About | Embodied Culture

Origins

I was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico. My father's family is from Santa Clara Pueblo in northern New Mexico and I'm an enrolled member of my tribe. My mother is Brazilian-Italian and immigrated to the U.S. in the late 1960’s to teach university level Portuguese and Spanish. I grew up living in and between multiple cultures, traditions, and languages and continue to be engaged in all my cultural identities today.

From a young age, I was fortunate to be able to travel around the world to visit family and friends, study abroad, and immerse myself in different cultures. I developed a love for new places and all the unique sensory and relational opportunities they offered.

As I entered my twenties and thirties, I gravitated towards professional and educational experiences that were cross-cultural in nature. During that time, I created a rich career within the fields of intercultural exchange programs, advocacy, international and minority business development, Native American affairs, community building, and policy development.

Transitions

In my early thirties, I found myself at a transition point. As a mother with two young children, I began to shift the balance of career and motherhood towards working at home with my own nonprofit organization and independent consulting. Eventually, I decided to close the chapter on my professional life to focus on raising my children in their early years.

About ten years later, another transition point appeared: I decided to go back to school and bring my love for working with people to the field of counseling. In 2015, I graduated with a Master of Arts in Somatic Counseling Psychology/Body Psychotherapy and began the work of reintegrating a career, family, and creativity into my life - always an ongoing process!

Perspectives

Today, I am living the culmination of many of these experiences.

The perspective I offer in my work represents my lived experience as a multicultural/multiracial woman, who holds identities in both international and U.S. marginalized cultural areas. I have called myself an “in-betweener” all my life and have consistently sought to bridge cultures through my studies, my work, and within myself.

By blending my skills as a Somatic Counselor/Body Psychotherapist with my background in intercultural communication and social justice, I create learning experiences that respect the complexity of diversity and identity, as well as embrace the value and beauty of culture and difference within all of us.

My hope is that I am able to bring a spark of curiosity and joy to my clients as they explore the embodiment of their cultures and identities, and discover the power of personal stories and resilience in their lives.

Practice Areas

Collaboration

Consulting

Training & Certificates

Education

MA, Somatic Counseling Psychology, Focus: Body Psychotherapy (2015)

Naropa University, Boulder, CO

MA, International Relations and International Economics, Focus: Conflict Resolution (1993)

Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Washington, D.C.

Counseling and Psychotherapy

Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), State of Colorado, 2019

Indigenous Psychology Reading and Practice Group, 2020

Registered Somatic Movement Trainer and Educator (RSMT/E), 2015

Sensorimotor Psychology Institute (SPI) Trauma training levels I and II, 2014 and 2017

Social Justice and Intercultural Communication

Intercultural Foundations Certificate, Intercultural Communication Institute (ICI), 2017

Linking Social Justice and Intercultural Communication in the Global Context, Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication (SIIC), Portland, OR, 2015

Paraprofessional Anti-Violence Training, Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence (SPAN), Boulder, CO, 2014

Interviews

“Code-Switcher: A Skill for the Modern Age.” BeVisible Latinx Network and Connection Hub, December 14, 2015.

"Leading-Edge Behaviors from the New World of Social VR (Virtual Reality),” Institute for the Future, 2019.

About Me