My entire life has continuously moved me deeper into the capacity to help others understand the wisdom of their own bodies and their natural abilities to heal. As a high level competitive gymnast of 8 years, I learned the feeling of timing, physics and alignment in my own body. After a dislocated and fractured elbow at age 14, and working with an incredible physical therapist, I knew I wanted to support and educate others in the same way. I dropped into teaching gymnastics while I tried to rehabilitate and was hooked for 9 years. I began to see and learn to communicate, from children to adults, these same principles of body mechanics I knew so well in my own body. I was introduced to yoga and meditation in 1992 and slowly began to see the many layers of healing we all must go through to move gracefully and fully through the hardships of life. I underwent my first 200hr yoga teacher certification program just before entering physical therapy school in 1998. It was a life changing experience, pushing me deeper into how to show up and support, both my own life and others. It also taught me deeper refinement and specificity of creating joint position and stability in my body. I found a space and ran the only yoga classes in Forest Grove, OR while I attended physical therapy school and continually worked to bridge eastern and western ideas about body, mind and healing. I spent my last year at Pacific University researching, co-coordinating and developing a study looking at the best treatment strategies for treating urinary incontinence. After receiving my doctorate in physical therapy in 2001, I started working at private outpaient physical therapy clinics and teaching yoga on the Monterey Peninsula in California. In 2003 I started and maintained my own business combining Physical Therapy and Yoga for in-home, personalized treatments. I developed, co- directed and taught Yoga Teacher Training program’s in Monterey and Santa Cruz and offered various community courses on science of pain, urinary incontinence, postural alignment, yoga and meditation. With a persistant passion for learning, I attended multiple continuing education courses each year I worked and recieved a manual therapy certification in 2007. It has been 20+ years now, that I have been working as a sport and orthopedic physical therapist with an emphasis in manual therapy. I work with a keen eye for alignment and proper body mechanics, specifically dosing exercises for optimal tissue healing. I am well versed in post surgical rehabilitation, neuro-rehab, woman’s health and chronic pain. I continue to merge western science and eastern understanding of body, mind and healing and am committed to continuing education and evidence based learning in order to achieve maximum patient outcomes.
I believe the human body/ mind have a much greater capacity for healing than we yet understand. The advances in understanding how we experience chronic pain and phantom pain alone has opened an entire paradigm shift of how the brain, once thought an unchangable structure, is very adaptable for worse and better. This excites me and inspires me to continue working with both how our attitudes and focus effect our physical well being and how our attention to fear and pain over time changes the structure and function of our brain.
My passions outside the human body and brain are a deep love of animals, being out in nature, eating and cooking delicious and fresh foods and cheersing with good friends and family. I love spending time playing games, traveling the world and exploring new places.