Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy

Several decades ago, I started working with psychotherapy, yoga, and acupuncture to address early childhood medical trauma (cancer) as well lingering physical pain as an adult. Psychotherapy was helpful in that it gave me a language to name and explain traumatic stress. But I found that its cognitive and interpretive modalities could only take me so far. I wanted more than just tools to cope – I needed physical and psychological stress to unwind and release out of my system for good. When I found somatic trauma release therapy via energy medicine modalities, I was quite surprised by the depth of trauma release and the relief it provided me. Over the years, I have recovered my sense of well-being and live a life that’s filled with ease and joy.

 

I have been trained as a meditation facilitator (InsightLA, Secular Buddhism), yoga teacher (Sivananda; Paul Grilley/yin), domestic violence shelter crisis counselor (WOMAN Inc; La Casa de las Madres, San Francisco), homeless shelter crisis counselor (San Mateo, CA), biodynamic craniosacral therapist (Stillpoint, New York), as well as in council facilitation (Center for Council, Los Angeles). Since 2007, I have been working as an anthropology professor and researcher (University of California Irvine). I have been active in social justice issues and continue to facilitate anti-racist and anti-oppression classes since the early 1990s. 

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In addition to craniosacral biodynamics, my practice emphasizes mindfulness meditation, increased body movement/awareness, and cultivating collective liberation for all beings. Clients come to me for many physical conditions such as head trauma, high blood pressure, concussions, digestive disorders, immune system problems, back pain, headaches/migraines, whiplash, birth trauma, central nervous system imbalances, and various forms of physical pain and tension. Others come to get relief for anxiety, depression, stress, and various forms of traumatic stress (C/PTSD) including childhood abuse, war violence, medical harm, ancestral legacies, and gendered and racial trauma. 

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I respectfully work on the unceded lands of the Acjachemen, Kizh, and Tongva peoples. I am committed to the intersection of healing and social justice as well as recovering from the harm and grief caused by U.S. settler colonialism that we all - BIPOC and white people - hold in our tissues and bodies in very different ways. As we all increasingly experience various degrees of the "poly-crisis" (multiple personal and global crises at once) in our own bodies, I especially appreciate working with clients who find themselves on a conscious healing path: those who know that their own healing is tied to the wellbeing and reconnection of self to our ever-changing social and ecological worlds.