03/26/2024
After 4 years of doing client sessions online, in a few forests, parks, and in some back yards along the way, I am so thrilled to be back in an actual office, seeing actual humans, in person.
For so many reasons, when the pandemic first hit I was so grateful, relieved in fact, that my work could transition so easily online. I had been ready to leave the Bay Area for a long time, but was afraid of what it would be like to start over in a new place, and have to rebuild my private practice from scratch. I was totally physically burned out from commuting into San Francisco every day, and driving all over the city between two different office locations as well as over to UCSF to teach night classes. After years of living with chronic fatigue syndrome and healing from multiple car accidents and two head injuries, my nervous system and body were so unbelievably depleted. So no more commute was an incredibly welcome shift in my life. And then there was the more obvious reason... I was grateful to have work at a time when so many didn't (some of my work was impacted and there was definitely a brief scare about money, but not as badly as others who lost everything).
In these last four years, working online has allowed me to explore many possible places to build a new life....I went to Boulder, Asheville, Bend, Taos, Durango, Arcata, Eugene, even Kansas City (I wouldn't actually ever live there long term but my long distance partner at the time was from there, so I had to at least give it a shot).
It also allowed me to rest, create more work-life balance (I totally restructured my business, working hours, and every other aspect of being a self employed person who helps others), focus on healing my body and brain, reconnect with friends and family I only ever saw once a year or so, and ask the much deeper questions my life desperately needed me to ask, including Is this work right for me? What do I really want for my life and in love? What kind of life is going to best honor my deepest desires? and so many more.
Ironically, I settled back in my home town after swearing quite emphatically that I would never, EVER move back to Bellingham. But here in this city of subdued excitement, nestled at the edge of the Salish Sea and surrounded in every direction by mountains, islands, lakes, rivers, and streams, my life is really simple. I am easily nourished by nature and community, I am healthier than I have been since I was 35, and my nervous system is at ease. So deeply at ease.
All of this was made possible by working online for the last 4 years. And for all of that I am SO grateful.
But as often happens, as more of my needs were met with ease, as I began to feel more internally untethered by stress, grief and overwhelm, the need I once felt to live an externally untethered life began to change. The desire for structure and a sense of place returned, and with it returned a desire to shift back to working in person.
So, here I am, in my new office in Bellingham. I love this space and am so pleased with how beautiful and comfortable I have made it. I love not working in my bedroom, my living room or at my dining room table. I love leaving my computer at the office very night and not cracking it open even once over the weekends. I love having a reason to wear more than sweatpants, which, if you really know me, you will know just how thrilled I am to dress up in cute outfits again. And most importantly, I LOVE sitting across the room from another person (my clients), and bearing witness to their therapeutic process face to face. This part of it all is the best!
Now, I am not throwing shade of any sort at my many online clients. I am still totally loving the work we are doing, and with 4 years of data confirming that online sessions work, I will continue lean into it as a part of a hybrid work model that allows flexibility for me and my clients, because we humans are migratory creatures just as much as birds and whales. But it is also so awesome to be working in person again, and to have a place I get to go to every day that is devoted solely to the magic I help my clients create in their lives. That said, I will still happily offer sessions and teach retreats in the forest any day.
If you have been kind enough to read this far but are wondering what the magic is that I am creating in this office, let me tell you a bit about what goes on in here:
I work as a mindfulness based somatic therapist, trained in Somatic Experiencing, Brain Compatible Dance Education, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (which I teach at UCSF) and with a Certification in Mindfulness Facilitation from UCLA, plus a bunch of other trainings and years of experience as an artist, student, and healer in other disciplines. I also teach wilderness retreats and daylong workshops, mostly centered around mindfulness, wildness, somatic healing and other juicy stuff like that. Oh, and I have worked on some research studies through UCSF, and on some pretty amazing teaching teams with doctors and educators from world class institutions!
I work primarily with women who are healing from various kinds of trauma (but I also have a few pretty amazing clients of other genders). These various kinds fo traumas include: Sexual trauma, alcoholic or dysfunctional family system trauma, trauma from abusive relationships, medical or health care trauma, accidents and injuries, or emotional and psychological trauma.
These traumas often manifest in a lot of the following behaviors or conditions: perfectionism, people pleasing, toxic over achieving, anxiety, depression, relationship avoidance, relationship addiction, emotional/substance/food/s*x/money addictions, "good girl" behaviors, self abandonment, dissociation, self harming, poor or no boundaries, nervous system disregulation, and so much more.
I help my clients learn to set healthy boundaries, get present, reconnect with their bodies, become more self aware, leave abusive relationships, leave toxic jobs, learn to value and love themselves, learn to have healthy friendships and relationships, heal anxiety, explore new interests, explore their creativity, take risks, heal old wounds, repair family relationships, overcome addictions, decide what is true for them, let go of codependent behaviors, learn to feel what they feel, make authentic choices, make peace with uncertainty, come to terms with life changes, grieve losses, let go of perfectionism, integrate (legal) therapeutic psychedelic experiences, navigate midlife or end of life transitions, cultivate a meditation practice, heal maladaptive fight or flight responses, outgrow old patterns, and make big scary decisions that are about living for themselves rather than pleasing others.
In all of the years of doing this I can't tell you how many times I have seen clients go through radical transformations and turn their lives around so completely that we almost don't recognize who they were when we started working together. Not because I am some saint with a magic wand (trust me, neither are true), but because they were so totally ready to heal, learn and grow. Every bit of it is their own inner magic coming through!
I am so grateful for what 4 years of online work made possible in my life, and am so grateful to now be working with people again in person.
So, my doors are officially open for business here in Bellingham, and new in person clients are welcome!
p.s. (online clients are still welcome too!)