I arrived at somatics through a winding path in community mental health, education, academia and care work. I completed my BA in Psychology at Brown University, and MA in Third Generation Psychotherapy at the International University of Valencia. While these programs were important to my path, they taught me as much through their limitations as through their offerings.

In dealing with my own emotional struggles through the years, I found refuge in movements for collective liberation, especially in abolitionist peer support and radical mental health spaces. When biomedical models and psychiatric diagnoses consistently fell short, these spaces have given me a framework to understand how individual trauma compounds with social and historical oppression to keep many of us feeling sick and disempowered. These lineages root me in values of self- determination and solidarity that form the foundation of my practice.

It is from this history that I arrived at politicized somatics, training with the Strozzi Institute and in the lineage of generative somatics. Somatics has not only connected me to a beautiful community of people weaving the work of holistic healing and social change, but it has also restored a sense of trust in my own body’s wisdom, and empowered me to engage with my own personal and family histories with compassion and accountability.