My life path has been one of the adventurous and winding type. I left behind the mainstream world two years after college, after studying psychology and deciding at the last minute to hold off on graduate school, going to work at a law firm instead. These few years in corporate America showed me very clearly that I was not designed for this life!
So driven by curiosity and a desire to know what is possible for this experience of life, I moved to Prague to teach English for two years, thinking at the time I would return back to the US shortly after to figure out the next steps and likely complete the training to become a therapist.
However, my years living in Europe changed me at a fundamental level. I developed a new relationship with life, and a deep trust in the natural flow of things and my intuition. I learned to hone my creative energy, and lived in way that honored my natural rhythms. So towards the end of my teaching contract, I began having visions at night of Southeast Asia… and felt the unmistakeable pull of Thailand calling to me.
I moved to Chiang Mai in September of 2012, and from there the journey accelerated. After teaching for a year there in a public school (I had nearly 500 kids over 12 classes, no joke!), I attained my first location independent job working as a retreat planner for a life coaching company, and was immersed in the world of online entrepreneurship in this budding digital nomad hub in northern Thailand.
Finding the Spiritual Path
My life path has been one of the adventurous and winding type. I left behind the mainstream world two years after college, after studying psychology and deciding at the last minute to hold off on graduate school, going to work at a law firm instead. These few years in corporate America showed me very clearly that I was not designed for this life!
So driven by curiosity and a desire to know what is possible for this experience of life, I moved to Prague to teach English for two years, thinking at the time I would return back to the US shortly after to figure out the next steps and likely complete the training to become a therapist.
However, my years living in Europe changed me at a fundamental level. I developed a new relationship with life, and a deep trust in the natural flow of things and my intuition. I learned to hone my creative energy, and lived in way that honored my natural rhythms. So towards the end of my teaching contract, I began having visions at night of Southeast Asia… and felt the unmistakeable pull of Thailand calling to me.
I moved to Chiang Mai in September of 2012, and from there the journey accelerated. After teaching for a year there in a public school (I had nearly 500 kids over 12 classes, no joke!), I attained my first location independent job working as a retreat planner for a life coaching company, and was immersed in the world of online entrepreneurship in this budding digital nomad hub in northern Thailand.
The years to follow unfolded in layers and layers of healing and deep exploration, leading me through the worlds of yoga and meditation in India, tantra and somatic healing, energy work, intuitive guidance, and plenty of shadow work as I came to understand myself and my life path in new ways, moving through many phases of release and renewal. I continued to work in the coaching field, eventually transitioning out of an assistant role into my own practice (with the help of a big wave and karmic “accident” in Costa Rica – another story for another day. 🙂
To be honest though, while I continued accumulating trainings and accolades in coaching and healing work, I still didn’t feel quite “enough” or confident in myself to go out on my own. I continued working for others in various capacities, compiling a diverse array of work experience in marketing, photography, freelancing/book publishing, community management and business development. (Looking back, very grateful for these experiences – but at the time they also represented the ways in which I was hiding on a path that was not my true north!) I had succeeded in the digital nomad lifestyle, for sure – but after many years on this path, my soul felt called into something deeper than simply working to travel.
Pilgrimmage & the Call to Peru
While the nomadic path was always aligned with my free spirited and explorative energy, something had still been missing for me with the “digital nomad” life I had created for myself in Chiang Mai. In 2018 I found myself in Lisbon to “digital nomad” there for a while – and after a few days had no idea what I was doing there. My soul was called to expand into something – anything – else… and I knew I needed two things: to walk, and to be in nature. A quick Google search of hikes later, I decided to walk the Camino de Santiago from Porto – with a quick stop at the sporting goods shop to pick up supplies, as this would be a bit more than a day hike. 🙂
To keep things (relatively) succinct, this pilgrimmage was the first initiatory calling of many that would lead me to Peru at the end of 2019. Once I began listening to the deeper voice within guiding by heart, not mind – things began to change. Embarking on a journey with shamanic healing and plant medicine studies in Peru felt like coming home, a true remembrance of something so ancient in my bones and our collective existence. Coming home to nature, to the land spirits, wise teachers, and deep inner knowings has been the most empowering and exhilarating experience of my life.
By the time 2020 rolled around, I was heading to Bali in early March to host a spiritual retreat mid-month, which I can safely say was an initiation experience of a type that neither myself nor my co-facilitator could have ever expected! Looking back, it is wild and beautiful to see the community we created as most of our participants arrived to the island just under the wire as airports began shutting down. We decided to go ahead with the retreat, and I will never forget gathering in ritual and practice in Ubud for that potent week as the world unraveled around us, feeling we were the “last collective standing” in the chaosAlthough I could have stayed in Bali for the pandemic, my heart was calling me back to my home country as the world shut down. Returning to my roots felt like a key part of entering this next phase of my true work in the world – guiding spaces for others to access their medicine within, find true healing, and step on to their path of creative expression and expansion.
Toward the end of 2020, I heard the call of Peru once again, and began to spend longer and deeper amounts of time immersed in and learning from the sacred mountains and plants of the Andes and the Amazon.
It is with the deepest gratitude that I honor the lands that have held space for this journey thus far, all of the teachers and guides in human, animal, spirit, and plant form, the challenges and rock bottoms, intuitive nudges, the prayers heard and answered, and the great mystery of life that holds us all – far beyond what we can ever understand in this human mind.
Here from where I stand in 2024 (still living in Peru), it is very interesting to feel this strong call back to my home country. I am not entirely sure what this next chapter will bring, but the word “bridge” keeps coming to my heart. It is such a joy to bring people to this land for retreat, but I desire to become a bridge for this medicine work in an even bigger way, returning with what I’ve learned to the place where I started, as we do in the Hero’s Journey! (The Alchemist was, after all, one book that sparked this entire journey way back in 2008!) So, as I remain open to the flow of life, I am in joy to be of service through counseling and mentorship, shamanic healing, and yoga/breathwork/somatic therapies – alongside, of course, sharing transformational travel experiences through retreats and journeys (primarily here in Peru at the moment, but soon to be elsewhere as well!)
I am honored to serve as a bridge between worlds as a soul-mentor, somatic-based healer and transformation guide to support you in consciously crafting and integrating your own journey.
My experiences have given me resources to span science and spirit, the conscious and unconscious, the mystical and practical, the upper and lower worlds. From the energetic depths of deep shadow work and shamanic healing to the very Earthly pursuits of creative expansion and meaningful self-expression in business and in life – I’m here to support you with my diverse toolkit and to create a deep and safe space for your transformative inner work to emerge.