My Training (updated 1/2024)
Continuing Education
WHEEL OF CONSENT • Corinne Diachuk & Katie Spataro (Dec 2023)
Introductory training in Dr. Betty Martin’s Wheel of Consent model.
THE MYTHIC BODY • Joshua Michael Schrei (Nov 2023–Sept 2024)
Immersive study in myth, somatics, nature-relations, invocation, threshold experiences, and ritual.
THE POLITICS OF TRAUMA • Staci Haines & Others (Oct 2023–Feb 2024)
Training in somatic practices for embodied transformation, social action, and love.
GRIEF RITUAL LEADERSHIP TRAINING • Francis Weller & Others (Sep 2023–Jan 2024)
Deep dive into the five gates of grief and embodied leadership practice.
FOCUSING RESOURCES • Ann Weiser Cornell (Apr-Sep 2023)
Coursework in Focusing, a process for making transformative contact with inner experience.
NEURODIVERSITY-AFFIRMING CARE • Reese Ramponi & Joel Schwartz (Dec 2022)
Developing a new paradigm for understanding neurodiversity through a social justice lens.
GENDER-AFFIRMATIVE CARE • Matt Goldberg (Jan 2022)
Providing culturally competent and socially conscious care for trans and gender-nonconforming folks.
EDUCATION FOR RACIAL EQUITY • Resmaa Menakem & Carlin Quinn (Mar 2021–Dec 2021)
Somatic Abolitionism Training Program for Therapists and Coaches.
GENESIS HEALING INSTITUTE/LIBERATION ACADEMY (Feb 2021–Jul 2021)
Somatic work for white-bodied practitioners to bolster a liberatory movement in mental health.
UNPACKING WHITENESS • Anna-Brown Griswold & Kimber Simpkins (Jul-Aug 2020)
Integrating the history/context of U.S. systemic racism using relational and somatic practices.
COURSEWORK IN ETHICS
The Right Use of Power w/ Cedar Barstow (2019); The Ethics of Touch w/ Ofer Zur (2020); The Ethics of Documentation w/ Eric Strom (2020); The Ethics of Self-Care at NWCEAI (2021).
Education
PACIFICA GRADUATE INSTITUTE Carpinteria, CA (Sep 2015–May 2018)
M.A., Counseling Psychology. Thesis: “Embodying Compassion: The Role of Experiential Therapies in Decreasing Caregiver Fatigue” (exploring Hakomi Therapy, Internal Family Systems, and Mindful Self-Compassion).
SEATTLE HAKOMI EDUCATION NETWORK Shoreline, WA (2011-2013; 2015-2018)
Certified therapist (2013) and teacher (2018).
BARD COLLEGE Annandale-On-Hudson, NY (Aug 1988–May 1992)
B.A., Anthropology/Gender Studies. Thesis: “Tripartite Feminisms,” transcending the construct of the binary in Western/modern thought and highlighting feminist work in the sciences.
Living Lineage/Accountability
As a white-bodied person, I have benefitted from systems of white supremacy throughout my life. As a white-bodied mental health professional, I sit uneasily within the institutional bounds of my profession, including its history of oppression and appropriation. Below I share a bit more about my teachers and my/their accountability. It is an ongoing effort of mine to practice humility, gratitude, recognition, reparations, and reciprocity to the teachers and lineages that came before me.
Buddhism. My Buddhist practice is centered in the Theravadan tradition, as brought to the west by the founders of Insight Meditation Society. I have studied and practiced with Narayan Leibenson, Heather Martin, Kamala Masters, Sharon Salzberg, and Rodney Smith, among others. More about their teachers, from Burma, Bangladesh, Nepal, and India, is here, here, and here. Learn how to support Buddhist nuns in Tibet and around the world.
Hakomi. My training in Hakomi was with the founders of Seattle Hakomi Education Network, who trained with Ron Kurtz, who originated the Hakomi method and refined it with a core group of people in the late 1970s. The lineages within Hakomi include systems theory, Gestalt psychotherapy, and “somatics,” as coined by Thomas Hannah and evident in the work of Wilhelm Reich and Elsa Gindler, among others. Kurtz was also influenced by yoga, Buddhism, Taoism, Ida Rolf, and Moshé Feldenkrais (who was influenced by Judo founder Jigoro Kano). Read about the name Hakomi and acknowledgment of the Hopi people.
Somatics. My teachers in social justice somatics have been Staci Haines, Erika Lyla, Brandon Sturdivant, and Dona Hirschfield-White. To learn more about the roots of somatics and see an in-depth accounting of living lineage, visit Staci Haines and The Embodiment Institute.
Social Justice, Racial Justice, Accountability and Ancestral Healing for white-bodied folks. I have studied Resmaa Menakem and Carlin Quinn at Education for Racial Equity; with Anna-Brown Griswold and Zoe Darling, whose lineages include Holistic Resistance; and with MaryBeth Bonfiglio, Sage Hayes, and Caitlin Sweeney to explore liberatory practice and ancestral healing.
Jung. I am not a Jungian psychotherapist, but the graduate school I attended is rooted in Jungian and post-Jungian studies. Read Pacifica’s statement on their diversity and inclusion council (the word “equity” is notably lacking) and their outreach efforts. More on accountability regarding Jung’s anti-Semitism here and here; and for his colonial and racist ideas here and here.