I am an ecospiritual minister, a shamanic healer and teacher, a druid, and a wildlife rehabilitator and educator in service to all beings, especially turtles. My ministry weaves a revolutionary new story of interrelatedness and wonder and invites spirit-led action to preserve the magic of biodiversity on Earth.
I am pursuing a master’s degree in the integral study of ecology and spirituality with a focus on human-wildlife relationships at the California Institute for Integral Studies. I am also the executive director of a nonprofit freshwater turtle rescue and rehabilitation center.
Like many healers, I did not realize when I stumbled through my first yoga class in a gym 30 years ago that I was taking the first step on a long journey. At the time I was a stressed-out office worker – suffering from fatigue, frequent headaches and shoulders that barely moved. Yoga transformed my body, my mind and my life. The greatest gift of my yoga practice, and that which led me to my most aligned work, is that I became peaceful enough to be still and fully experience the natural world.
The magic came in realizing this was not something different, but a return to what I knew when I was the child who played with hermit crabs in tide pools and watched monarch butterflies emerge from cocoons kept safe in glass jars. I have come to understand that conversing with birds and squirrels is not a childish pursuit but, rather, childlike – innocent and open to the shared wisdom of nature’s spirit.
In 2009 I ditched the corporate job, choosing to honor the happier, healthier and more authentic path I found myself on. I opened to the truth that I am a healer, and I actively strive to bring healing to myself, others, and the Earth.
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While I am currently affiliated with The Thread, I graduated from One Spirit Interfaith Seminary and was ordained as an interfaith/interspiritual minister in June 2022. My ministry follows the nature-centered spiritual path I have been on throughout my adult life. My vows of ministry include caring for the Earth and all her beings, and I have dedicated myself to ecospirituality.
In 2018, I was licensed by New York as a wildlife rehabilitator. Then, in 2021, I formed a nonprofit, Dancing Turtle Rescue and Education Program, Inc., with a mission to save the freshwater turtles of northeastern New York and their habitats by caring for injured turtles and promoting advocacy and activism on their behalf through public education. Dancing Turtle is a formalization of my commitment to serve our Earth family and is an extension of my ministry.
In 2018, I completed a training with Embue Cacao (formerly Heartblood Cacao) to offer cacao ceremonies.
In 2014, after practicing Usui Reiki at Level II for 15 years, I completed Reiki Master training with Dina Kennedy in Long Lake, New York. In 2015 I completed Llyn Robert’s Shamanic Reiki Master Practitioner training at Omega Institute and, in 2016, became a Shamanic Reiki Master Teacher. I continued to develop as a practitioner and facilitator through both levels of Shamanic Reiki Worldwide‘s Evolving Master Teacher program and have been offering Shamanic Reiki training since 2017. My Shamanic Reiki for All Beings trainings expand on the basics of Shamanic Reiki to include more animistic philosophy and additional ways of serving in this time of ecological crisis.
In 2008 I completed 500 hours of yoga teacher training with Rev. Dr. Tracey Ulshafer at One Yoga and Wellness Center in East Windsor, New Jersey and have taught more than 3,500 yoga classes since then. For eleven years I taught classes at and ran True North Yoga in Schroon Lake, New York, until we closed in 2020. I have practiced with Shiva Rea, Seane Corn, Bryan Kest, Danny Arguetty, John Friend, Suzanne Sterling, Sianna Sherman and David Swenson.
My journey here has twisted and turned, but it was exactly as it should be. Life has taught me, and continues to teach me, how to see the magic around me. Yoga, Shamanic Reiki, and ministry are all extensions of my purpose: to hold space for you to connect with the spirit of nature and find your own way into the wonder of it all.