Seventeen workshops include written and creative visualization exercises designed for the individual to: explore one's nature; deal with pressures from the outside world; free one's self from psychological traps; deal with guilt, anger, anxiety, and depression; meet deep down needs; go to the root of conflict; heal from difficult past events; develop better communication skills; improve familial and romantic relationships; understand the psychological games we play; explore beliefs about one's self and the world; learn ways to discover, embrace, and walk on one's personal path; and to expand the boundaries of one's reality.
I was born in Washington State, raised in Phoenix, AZ, and currently reside in Oregon. My first profession was a psychotherapist (individual, marriage, and family counseling) treating those suffering from depression, anxiety, panic attacks, post traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, sexual abuse, family violence, and severe mental illness. I employed therapies such as communication skill building, relaxation training, systematic desensitization, bioenergetics, and psychodrama. I have also facilitated stress management, parenting, and self-discovery workshops that have aided in the psycho-spiritual healing of many. Education and training include an M.A. in Ed. in Counseling/Human Relations and Behavior (NAU), a B.S. in Sociology (ASU), and ten powerful months of psychological and metaphysical training in a Tibetan community. I've been a social activist from time to time (very hard) in educational matters, for women, and for Native Americans. Sometimes a woman's got to do what a woman's got to do!
I have two grown children, a son and a daughter, now in college pursuing their dreams (my daughter is an author too), while I happily live out the second half of my life, doing what I love: teaching self-discovery workshops, writing, and meditating.
With a background in college theater, my experience as a psychotherapist, and my profound interest in freeing the individual from unsavory sociological influence, I write entertaining and sometimes educational books that facilitate personal growth and transformation. I enjoy mixing it up by writing in various genres blending psychology, philosophy, fantasy, dark fantasy, romance, and even horror. I have been writing for twenty-five years, and I plan to write until I die. Writers block? Huh, what's that?
My interests (aside from writing) are facilitating self-discovery workshops, composing songs, singing, meditating to classical music, metaphysical realms, philosophical exploration, deep meaningful conversations, playing in the ocean and rain and snow, walking through tall forests, sitting under the stars, (I am so not a party girl), traveling to foreign countries, genealogy, history, quantum physics, and cats. I have four lovely felines (yes, I am the cat lady). I love fairy tales, going outside the box, and reading between the lines. I strive to see what is often missed, and to not miss what can't be seen. There is such a life out there, and in there--beyond all perception! So I close my eyes, feel my inner rhythm, and jump off the cliff of convention. And when I land, though I might be quaking in my boots, I gather my courage and go exploring.
Through travel, study, and work, I've gained a rich awareness of cultural differences among people and their psychosocial struggles. I have discovered that oppression often results from the unexamined adoption of outside perceptions. The healing always has been in the individual's stamina to expel out-side perceptions of self and and constructively exert one's unique core being into the world. I am driven to facilitate expanded awareness that people may separate who they are from who they are told to be. Embracing personal power by loving our unique selves in our weaknesses and strengths, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, for better or for worse . . . forever--is a key to joyous living.
My motto is: Trust your story. Live the Mystery.
