Here is why I want to be for you who I needed and wanted for so long

“You are going to have a daughter, her name is Kesha, and she will be a healer.” Before I was born, an Anishinaabe Mide

woman (medicine woman), who had the gift of receiving naming visions, spoke these words to my parents and it has guided my whole life.

But as the years went by, I felt like I was the one who needed healing—

I was desperate for someone to show up for me, teach me how to get quiet enough to hear my own voice, be fully myself, and give my pain a safe space to come out. 

 I know what it’s like to feel alone and stuck in depression, anxiety, and other effects of trauma. At one point in college, I stopped getting out of bed. I felt broken—like I was at the bottom of a pit so deep I could never get out. Nothing felt right.

 Looking back I see I listened to every voice but my own.

 I listened to so many voices and horrible advice that confused me and drowned out my own. I abandoned myself over and over. My dreams felt out of reach as did even the idea of feeling well. What I needed was someone to ask me, “What do you want? What is your heart telling you right now? Can we be quiet together to listen for that little voice inside?”

Maybe it was that pre-natal calling that led me jump on board with enthusiasm to be part of a team that would start an alternative school for immigrant and refugee students…

 Then to be a Spanish-speaking chaplain in a hospital within the urban center of Los Angeles…

 Then to be ordained as an Episcopal Priest…

 But something still was not quite right. My health suffered. I ended up having a stroke. I finally went into intensive outpatient treatment where I had a full therapy and nutrition team. I started to connect more honestly to my interests.

 And still, I needed someone to help me weave all the different parts of me together. Just doing talk therapy(although I am so grateful for it, think it is a wonderful modality, and still see my own therapist), for me, wasn’t enough. Because so much was still stored in my body.

To be totally honest, I didn’t even like yoga. My head and heart felt like a war zone (maybe you can relate). But then I learned that yoga was more than another form of exercise and more than the often (not always) watered down thing offered as yoga.

I found yoga teachers who gave me permission to take up space, to think about what I want, to ask my system what do I need, to learn how to take care of myself, to move past all the BS and to be vulnerable and brave. They helped me connect with the divine and my deepest self.

After a couple more years of deepening my practice and finding more and more healing, I realized I wanted to go even deeper. So, I decided to train to be a yoga teacher. I did it just for myself. But… I really liked it. I really liked teaching where I didn’t have to grade, but could share yoga and connect with students at a heart level.

So here I am: a trauma informed, registered Yoga Teacher and Yoga Therapist

It would be my honor to weave my wisdom with yours, using the tools of liberation offered in the practice of yoga: the poses & movement, meditation, pranayama (breath work), ritual, and sound.

Together, we will find what is right for you.