Growing up in the Catholic Church, I began working in groups in high school, hosting contemplative prayer offerings in my living room for teens who also had questions and wonderings along the spiritual journey.
 
I knew at a young age that Presence--in whatever form that may be--was the tool for inner transformation.
 
I translated that inner knowing into my career in mental health and psychotherapy. I found that the sacred art of bearing witness to others' stories was essential to health and wholeness.  
 
I served churches through the years, both in official and unofficial positions of leadership, and learned about how church environments instead of sanctuaries are reflections of our family and cultural dynamics, often presenting the trauma and complex challenges that these provide. I saw gaps in how women in ministry and spiritual seekers (especially those on the margins, such as LGBTQIA+ folx) are treated. 

My own spiritual journey took winding turns, especially after three significant birth traumas and my brother in law dying in a horrific car accident. These losses and traumas changed who I was, the fabric of what I thought I was in the world. 

Thankfully I had a good foundation in leaning towards mystery. My own dark nights ran up against my stubbornness to keep upon the path, to get therapy and spiritual direction, and to know that my pain was indeed not for nothing!

At this time, around 2016-17, through support with a skilled shamanic practitioner, I reclaimed my Celtic roots in mystery and the mystics. The Black Madonna called to me during this time, teaching me about deep, abiding compassion, sacred fierceness, and overt dismissal of human-centered duality of pain and healing. Working with her shook my foundations and I've never been the same since. I owe my work in significant part to her.

I've also been personally dedicated to creation spirituality, specifically earth-based wisdom keepers of the Christian tradition, including Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Ekhart, Mechtild of Magdeberg, and Julian of Norwich. I have been taught by them about panentheism--that all things are in God/Source, and God/Source is in all things.

This ignited a fire in me
to serve other women and non-binary folx who also yearn for inner growth and sustenance.  
 
In 2019, I opened Root Grow Thrive, to provide spiritual growth and inner work opportunities for folks committed to the journey. In 2020, I graduated from the Haden Institute in Spiritual Direction, trained in the Jungian mystical tradition. I moved into this vocation knowing my lifelong call to service provides a container to hold space for others to connect others to Sacred Source.

Because of their support and this development of my spirituality, and in concert to my own training in Jungian psychology, it's given me wings to explore metaphysical traditions such as herbalism, evolutionary astrology, and non-ordinary states of consciousness such as dreamwork, journeying, and the ever-growing clinical field of psychedelic-assisted healings.

Helping the helper is at the core of what I do, and because of this, I know that my own inner compass must be front and center. I work regularly with archetypes both in my spiritual and personal practice such as the wounded healer and saviour/helper. Inner work is necessary if we who support others are committed to ethical practice and personal and professional integrity.

Within the past few years since the catastrophic pandemic, my own professional interests are focused on the traumas that have brought us to these moments in our lives that can be transfomrative, but also extremely scary--and without support, can cause serious pathology. Addiction, depression, anxiety, panic is indeed ubiquitous in our society, and building every year, especially for those in heart-centered healing and spiritual care such as therapists, ministers, and caregiving professionals. My work is dedicated to them.

Trainings and Certifications:

Certified Spiritual Director, Haden Institute 2020

Member, Spiritual Directors International

Group Facilitator and Group Leader

Trained in Parker Palmer's Circle of Trust Touchstones

Centering Prayer Practitioner

Creative Embodiment Practitioner (Mandala painting, Body Prayer, Artist's Way, Poetry for Presence, Praying with Icons and Imagery, Sacred Collage)

Mindfulness Practitioner (Trained in and have taught and practiced Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, Mindful Parenting and Mindful Eating since 2007)

Dreamwork Practitioner(trained and decades of practice in Jungian-projective method of dreamwork)

Enneagram Practitioner and member of Enneagram Institute 

Owner and creator of The Sacred Deep, curating creative worship resources for connection to Spirit.

Clinical Psychotherapist, Licensed Professional Counselor in state of PA since 2005, Group Psychotherapist and owner of Rooted Growth Counseling (est 2018).