My journey through the healing labyrinth...
What brought me to this body of work.
Healing isn't linear, I experience it to be a labyrinth. I have been walking it for nearly five decades, approaching the old wounds with newfound perspective and more maturity with each turn. The labyrinth speaks of trust in the process, works with neuroplasticity and reassures us we are never really lost.
Intergenerational, developmental, sexual and shock trauma is woven into the fabric of my life, and started to really catch up with me as I became a mother. I didn't have much understanding of it at the time, just a fervent desire to break dysfunctional patterns and do my best. This desire has kept me going, and has brought me to places of deep reckoning and learning.
It has taken me many years to realize I wasn't broken, even if my body was shouting at me with severe digestive issues, chronic pain, burnout and loss of libido (which was especially devastating, because it wasn't just affecting me, but also the love of my life). Now I see these messengers as the ones who taught me how to listen.
Learning to hear and come home to my precious body has been the biggest blessing, and made me understand that we all have an innate blueprint of health.
Looking back, most of the things I intuitively chose in my life were resourcing and healing, even if they eventually no longer served. As a young woman I didn't just develop various numbing strategies to cope; I also fell in love with the Earth and working with my hands. I still build homes with mud, grow vegetables and a forest garden, and wild craft food and medicine. I have always carried deep care for all of my relations, but somehow didn't understand how much I needed to be in loving relationship with myself, to be able to show up and engage fully with life.
The past 7 years have been an epic journey that brought me to my knees with painful realizations and stripped me of most things that used to help me numb myself enough to not feel too overwhelmed by pain, emotions, or even pleasure. It started with a 4-day nature quest in the wilderness of Aotearoa NZ, and eventually brought me to the Peruvian Amazon. I was led by intuition, plants and chance encounters, the teachers appearing when I was ready to recognize and understand them. I feel eternal gratitude to my teachers.
After four years of full-time studies, daily embodiment practices, somatic therapy, dedicated time working with plant medicines, and much time spent unbecoming and patiently listening for my Soul's calling, I feel humbled and blessed to now share my healing presence and shine a soft light for others as they journey the labyrinth towards liberation and bliss.
Certified VITA™ Sex, Love & Relationship Coach
Mindful-Somatic Trauma Therapy
MindBody Therapy (Embodied Philosophy)
Certified Flourish™ Pelvic Health Practitioner
Eco Therapy Practitioner
Transformation in Natura™ Facilitator
Ceremony and Rites of Passage Training
Transformations Breathwork Training
IAKP Kambo Master Practitioner
Curanderismo Initiation Course (Ayahuasca Foundation Peru)
Earth Building Artisan (20 years in business)
How I work
The somatic coaching process is led by my clients' visions and goals. We don't focus on painful stories from the past, bothersome symptoms alone, or what isn't working in your life right now. Instead we meet all of you with loving acceptance and gain clarity on what needs to happen for you to become a full-body YES! to your deepest desires. The results are often profound.
Somatic Coaching
The Greek word "soma" refers to "the living body in its wholeness". As a somatic coach I see you as a whole, vital, interactive, living being that has been shaped over time by the world around you.
Our neurology, psychology and biology are intertwined and cannot be separated out. I directly engage with your experience at the “whole organism” level (mind, body and spirit) to include your memories, thoughts and emotions, and to an even deeper extent, your sensations, impulses and movement patterns.
No-body, and no body system, ever works alone or gets hurt alone... and as a result also never heals alone. We are an eco-system and part of a wider eco-system. Health and wholeness is in our blueprint when we integrate all parts of ourselves and sequence our healing work following our bodies' design and wisdom.
Every part of your body (including your mind) is alive and has consciousness and wisdom. By becoming aware and curious about long-held protective patterns, tension, and traumatic stress in your body, we can begin the mindful process of opening, feeling and releasing; thus creating more energy and vitality. And where there is more aliveness, there can be more choice and the possibility of a whole new story.
VITA™ Methodology
Blending neurobiology, holistic healing, and modern coaching with the ancient and powerful teachings of Tantra, Taoism, and Sacred Sexuality, VITA™ stands for: “The Vital and Integrated Tantric Approach.”
Our human sexuality is the key to a world of vitality, bliss and freedom.
Through the powerful combination of holistic tools like breathwork, pleasure practices, trauma healing, meditative practices, energy work, sounding, and movement, this method offers a completely unique approach to healing and awakening authentic sexuality in a holistic way.
Backed by modern science and empowered by ancient wisdom, we work with the primal brain and the deep subconscious, which allows us to actually resolve the issues that keep you from having the sex, relationships, and love that you desire and deserve.
The VITA™ Method has been developed by Layla Martin, sexpert extraordinaire, master coach, revered teacher and founder of the VITA™ Institute.
Flourish™ Integrated Pelvic Health
The pelvis is the foundation of our being. It not only protects vital organs of digestion and reproduction, it also is the seat of our intuition and the place from which we experience embodied safety.
It is virtually impossible to dive into somatic practices and coaching around sex, love and relationships, without looking at the nervous system, the lymphatic system, connective tissue, structural integrity and pelvic health.
Many of my clients carry some degree of pelvic trauma: from sexual assault, childhood abuse, systemic oppression and shame-based conditioning, to the impact of miscarriage/abortion or traumatic birth experiences and other common sexual health conditions, many of which are carried in silence.
I follow the Hierarchy of Healing, which is a way of looking at sequencing of healing work from a survival perspective. Some systems are more important than others for survival. There is a strong initial focus on the brain, the Vagus nerve, the lymphatic system, and gut and liver health.
All these systems are also vital for emotional processing, and pain management.
Nature Connection, Life Cycles and Ritual
Our Journey on Earth brings abundant opportunities for soul cultivation and initiation into life’s mysteries, and the Earth itself can be experienced as loving parent, communal home and wise teacher. Opening into relationship with more-than-human kin can bring healing that transcends the individual experience. It is what sustains my work.
I love supporting the personal pathway to meaning, spiritual connection and guidance in alliance with the natural world. For many people, cultivating relationship with the natural world can be a healing, grounding resource both in the moment as well as long-term in stress management and trauma recovery.
The explorations of the seasons of a human life and life transitions can be linked with ritual skills in a really meaningful way. Ritual speaks to our primal brains and weaves us into the fabric of life. Personally meaningful, pragmatic rituals can be co-created with the client, by drawing on developmental psychology and potentially relevant religious and spiritual systems, in a culturally sensitive way.
I also have extensive experience with shamanic dream work and master plants, and love supporting clients with the integration of experiences made in altered states of consciousness.
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