At 33, I am happier, healthier, more capable and resilient in my life and movement than ever before. But it hasn't always been this way. I've been immersed in the movement world since age 5; my young and early struggles with injury and chronic pain became a potent springboard for where I am today. If there is a single word that sums up my experience, it is gratitude; gratitude for the hardships, gratitude for the learning, and gratitude for the process of discovery that has lead me to the work I do today.
I began ballet lessons as a very young child, and, in those formative years, I found myself increasingly in love with the experience of dancing, the expression of performing, and the rigor of traditional ballet training. But alongside this love, I also began experiencing an increasingly regimented, painful, physically and mentally demanding lifestyle. The ballet world is beautiful, and it is also harsh. On the outside I had a flexible, young, graceful body, but it was at the cost of severe wear and tear and extensive chronic pain. A decade into my training with pre-professional, local dance company, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, I was in so much pain that I began seeing doctors and specialists. At the age of 16 doctors suggested I have surgery for a chronic hip injury. Unwilling to undergo surgery at such a young age, I instead looked toward alternative modalities for bodywork, physical therapy, and healing. Nothing seemed to make much of a difference until my first experience with the Feldenkrais Method®. I was immediately intrigued, and something about the gentle, profound quality of Feldenkrais began to change not only my aches, pains, and injuries, but also my relationship to my body and the way I moved. I began weekly classes and private sessions, and, over time, it changed my inner dialog around how I perceived myself and the world.
In 2007 I moved to upstate New York and got my Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts at Skidmore College. After graduation, I returned home to Santa Fe, NM, with plans to dive in to the local art scene. Instead, still deeply immersed in weekly Feldenkrais classes that were feeding my well-being and fueling my curiosity, I signed up for a Feldenkrais Training with Movement Educators in Santa Fe. What started as a personal passion evolved into a profound and life changing paradigm shift, and a deep, clear realization that this was the work I wanted to do in the world. Four years and over a thousand hours of training later, I graduated as a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner®
Today, my chronic dance injuries are non existent. My entire perspective on the world and the way in which we function and interact in it has completely changed, expanded, and continues to grow. Every day, I learn from the students and clients I work with as they too expand out of pain into well-being. Feldenkrais has taught me that I am not merely a body and a brain rushing through this so-often chaotic and busy world, but instead that I am a SELF, a whole and complete individual with the capabilities to slow down, experience my moment to moment world, and to move through it with grace, and ease.
In this process, my sense of self has been profoundly nourished by my intentional re-connecting with the natural world. As a child, I spent endless hours playing outside, adventuring through the backyard, baking mud pies, foraging dandelions and building tiny fairy and animal homes. Somewhere along the way my time spent outdoors flourishing in the sunshine was replaced with time spent indoors in classrooms and work spaces and car rides to and from the next thing on my never completed to do list; over time I forgot what it was like to delight in the pleasures of nature.
I had to re-build a practice of connecting and immersing myself in nature. I now intentionally take time each and every day to experience the brilliance of this earth. Hiking, exploring, and moving through the New Mexico landscape lead me to discover MovNat, which presented me with a whole new set of skills and perspective with which to move and engage with my environment. MovNat has shifted my entire fitness paradigm from an intensive, indoor kettle bell practice to an expansive, absolutely delightful outdoor practice of natural human movement. In May of 2017 I received my MovNat certification to continue building my own Natural Movement practice, and to be able to offer this unique experience to my clients and students.
Discover Ease in Movement is my private practice located in Santa Fe, NM. I feel honored to be on a path of continual self development, and my door is always open to your curiosities, questions and explorations. I am deeply dedicated to this profound way of moving and interacting in the world, and to sharing the possibilities, sustainability, and renewed discovery of ease and well-being with each of you.