The values that shape my life & practice

Care

Care is love in action. It is a skill, a technology, and an art.

I believe that care is the praxis that will allow us to create new ways of living in relationship to ourselves, each other, and the planet, as we compost outmoded systems, structures, and paradigms. Care has the power to melt us, strengthen us, and give us a felt sense of belonging that transforms strangers into kindreds and humans and the more-than-human-world into a unity.

Carework is the thread that stitches together the quilt of my professional life, from childcare, hospitality, writing, Spanish language instruction, bodywork, teaching yoga, organizing, and doula support, into the ecosystem of service that I tend now. It’s while practicing carework that I feel most purposeful, connected, and present. The care dynamic opens a gateway into the joy of interdependence. I am grateful to be on this journey together, and for the opportunity to connect with you.

Embodiment

My working definition of embodiment is feeling the physical experience of being ourselves. Embodiment prioritizes presence and relationship over rational thought, creating more connected ways of living.

The practice of embodiment helps us to integrate the cognitive processes of the body and the mind. Having whole bodymind awareness allows us to respond appropriately to our sensory cues that indicate things like needs for nourishment, rest, safety, connection, as well as desire, boundaries, and intuition.

I consider the process of embodiment as cultivating a relationship of deep care with oneself. In order to hear and honor our body’s cues, we must be attuned and responsive, and thus, present. Presence requires us to slow down and tune in, getting out of our heads, into the body where we can listen to its intelligence with all of our senses.

Because of how information is processed and stored in our tissues (including muscles, fascia, viscera, and the nervous system), your body is a powerful site for skill-building, healing, and transformation. What you practice in your body readily translates into other aspects of your life, meaning that you can create significant shifts in behavior and experience through bodywork, movement, and somatic ritual. The approach to embodiment that we’ll practice together highlights making choices aligned with the body’s wisdom, bringing your core values into action to create a deeply satisfying felt experience of life.

Wholeness

An expansive view of the Self considers each person to be made up of the body, mind, emotions, spirit, community, and environment. Instead of aspiring to “fix” us, an approach to care that values wholeness embraces all of our parts, understanding that we are complex, ever-changing, and interdependent.

I believe that you are precious and deserve care that sees and treats you as a whole person. As a permaculture designer, I bring a whole systems design philosophy to carework. Together, we’ll get a birds-eye view on the ecosystem of your life and identify key leverage points where we can create more nourishment, connection, and fulfillment.

To transform means to change in form, nature, appearance, or character. The space between one state and another is called a liminal space, and is a field of infinite possibility. This is where our work together occurs.

Life’s key transitions — including birth, death, and various expressions of rebirth — are considered rites of passage in many cultures and wisdom traditions. As such, these thresholds, are held with great reverence and care. It’s my intention to be a steadying presence to help you navigate these wobbly transitions so that you may emerge on the other side feeling whole.

As a queer, non-binary, neurodivergent person who also identifies as a witch, I am intimately familiar with liminal spaces, and have gone through many metamorphoses myself. Ritual, ceremony, peer, and community support have been used for millennia to steward each other through life-changing thresholds. We will call on these tried-and-true tools and ground into the most current evidence-based peer-reviewed information to help you release overwhelm, clarify your authentic focus, trust your process, and arrive on the other side transformed.

What’s the Buzz With All The Bees?

Honeybees bring together two of my very favorite things: care and systems. Honeybees make community care an art form. They weave together the landscape and the inner life of the hive in an elegant dance of reciprocity. Their embodiment of generosity and unity inspires me every day.

In 2015, observing hive-side at Spikenard Farm Honeybee Sanctuary, the honeybee’s wise and playful spirit captured my heart forever. Understanding this being as a sacred teacher, I studied various methods of beekeeping for five years before stewarding a hive of my own. The honeybee teaches me about community, curiosity, play, love, grief, joy, sustainability, and, above all, the art of care.

The worker honeybee’s body and skills are in continual transformation as she learns how to tend to every task and phase of life in the hive, starting by tending to the dead, then nursing the young, and eventually flying out into the sunlight to forage nourishment for her hive. The worker’s evolution in service to her community mirrors my own work, and I aspire to hold her embodiment of care, wholeness, and transformation as the model for my service in the world.