Here is a little story about what led me to this work

I identify as white-bodied, transgender, nonbinary, queer, neurodivergent, animal lover living on Cherokee land or Asheville, North Carolina. I was originally born in Arizona then moved to Colorado, the San Francisco Bay Area in California, and now to Asheville, North Carolina where I have lived since 2011.

I grew up in the high desert on Hohokam land in the Southwestern US. That place, the plants, animals, sky, smells, sand, sun, weather, heat, thorns, flowers, stars, all of it is anchored deep within my bones. I was always surrounded by animals and they were my friends and teachers and helpers. This was my first somatic school yard.

But it was when I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in my early 20’s that I found queer and trans community and explored embodiment and sexuality and gender and found myself for the first time. It was here that I experienced belonging and felt seen and reflected in my peers. I felt the power of what community-holding could really be. It rooted me into the practice of embodying my authenticity in a way I couldn’t find in the mainstream.

Coming from a conservative upbringing I had a lot of catching up to do. I became passionate about sex education and trained towards becoming a sex educator. As any good anarchist would, I began hosting sexuality workshops in my community infoshop. I got to hang out with Carol Queen and Robert Lawrence at The Center For Sex and Culture where they hosted a massive collection of books, videos, and ephemera from decades of the sex liberation movement in San Francisco. This community space left such an impression on me of how it can feel to dedicate a space to pleasure and personal exploration and invitation for endless possibilities. It wasn’t until I moved away that I realized how very precious community is and how quiet that can feel when we loose the connection. This really set in motion a drive to hold a space that is too rare in this world and that is so dear to my heart. And so my somatic bodywork practice was born to be able to have a space centered on us, for trans nonbinary and queer folks to find healing within our own community.

Since moving to Asheville, North Carolina I have been a Somatic Bodyworker now for 13 years now. It is ultimately through that collaboration that happens within sessions that I know anything about anything. From being in session with my many collaborators I learned and studied the rhythms of the body/mind/soul and felt how they ebb and flow. With this practical experience I saw how some patterns would stay stuck without different kinds of somatic interventions beyond what deep tissue could do. I began to explore other somatic pathways through calisthetics, weightlifting, movement, breathwork, and art. I explored how movement can help me tap into different experiences, and how sensation and sensory exploration can shift my states. I found somatic supports that for the first time felt accessible to my system and it opened up a new pathway of possibility for transforming stress patterns with mind/body integration.

I became a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (3 year program) which is a specific mind/body approach to unwinding stress and trauma patterns by exploring the felt sense. I also became a Biodynamic CranioSacral Practitioner (2 year program) which has allowed me to study the relational field, meditation, and potent touchwork that is a wonderful compliments Somatic Experiencing. Along the way I always want to extend the conversation into an experiential practice and have been a long-time student of Jane Clapp who incorporates movement work and Jungian Somatics which explores that which can not always be named. Internal Family Systems is another approach that I am a student of that can sometimes be supportive. (I have many more teachers and am working on getting a bigger list together so I can give credit to those I have learned so much from.) Overall, my practice is rooted in politicized somatics. Beyond any one approach this work begins from a liberatory framework and must be anti-oppressive because all of our struggles are connected. I believe we are more than our brains or nervous system and can not be reduced to merely parts and exist beyond what can neatly be put into words or a graph, or theory but sometimes they are helpful.

In sessions we explore our edges we work on building resilience with the nervous system, expanding capacity, creating a new story, demystifying activation, challenging holding patterns, building in resources, finding strength, & feel our boundaries. It’s different from psychotherapy in that we don’t “process” the content, but we integrate what is emerging and reset meaning-making on a physical/emotional level. We explore how it feels in the body, and develop new neuro-pathways to reset the nervous system to the present rather than repeating impulses that were necessary in the past. We go beyond the biology and tend to all of the parts and find our core self and we notice what is us and what is not us. We unwind the layers that tangle the connection between mind, body, and soul and stay curious about what we don’t have words for yet.

I believe in this work, and I want you to feel supported in your process. As we each get more of what we need, and feel held, and remember that we are whole, that sensation reverberates to others. With all of the pain and struggle there has been throughout queer and trans history, I am encouraged by our resilience, not to endure, but to come together despite the challenges as we co-regulate, heal together in community, and reach for joy.