I first discovered Somatic Therapy as a client in 2011. After struggling for years with depression, anxiety, and dissociation, I found that this modality helped me make sense of myself, my symptoms, and how my history contributes to the challenges I face.

In order to deepen my understanding of trauma and healing I enrolled in the SomaSoul training program at the Leven Institute in Lenox, MA. From there I attended the Body Centered Gestalt Psychotherapy Training Program at the Hartford Family Institute for 6 years and continue to receive supervision from my teachers there. I am also a student of The School of Lost Borders where I get to explore community, rites of passage, and connection to earth and spirit.

I am committed to exploring and understanding how white body supremacy and colonialism live in my own body and psyche, in our collective bodies, and in our institutions, including the mental health field. I began by reading Resmaa Menakem’s book “My Grandmother’s Hands,” then enrolled in courses through the Education for Racial Equity and continue to learn from Resmaa, Carlin Quinn, and Jennifer-Lee Koble in their year-long programs. The invitation is to not just mentally understand white body supremacy, but to embody our understanding of it, and to build an embodied anti-racist practice and culture.

Deepening our awareness of how the trauma of white body supremacy and colonialism impact us individually and communally is a lifelong process, and unwinding it requires a community of committed bodies to hold the process. I am barely scratching the surface of my own understanding of these systems of oppression with my community, but I hope that my lifelong commitment might make room for something more beautiful to germinate that future generations can tend to.

As I continue to grow I am aware that there is no such thing as “finished,” only a deepening practice of meeting and holding experience, individually and collectively. To the extent that we can be kind to ourselves when we are in pain, or reach for support when we can’t; that we can hold rage or grief for ourselves or another; that we can be held within our own communities no matter how big or small, is the extent that healing resources can emerge. I am passionate about supporting people in this way, and also aware of the importance communal support and collective healing.