I spent 26 years trying to understand why my body hurt
Somatic Healing | Nervous System Regulation | Mind-Body Connection
The chronic pain that settled into my body by the time I was 21. I didn't remember a time where my body didn't hurt and it took me another 7 years to realize it was chronic pain.
So I did what I knew how to do. I sought every credential, every training, every tool conventional medicine offered.
I had all the credentials, all the clinical expertise, all the tools conventional medicine said I should need.
And MY BodY Still HuRT
More than that… I kept witnessing the same patterns in my patients.
Duke gave me the clinical training. My patients and life experience gave me something else entirely. They showed me what conventional approaches couldn't touch, how the nervous system holds what the body experiences and why that changes everything.
The body would shift to find ease, to find relief from pain. And then it would return because the same life stressors were still present. But when those stressors shifted, when internal beliefs shifted, the ease would shift too. Sometimes permanently. The body wasn't broken. It was responding to everything around it.
My first metatarsal stress fracture happened at age 3. By middle school, I'd had several more. Throughout high school I was the one the athletic trainer nicknamed "fix or repair daily", always injured, always gasping for air despite using an inhaler for exercise-induced asthma, always working ten times harder than my peers just to keep up.
I chose physical therapy because adults told me I'd be good at it. I was always injured, I understood pain, I had experience. It felt like a safe path someone else had laid out for me.
For years I searched for the training, certification, modality trying to find the piece that would allow me to heal. Coincidentally it also helped my patients.
The science and conventional approaches, advanced manual therapy training, pelvic floor specialization, Pilates rehabilitation certification, hoping that the techniques would be the piece.
Also exploring practices that honored what bodies hold beyond the physical… energy work, Reiki, somatic experiencing, mystery school training.
Nothing was complete.
They all missed a piece of the puzzle.
Put together, integrated and woven together, they gave me the whole picture. And each person's puzzle is a little bit different.
What FinallY WorKed
It wasn't one thing. It was integration. Myofascial release, somatic healing practices, and nervous system regulation… not stacked on top of each other but actually integrated. Woven together so each piece informed the others.
And the through line through it all? Building the strength to feel, instead of constantly pushing through.
And it wasn't a destination. It was learning to practice staying present with my body even when it was uncomfortable, building the resilience to be with sensation, with discomfort long enough for my nervous system to recognize it was safe to let go.
It doesn't feel good at first. It really sucks and is actually super painful and hard. And as my body integrated the pain, the experiences… all the cliché aspects of life became available. Joy, ease, spaciousness, flow, a vibrant and radically alive life that is unapologetically me.
WheRe I Live NoW
I work in what Robin Wall Kimmerer calls the "boundary layer" in Gathering Moss - the space where earth and air meet, where friction creates the conditions for life. That's where moss grows. That's where transformation happens.
Awareness built from sensation and knowledge, where what you feel and what you understand meet. This is where the work lives.
I am a mama
to two souls, a powerhouse, eye of the storm and one who radiates joy from her DNA. We live with my husband in Michigan on the sacred borrowed lands of the Peoria, Odawa, and Bodwéwadmi (Potawatomi) near the shores of Lake Michigan.
Our home is full
of animal and plant energy. I enjoy hikes through the woods, bike rides to the big water, and spending time with my hands in the dirt growing our own food and creating art through ceramics and other mediums. Reading, cooking, playing piano/guitar, singing and dancing are part of my day along with a movement and stillness practice.
I am myself first
to be the highest version of myself in motherhood and partnership. Some weeks I have capacity for deep work. Some weeks survival mode is all I've got. I'm learning to meet myself where I actually am instead of where I think I should be. I truly practice what I teach, for that is the embodiment practice.
WhaT I Do NoW
I guide people to and through their inner knowing to build a relationship with their own authority, where they listen and trust what their body already knows. It’s the ground they stand on in how they are in relationship with life.
My training
Doctor of Physical Therapy, Duke University
National Certified Pilates Teacher (NCPT), Polestar Pilates Rehabilitation Comprehensive
Advanced training in John F. Barnes Myofascial Release
Pregnancy & Postpartum Corrective Exercise Specialist
Women’s Health & Pelvic Floor Specialization
Certified Life Coach, Awakened Academy (specializing in pattern recognition, limiting beliefs, and life purpose work)
Reiki Master
Priestess Initiate, 13 Moon Mystery School
Bachelor of Science in Nutritional Sciences with specialization in Bioethics and Humanities, Michigan State University
But the training that matters most? 26 years of living in my own body through chronic pain and healing. I know exactly how hard this work is and what it takes to step into your own authority.
BeYoNd THe CliNical WorK
I'm also a ceramic artist. Each piece is handcrafted through presence and form, working with the clay with intention. The clay has its own knowing and when we ask what it wants to be, it will tell us. Just like the body. Both teach the same thing: what becomes possible when we start listening and work in relationship.
Let’S WorK TogetHeR
I've been there. Not the exact same place, but a similar one. I know the path because I've walked it. When you're ready, I'll walk it with you
