I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (MFC 36737), wilderness rites of passage guide, biodynamic craniosacral practitioner, and life-long apprentice to navigating wild landscapes, inner and outer. 

 

For over 20 years I have been practicing psychotherapy, weaving together a blend of psychodynamic, somatic, transpersonal, and eco-psychological therapies.  While grounded in sound clinical theory, my work is also intuitive and relational.  With a Master’s degree in Integral Counseling from the California Institute of Integral Studies, my basic philosophy is one of healing the divisions between body, mind, spirit, nature, and one another.  My somatic background includes training in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, trauma resolution, sensory awareness, and a life-time of movement arts, including dance and 25 years as a practitioner of yoga. 

 

Being half-Japanese, I am innately sensitive to eastern cultural traditions specifically and cross-cultural themes generally.  I am an ordained novice priest of the Tendai Buddhist lineage, registered with Tendai-shu headquarters at Hieizan in Japan. The wisdom jewels of the Dharma inform all dimensions of my work.

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As a rites of passage guide, I have been shaped by a life-time of exploring wilderness places, especially the territory of the Eastern Sierra mountains, stretching out to the vast deserts in and around Death Valley.  My inspirations as a guide are rooted in eastern and indigenous wisdom traditions, and the courageous resiliency of the human spirit. I am a member of EarthWays, a collective committed to restoring our relationship to the living earth.  I have trained and guided with the School of Lost Borders in Wilderness-based Rites of Passage and am a certified Wilderness First Responder. 

 

Whether in the office or on the earth, I keep my feet grounded in the practical realities of everyday life, while perceiving and guiding from the heart.