My credentials are widespread and come more from life experience than from academia. I have been an artist my whole life. I studied theatre at a performing arts high school and graduated college with a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology with a concentration in Spanish translation and dance. I performed on stages in Boston and New York City, burning the candle at both ends working nights in bars and restaurants and travelling whenever I could. Unfulfilled by the starving artist routine, I became a yoga teacher and began practicing Vipassana meditation. The death of a close family member allowed me a shift in perspective to see that I wanted more freedom and more community in my life. I traveled to South America and began a new life in Colombia, where I live now with my partner and daughter. We live in the mountains and together are learning to be stewards of the earth and to inhabit our full potential as members of humanity
My own first exposure to Ayurveda was in 2011, during a yoga teacher training program in New York City. I began to experience great shooting bolts of energy up the right side of my back in certain poses. At first, I thought it was related to an old injury to my shoulder, which was where the energy seemed to reach towards, but after speaking to an Ayurvedic doctor, I better understood. The first time I sat with this woman, her hands on my wrists taking my pulse and her heart penetrating my being as I told her my story, I knew I had found something powerful. She explained that I had opened my kundalini shakti energy, which desires to rise up the spine, but I had physical and energetic blockages that were not allowing the energy to flow properly. She warned me that this energy unleashed in an unprepared body could really damage my whole being if not treated with the proper care and respect. She gave me grounding herbs and practices as well as some suggestions of how to release my blockages by dealing with unresolved trauma from my past. I took the herbs and did the practices and the shooting energy stopped. Yet I didn’t follow her suggestion to dedicate time and energy to healing my old wounds. I wasn’t ready.
This current chapter of healing in my life unfolded after an unwanted cesarean section in the birth of my first child, due to what is commonly called “failure to progress.” I soon found myself faced with a torrent of mental, physical and emotional symptoms that I couldn’t separate from the “normal” unfolding of a woman’s life postpartum.* I experienced rage, deep sadness, and a hyper-vigilant form of anxiety, characteristic of postpartum PTSD. Physical symptoms included rapid weight gain, a fierce and extremely painful breakout of shingles, a total loss of libido, and insomnia. I was a completely different person, and I felt like a monster.
I became a researcher, spending sleepless nights at the computer looking for answers, as I knew I could not live this way. I began reading incessantly, I began my yoga practice gingerly after healing from the surgery, but I still had not found it. I searched for acupuncturists and began getting treatments, I started talking to a mental health professional, and finally I decided to take a course to learn Ayurveda more in-depth. Slowly over that year of study, I began to understand my symptoms, the underlying patterns causing them, and the path to creating balance again. I finally saw that not having dealt with the cause of my energy jolts years ago, which was a disturbance in the downward flowing energy in the body, had likely caused the “failure to progress” of my birth; my own energetic blockages would not let my daughters head descend.
In my woundedness I became my own healer. I began to understand the ways that energy and fluids and waste and emotions flow within the body and I began to cleanse myself of old poisons damaging me from the past. I am still in the work. There is much to be done. But I have the tools, as Ayurveda is not only a system of medicine but also, an education. I am here to give you the tools to know and heal your own self as well.
*To read a more detailed version of my birth story published in an online magazine, click here
Special circumstances
Most people on this earth have ancient ancestral wounds, and this work can help you to heal that pain that you were born with, inherited through your DNA. Through the process of living in this world, we are additionally exposed to all varieties of traumas and toxicity, especially people with brown skin, womxn, and people who embody the liminal all over the globe.
My own experience as a person of mixed race and multicultural ethnicity has shown me that these structural wounds and epigenetic traces of violence, pain, and the broken path of tradition all live within the body and can be healed. For that reason, I offer this work in particular to people of color and to those dwelling within the feminine or breaking down the binary.
I accept offers of barter and trade, and I offer a sliding scale to anyone with financial need. Please mention it when you contact me to schedule your appointment.
Disclaimer
No part of this site is intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any illness. Nothing on this site is to be construed as medical advice; I am not a medical doctor. Please discuss your personal health, including any options or ideas you may read on the internet (on this site or others) with your personal, qualified health practitioner before making changes to your diet or adjusting/discontinuing any medication. If you have or suspect you may have a medical or psychological problem, you should consult your appropriate health care provider. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. ova wellbeing is not responsible for any adverse outcomes associated with using or misconstruing advice or information on this site. Any reviews, comments, testimonials or endorsements found on this site does not constitute a guarantee, warranty, or prediction regarding the outcome of any consultation. The testimonials on this website represent the anecdotal experience of individual consumers. Links on this website are provided only as an informational resource, and it should not be implied that we recommend, endorse or approve of any of the content at the linked sites, nor are we responsible for their availability, accuracy or content.
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