How did you decide to become a therapist?
I decided to become a therapist as a means of honoring both my intense geeky fascination for the human mind, as well as those who aided and guided me on my own path (teachers, therapists, curanderos/curanderas, brujos/brujas, artists, and friends), enabling me to become the person I am today.
What’s your background?
I was born to a White American mother of primarily Irish and Scottish ancestry, and a Mexican immigrant father, (he himself had a Mestizo father and an Indigenous Mexican mother). I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and spent half my childhood here. The other half I spent living on a ranch in a rural community in Southern Arizona, not far from the US/Mexico Border. I identify as Multiracial, Mexican-American, Irish-American, Celtic, Indigenous, Xicanx, Latinx, First Nations, feminist and Queer (Bisexual/Pansexual).
What is your relationship to working with people from different backgrounds and worldviews from yourself? And what’s your relationship to priviledge like?
While I identify as a cisgender woman, I welcome and invite all genders of people into my practice. As someone who benefited from both conditional-white privilege and cisgender privilege, I make it my business to be self aware and to act from a place of humility and “beginner’s mind” whenever I find myself working with anyone, (and especially with people who have less privilege than myself). I try to “walk the walk, and talk the talk” as much as I can in my work as a therapist, and I do that by remaining receptive to feedback and committed to my own growth as a person.
As I came of age, I explored many different philosophies, and many different religious traditions. Amongst the spiritual traditions I studied or experimented with are: Celtic Spirituality, Paganism, Tibetan Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Sufism, Santeria, Voudon, Hoodoo/Rootwork, Alchemy, Anglicanism, Catholicism, Reform Judaism, and Quakerism, to name just a few! And so, I grew up betwixt and between many different cultures and with a fascination for the world around me and what makes human beings tick. I identify both as a Mystic, and as a huge Nerd. So whatever your beliefs or practices may be, know that your spirituality, (or lack thereof), is safe with me.
It took me a while to find myself and my place in the world, and my childhood experience of feeling like an outsider or like “a square peg in a round hole” has been a strength for me in my work as a therapist. I know intimately how lonely it can feel to be “different,” how scary it can feel to finally “come out” as the real you, and the unique unpleasantness of being expected to explain “what you are” to strangers. I also understand the unique issues of interracial, interfaith, and cross-cultural families and couples from the inside-out.
Whatever your identities, gender expression, sexual orientation, faith traditions, socio-economic origin, immigration status, or colonial experience, I want to invite you into a warm, caring, nonjudgemental space where the only expectation is that you show up as your authentic self— whoever that may be! I know we are living through challenging times, but it really does get better. And you don’t have to go it alone.
Do you have any expertise or interests outside of psychotherapy and mental health?
I was lucky enough to be raised in a family tradition of tarot reading and folk herbalism by my maternal grandmother. With her encouragement, I gave my first professional tarot readings as a high school student. I continued my herbalist and spiritual studies with Indigenous and Mestizo/Mestiza practitioners of TMM, (Traditional Mexican Folk Medicine), beginning in my mid-20s. Outside of my work as a psychotherapist, I have over 24 years of experience as an intuitive coach and spiritual counselor, and 30 years of experience working with the Tarot. In my spare time, I continue to enjoy preparing teas, tinctures, and ointments to share with friends and family, made from plants in my garden. Additionally, I enjoy writing, researching, making art, sewing, intensive bookworming, and spending time with my kitty-cats.
Areas of Expertise
Academic Stress, Burnout, Creative Blocks, Dreams & Dreaming, Insomnia, Shyness, Depression, Anxiety, Mindfulness, Meditation, Trauma, Chronic Illness, ADD/ADHD, Aspergers, Dyslexia, LGBTQI+, Kink Awareness, Issues of Identity, Spirituality, Jungian Psychology, Holistic Psychology, Gestalt, Non-Normative Experiences, Immigration Trauma, First Generation Millenials, Missing Birth Parents, Disability, Chronic Illness, Parenting, Nontraditional Families, Gender & Sexuality, Holistic Wellness
Education
John F. Kennedy Univerity, MA in Holistic Counseling Psychology with a Certificate in Buddhist Psychology. Cornell College, BA in SAN: Sociology & Anthropology as a Combined Discipline, and in Women & Gender Studies; with a minor in World Religions. Also a former graduate student in Harvard Divinity School’s “Women, Gender and Sexuality in World Religions” program.
“The doors to the world of the wild Self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door, if you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and the water so much you almost cannot bear it, that is a door.”
-Clarissa Pinkola-Estes, “Women Who Run With The Wolves.”