FAQ’s

Coaching sessions are 50-60 minutes, conducted on Zoom or in-person in Durham, NC.

At the beginning of our engagement, we focus on defining the change you want to make. Then each time we meet for coaching we find a focus for that session based on what obstacle is getting in your way or what opportunity you want to act on.

Sessions often include practices that develop your somatic awareness — increasing your capacity to observe how you think, your habitual stories and narratives, moods, emotions, and bodily sensations. As we get to know your conditioned patterns and responses to stress, and understand the impact of your current context and relationships, we gain insight around what you might need to work on.

Through somatic coaching you learn new body-based practices to support you in taking actions that you couldn’t before. We use powerful processes to soften your old “shape” through conversation, movement, and somatic bodywork. Somatic bodywork — which happens in a reclined position and clothing remains on (unlike a massage) — is an effective way to facilitate somatic openings which “unlock” stuck energy in your body. This release allows your old habits to relax their grip, making way for more freedom, more possibility, and more aliveness.

In between sessions you will develop a daily & weekly practice routine to support your new shape to take root, and to fulfill any important action steps. Through the cycle of our work we strengthen your capacity to self-heal, self-educate, self-generate, and more consistently and effectively take action aligned with what you care about.

I work with anyone who is building a more regenerative way of living as we face enormous social & ecological predicaments and navigate this time of local and global transition. Whatever you are doing to build a workable future — activism, parenting, teaching, healing, farming, crafting, caretaking, or any other radical experimentation — I want to support you in staying grounded, connected, and energized amidst increasing burnout, isolation, and collapse.

I first came to somatic coaching to build my capacity as a leader and collaborator. Somatics has been a powerful resource for transforming old habits, finding inner resilience, and opening into more connection in community. It has been especially invaluable in facing big life transitions from career changes to moving across the country, committing to a life partner and navigating the choppy waters of parenting a newborn, and foundational in my work as a conflict facilitator.

I’m a graduate of yearlong training programs in somatic coaching & bodywork at Strozzi Institute and polarity therapy at Tree of Life Center. I’m also an associate member of the international collective Greaterthan where I lead the conflict stewardship team, coach and consult for organizations and communities, and teach courses on Trauma-informed Collaboration, Liberating Structures, and Thriving Networks. Before my work as a somatic coach, polarity therapist, and facilitator, I founded my own consultancy, Open/Up Hospitality, and managed acclaimed bars and restaurants including Eleven Madison Park.

When I’m not doing all these fun things, you can find me hiking in the forest with my 2 year old, growing food, baking, dancing, and playing board games with neighbors. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and lived all over the US before landing in Durham in 2021.

There is no minimum commitment for experiencing somatics and often my clients begin with 1-2 taster sessions.

If somatic work is new to you, I recommend clients start with 10 weekly or biweekly sessions so you can find your footing in these new processes and practices, and start to see the transformational fruits of our labor.

I am committed to increasing collective access to coaching and healing by offering this work according to the financial capacity of my clients, and I do not turn away clients for lack of funds. In the spirit of a solidarity economy, I ask clients to choose a donation amount for each session that is the highest within their full willingness and capacity to give, without overstretching or resentment.

I need to receive an average of $150/session to sustain myself and my family in this work, and I trust that people with financial resources and other forms of privilege will contribute at higher amounts, knowing that doing so helps make my support accessible to people with lower incomes and from marginalized identities. If you have any concern about money, let’s talk about it and I’m confident we will find a mutually satisfying arrangement.

I accept cash, checks, and electronic transfers via Venmo, PayPal, Zelle, and Wise.

The lineage of somatic coaching is long and diverse, and I’m happy to talk more about it with you.

I continue to study directly with its founder, Richard Strozzi-Heckler, and director of methodology, Staci Haines, who developed somatics with the contributions of many other teachers over the past 50 years at Lomi School, Strozzi Institute, and generative somatics.

Somatics incorporates techniques from aikido, meditation, polarity therapy, Feldenkrais, Rolfing, gestalt therapy, body-oriented psychotherapy, linguistics, and other modalities. My teachers have received formal permission to incorporate practices from their teachers in East Asia, South Asia, Europe, North America, and South America.

I also want to acknowledge that all forms of embodied healing in the so-called United States are subject to the historical forces of colonization and appropriation. In humility at the enormity of what we are facing, I invite all of us who are healing the “downstream” effects of historical & ongoing oppression on our clients to also work together “upstream” to end those oppressive systems and build new ones that allow all life to thrive.