My Story

My healing path was jump started by a spontaneous event which occurred in my late 20's. I had been living in Alaska and teaching science in public school. As, I was driving my car and contemplating, I noticed how much tension was in my legs. Recognizing this as unnecessary, I was able to let them relax. Then I felt an ache and tightness in my heart area. Immediately, I heard the voice of a very young boy say, " I know how to heal this." My hand rose to the space in front of my heart and began gesturing and soothing the area. I snapped out of this awareness startled by the voice and my own hand movements. I was shocked and amazed.

This began my pursuit of learning to heal at the deepest level. Soon after this experience, I discovered Reiki and trained in Reiki levels I, II, and III. Approaching Reiki with a scientific mind produced an inner revolution. I experienced first hand how intent and energy produce results, even across miles of distance.

Native American Shamanism was also a fascination. It appealed to my roots as a biologist with an appetite for the wilderness. I read books like Black Elk Speaks and Pretty Shield, Medicine Woman of the Crow. In 1999, I visited the Big Horn Medicine Wheel in WY, near Sheridan. I arrived and was pleased to find the site vacant. I walked around the wheel reciting the words of the White Calf Buffalo Woman, "In a sacred manner, I am walking." With each step, I became entranced and I felt more and more connected to the earth, with a deep respect for the ancestors of all indigenous people.

After quite some time, I was drawn to the points of the wheel. At each point, I spoke to the directions, and to my surprise, I heard a response at each of the 6 points. It was a miraculous conversation. Finally at the last point, the mother earth point, I was given the gift of earthsong. A heard a beautiful song and sang it all the way back to the car. I now know this gift to be an artistic and musical connection to the earth and spirit.

Back at home, I felt deeply connected with shamanic work and the creation of sacred space. Occasionally, I worked with a few friends and I felt guided by a knowing, a clarity. I had received essentially no shamanic training, yet was seeing profound results.

Around that time, my family tore down the family cabin to build a summer home. During construction, many trees were removed and the plants near the house were trampled. I wanted to bring the natural ecosystem back into the area over time. But my mother had a local grass seed planted which would reclaim the ground cover more quickly. Over the next three years, I transplanted trees to fill in around the house from the adjacent forest. Occasionally I also moved plants that seemed to have a strong energetic influence. In the following years, I noticed that there was a distinct line between the ecosystem and the grass. Various native plants had grown and filled in around the trees and were also growing ahead of the trees. I could see how the trees offered a protected nurturing space for these plants to grow. My work to support the ecosystem was being magnified. It facilitated nature to reclaim itself. A beautiful concept of energy fields was there right in front to my eyes. I pondered how this could be applied to human organizations and healing work.

Weeks later I read a summary of the Hakomi method. It precisely described principles and concepts which facilitate this kind of profound experience. I was quite excited and signed up for the 2-year training program with the

Hakomi Institute and subsequent advanced studies with Ron Kurtz, the founder. This study and practice provided countless opportunities to guide and observe healing experiences like the previous story.

Hakomi honors the person as a system and brings the enlightenment of love to all aspects of ourselves. The method creates a perceptible "bubble" of safe space for healing to occur. It brings awareness and light into our dark places and allows us to discover the beliefs that organize our personality and relationships by using communication tools that support defenses. This allows the subconscious and the soul to be welcome and present and to willingly surface. Here we can reevaluate beliefs, often formulated as a child and find forgiveness.

In practicing Hakomi, I found that the "bubble" held such possibility for healing. This space of soul awareness held the key to healing. But, as the old saying goes, "To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail." Somehow the tools we learned and used seemed to limit the fullness of all possibilities. I found Hakomi to be amazing work, I revered the method and desired to access the full potential of healing on the soul level.

I continued to heal primarily using Hakomi and a form of energetic hands healing where I use my hands to sense stuck energy. By simply staying in loving gentle contact with the energy, Hakomi-like results can begin to happen, the unconscious reveals through emotion, and memories to the core of experience. Then on the soul plane the truth can be rediscovered and the story or beliefs are rewritten. This rewriting is a deep conversation guided by the light of truth that shines in both participants and ultimately is the choice of the client.

In 2006, I met Skip Lackey, a teacher of The Journey, a healing method and workshop series. In the 1 hour intro, I found a practice that worked on the soul level and felt like I finally had permission to work and fully engage on this level. It was at this point that the SoulBody work solidified. The Journey, has given me more tools and access to powerful forgiveness work. Today I am still training with The Journey and weaving this entire tapestry of experience into my healing work which is guided by the body, emotion and the soul.

Going into the future, I look forward to leading workshops and teaching people the simple skills to communicate from the soul level within relationships, families, and communities.