/healing practice. I also created Creative Response Therapy™, an expressive arts technique, informed by the foundations of transpersonal psychology. I taught this modality in the French psychiatric field, along with several other mind-body modalities. I met my former husband and joined him in the UK, where I gave birth to our dear daughter. Dubai followed, which 24 years later, is still home.
I thrive when I am living, working, and traveling in diverse cultures.
I welcome the opportunity to fully embrace and learn from a society, a religion and a people, as they are. I seek to understand how their beliefs, values and customs are influenced and created by determining socio-political events, historical precedents, migration patterns, spiritual influences and even the geography and climate of where they live.
Over the years of working with many from the diverse societies I’ve lived in, I learned the fundamental importance of trauma release and healing, and how the body always tells the truth, whether on the individual, family or collective levels. I came to value the effectiveness of combining emotional bodywork, creative expression and coaching. I am also deeply inspired by the process of truth and reconciliation work – whether between a triggered couple, or within a heated conflict zone. I joined Thomas Hübl’s Pocket Project Training in 2017, dedicated to the healing and processing of collective trauma through the art of transparent communication and several trauma processing methods. I further trained with the Center of Mind-Body Medicine®, in developing further trauma support skills.
The opportunity to accompany individuals, couples, colleagues, families, teams and groups, no matter the cultural mix they come from, has opened my heart to the belief that love and truth are at the base of everything, and healing any interference to them, is the way back to base. I am eternally grateful for the teachers, mentors and expanders whose knowledge, dedication and inspiration have kept me aligned with this mission of healing and teaching that continues to deeply call and guide me onward.
International Family
Growing up with my father’s Mexican American family and my mother’s Anglo parents, and visiting family in Mexico, instilled a love and ease for cultural diversity. Years later I married my former Egyptian-British husband, raised our daughter in the multi-cultured UAE, and committed to nurture these family relationships from afar. Thanks to long-lasting friendships and a community of like-hearted souls from the many places I have lived in and travelled to, my extended soul family also brings me much joy and heart-connection!
Trials and Initiations
To process the strong emotions of my own traumas as a teenager, I began to use binge and comfort eating. It was a secret that had more control of me, than I did of it. Between weight swings, and later the inability to conscionably practice my profession with integrity, while this addiction was out of control, I hit rock bottom in my mid-20’s and went to my first 12-Step OA meeting. I learned to put the food down and feel the feelings. I turned my recovery and myself over to a Higher Power. And those repeated acts in themselves, transformed embarrassment to self-compassion, and feeling out of control to a trust that there was finally a solution. I pursued several trauma healing modalities, that began metabolizing the overwhelming emotions, many that I continue to practice as maintenance today. Food went from being my escapist drug, to an elixir of life force energy.
Dedication
As a healing practitioner, teacher and facilitator, I am committed to supporting my clients and students with unconditional compassion and the means to express and accept their most authentic self. I am also dedicated to my ongoing work to stay as aligned and as in integrity as possible.
Swimming and Yoga
Swimming in open water is one of my greatest passions. I grew up on an inland lake that was swimmable 2-3 months a year. Moving to Dubai was moving to aqua heaven as I began to swim regularly year-round at sunrise in the Gulf’s warm, easy waters. The invention of the underwater mp3 player took this all to the most ecstatic levels. This passion continues today! Yoga’s immediate transport into an expanded state of consciousness and an instant recharge of my body and mind, led it to be a choice practice for several decades now. In 2019, I certified in Kundalini Yoga and teach private classes and integrate it in my workshops, courses and retreats.
Humanitarian Work
Being called to the healing path, inevitably opened my heart to the many humanitarian and social crises on our planet. I have joined many inspiring frontline angels, offering my services in Latin America, Africa, India, Palestine’s West Bank and Gaza, and with the CCHN - the Centre for Competence of Humanitarian Negotiation, an arm of the United Nations, that trains frontline humanitarian negotiators.
