About Me

About Me

 

​My beliefs

​

We live in a pain-saturated world.  In defending ourselves from pain that others would inflict, we hurt others.  Sometimes, the pain is deliberately inflicted.  Sometimes it is an unintended byproduct of a defense.  I don’t believe that living in pain is necessary or natural.  

 

I believe that finding joy in life is our birthright.  The traumas we’ve experienced may form a barrier between who I am and the possibility of finding joy in my life and that barrier can be quite thick.  Mine was.  I needed a strong barrier to protect me from parents who inflicted terrible levels of abuse.  And, as I began to heal, the barrier grew thinner and thinner.  More and more joy began seeping into my life.

 

I believe that we all can heal.  Healing is some of the hardest work that I’ve ever done and it’s easily the most important work that I’ve done.

 

Some things you might want to know about me

​ 

I’ve lived an adventurous life.  I delivered supplies to hot landing zones during the Vietnam War.  I was a first responder and held people with badly broken bodies.  Sometimes, I sat with them quietly as they died, believing that every life is worth witnessing.  I’ve ridden motorcycles and raced sailboats.  I’ve traveled extensively.  Currently, I’m rehabilitating an old sailboat, bringing it from severe neglect to a vessel capable of carrying me, my beloved wife and my German Shepherd Dog to remote wonderlands.  

 

I began doing an hour of yoga a day in 9th grade and began meditating for another hour a day in 10th grade.  In 11th grade, I added an hour a day of martial arts practice.  Although my practice became intermittent as I grew older and had more responsibilities, I still meditate.  I became a Reiki practitioner in my 40s and a Reiki Master in my mid-50s.  During those years, I also completed a 4-year course in shamanic healing.  Later, I created a school for shamanic healers.

 

I am a woman who happens to be transgender.  Throughout most of history, most cultures honored transgender people as having been gifted with experiences that bridged male and female and, metaphorically, bridged between the ordinary world and the divine.  While I don’t believe that being any particular gender is evidence of a divine connection, I do believe that my experience as a trans woman is beneficial to me, as a therapist.