About Me

My background, education and trainings. Plus a couple of favorite poems.

As Once the Winged Energy of Delight

by Rilke

As once the winged energy of delight
carried you over childhood’s dark abysses,
now beyond your own life build the great
arch of unimagined bridges.

Wonders happen if we can succeed
in passing through the harshest danger;
but only in a bright and purely granted
achievement can we realize the wonder.

To work with Things in the indescribable
relationship is not too hard for us;
the pattern grows more intricate and subtle,
and being swept along is not enough.

Take your practiced powers and stretch them out
until they span the chasm between two
contradictions…For the god
wants to know himself in you.

The Guest House

by Rumi

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

More about me

Home and belonging are incredibly important to me. For years I had what I described as a feeling of homesickness even though I had no home attached to it. I realize now what I was looking for was belonging. I have done a lot of things in my professional life - all of which were related in some form or another to creating a sense of safety, belonging and delight for myself or others, or both.

A line from a Tosha Silver book captures the deepest questions that were always swirling around in my heart:

“Is this my destination? Can I lay my burden down? Am I safe? Can I finally let go?"

Today in my body, in my home, I say Yes.

Here are some highlights from my education, experiences and trainings:

2023: Coach Trainings:

Certified Coach through The Applied Depths Practitioner Institute's Sacred Depths practitioner training. A one-year, trauma informed transformational coaching program where I was trained in a variety of transformational techniques including somatics, ritual, and coaching.

Moving the Human Spirit - Trauma informed coaching basics.

The Embody Institute - Somatic Attachment

2020-2024 I started my own company painting and building. I loved getting to be in people’s homes especially during the pandemic. Getting to know people in their spaces, to learn what they liked and disliked, and to support them (explicitly or not) in creating a space where they felt held and able to fully express themselves.

2019-2020: Columbia Greene Community College Construction Technology Program

2016: Mom! I had my daughter in the summer of 2016. She is my greatest joy and has connected me deeply to myself, my mother, and this long ass line of Pisces women that is my family.

2013-2017: Hudson River Exchange. I co-founded Hudson River Exchange on a whim with a group of women. Two of us wound up running it for years. We helped create a community around the amazing artisans - solopreneurs who had previously been trekking to the city for markets or selling on Etsy. To support all these artists, we started the first maker market in Hudson in 2013, opened a co-op shop on the main drag in town, held business classes and group crits (a la art school), and hosted celebratory gatherings. My amazing business partner, Stella Yoon - the real brains and heart of HRE - has continued to helm the ship.

2011-2013: Perfect Ten Afterschool. Founded in 2011, Perfect Ten started as an after school and out of school enrichment and mentor program designed to create a container for girls in elementary and middle school to experiment with and step into their emerging selves. The goals were to foster a sense of worthiness in and entitlement to the world beyond their current circumstances.

2011: I got sober. This was arguably one of the hardest - and most rewarding - things I have ever done. At the time, I had no idea what I was stepping into or that my life would change and expand in the ways it has.

2008-2011: Registered Nurse. I worked mostly on the terminal disease and end of life floor of a community hospital. At the time, I had some rationalization for becoming a nurse, although the decision baffled a lot of people who knew me (“Why aren’t you going to medical school?”). I realized once I got sober that I needed to be around people dying of cancer, to witness the process of dying and to actively support those grappling with their death, as part of the grieving process for my own mother dying. As a child it was too terrifying to be present for that catastrophe so I tucked it away deep inside. When a favorite patient died, it tore me open and was the catalyst for the bottom that led me into sobriety. That was where the real healing began.

2001-2016 Waitress. Always at the restaurants at the heart of a community. Santa Fe in Tivoli, The Red Dot in Hudson, Gaskins in Germantown. I have on-again-off-again worked at restaurants for all of my adult life. Gathering places around food and familiar faces. I love them.

2003: Graduated from SUNY New Patlz with a BA in Black Studies.

1979: I was born in Washington, DC on February 23. I was born to a Pisces mother (March 12), who was born to a Pisces mother (March 14), who was born to a Pisces mother (February 25). I come from a long line of women who have adventured, escaped, survived and found some peace and joy along the way.

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