A Little Bit (ok, quite a bit) More About Me

My relationship with professional bodywork begins with my relationship with anxiety. A sensitive, only-child of divorced parents, I had a lot of alone time to worry. And my parents were raised in an era of shame and secrecy. My dad grew up in a brutally heteronormative culture and had no family support to come out as a gay man and my mom developed blood cancer when I was in high school. Neither of them talked about these issues openly.

And, while my dad openly faced life-threatening heart problems (the world, and a virus, literally broke his heart) throughout my childhood, my mom hid her leukemia from everyone. She died when I was 22; just weeks after my dad had a heart transplant. Although I had studied history and obtained my Bachelor’s degree with honors at UCLA, planning to perhaps continue in graduate work or maybe pursue my teenage dream of acting; when my mom died I was overwhelmed with grief. My mom had been my strong, supportive parent during my dad’s long health struggles. She was my safe person. And she was gone: shockingly and suddenly. I was bereft.

I found that in order to deal with the grief over losing my mom and the confusion about all of the secrecy and shame I was surrounded by, one of the best things I could do for myself was to receive compassionate touch and massage. When I did, I could focus on sensation in my body; which kept me in the present moment and out of painful thoughts about the past and how I was going to move forward. I felt so fortunate to receive this care. You can read more about grief and bodywork in a blog post I wrote here.

Even as the pain of losing my mom began to gradually become less acute, bodywork had become an essential part of my life. Wanting to make sure it was always in my life one way or another, I decided to become a practitioner. And so my career path took an unexpected turn. I completed my first massage credential, in Santa Cruz, CA, in 1996. I earned my professional license for massage therapy, in NYS, in 2001.

Since then, I’ve earned a Master's Degree, taken hundreds of hours of continuing education courses; attended over one hundred births as a certified birth doula; earned my registered nurse (RN) license and done the foundational training for yoga therapy. I’ve touched hundreds of bodies. It is such an honor and privilege to do work that serves others and still nourishes and sustains me. I learn something new every day that deepens my work and reminds me that we are all connected. 💙