About the work

It was through working with the belly, specifically, that I came to understand the body to be about more than just bones and muscles. In Peru, the indigenous Quechua people have a word Shungo, which roughly translates to "one’s center—the heart and belly of your being." I’ve found this word’s meaning and concept to be central to my work with the belly and to the spirits, or souls, of my clients.

Combined, Shungo and abdominally centered work helped me to understand the profound connection between the body and its state of well-being; all the energy, emotions, and beliefs it carries; and the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. I saw, and continue to see every day, that they are intrinsically linked: our history, our experiences/memories, live inside of our bodies as personalized stories.   

When the story is positive, it expresses itself in our systems—mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual—as balance, joy, flow, abundance, vitality, health, contentment, and even good luck. When this inner story is about something difficult or overwhelming and unprocessed, it most often gets stuck in our bodies and energy systems and fields as a contraction, and expresses itself in our systems as fear, withdrawal, self-limitation, discomfort, pain, and even disease. Positive and negative stories can also be experienced outside of our bodies—we see them mirrored in our experiences in the world. For example, we may keep running into similarly challenging situations that always seem to trigger us.

It is this trigger, though, that is the arrow that points to the what and where inside of us that needs healing, tending to, and loving care. Experiences that trigger us can become opportunities to look at our imprints—events or circumstances that impacted our well-being—to find those places within us that are ready to unweave themselves while under tender care.

It seems ironic, and can even feel counterintuitive, but here is a truth I have come to know for sure: you can consider a trigger the soul and body’s call for our attention. The wounded place in us is telling us it’s ready to receive healing; it wishes to heal.

This healing work is the work I love. Holding a space of tender care and a space of active collaboration where you and I, and our subconscious minds, and our spirit allies, and the Divine all work and play and commune together. I have a profound love for this space, this field of collaborative healing where the web of imprinted history is unwoven in order the release the hurt and pain of old stories and wounds so that you can weave a new story—so that you can come back to yourself and become closer to your own soul.

This is where the story changes from you being the wounded soldier or victim, to you being the empowered heroine or hero who is able to write a new story and the way you choose it to be in it.