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 Sacred hospital birth w/ Mom & baby Tomi, BC
Over the past 15 years I've worked in the realm of women's health and healing as a Certified Prenatal Educator & Birth & Postpartum Doula.
I have a passion for women's empowerment and facilitate rites of passage and healing groups for both women and adolescent girls. I honour the transformative thresholds of birth, menarche, menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, menopause and death. And through the journey of parenting, I'm truly honoured to be a mother to my wonderful teen aged son. In the nineties, while climbing the corporate ladder at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, I became not only burned out, yet disenchanted with intellectual pursuits. I needed to go global in a way that fulfilled my insatiable desire for adventure. I then turned to the life altering practices of yoga while in India. After living and working in the Yoga Vedanta Ashram, I trained and practiced as a Certified Yoga Instructor. I've also supported girls through their menarche coming of age as the founding Co-Director of the Maiden Star* program. Harmonizing the forces of the sacred feminine with the masculine, my experience guiding girls led me to catalyze a boys program with a dream team of men and dedicated youth leaders and mentor. In 2013, I founded the West Kootenay Youth Rites of Passage Council (WKRP) in British Columbia. The Journey After experiencing a challenging descent in my hormonal health, (glaring PMS, painful periods, to post traumatic stress from my postpartum years), I had no choice but to listen more to my body's signals. Because I knew deep down as women, we're not meant to resist the feminine forces inside. For when our hormonal system is in harmony, life energy flows through like a swift stream when there's nothing to obstruct it. We can turn Life around for support ... receiving it one Breath at a time. So, I grew quiet and Listened to my inner voice. I started my health revolution in my own kitchen, retreating from the outer world of friends, family, and society so I could experiment with new foodways. I also became drawn to cleanse in the quietude of the wild on solo retreats in my tipi. Engaging in the rhythms of chopping wood and tending fire; allying with landscape spirits, the lunar cycles, basking in deep rest, and the wisdom of the Earth. As I began to adopt nature-based meditation rituals, along with steady nutrition protocols, receiving mentoring, practicing menstrual cycle tracking, creative movement & expression, herbal medicine - I experienced a sheer vibrancy I hadn't felt in years! I am no longer slave to my triggers. I enjoy more inner peace. I know what it takes to recalibrate my nervous systems through the acts of conscious choice. And what I learned, is that knowledge becomes power when a woman develops her own body literacy. Ignited and inspired, I went on to study holistic nutrition and certified as a Living Foods Chef. Throughout my thirties I taught classes sharing the trials and successes of my healing journey at The Cultured Kitchen. I love supporting women through the deeper understandings of their monthly cycles, herbal medicine, and food. I feel so blessed to share my gifts through private mentoring and in groups, and fortunate to live my calling with those who come to work with me. ...through Initiation Of course I'm still on the journey, knowing life's dark times and messy initiations are gifts from Spirit. Much of my inspiration is drawn from the sacred dimensions. Shamanic healing work has helped me achieve symptom-free periods, clearing limiting beliefs, stuck energies, & repetitious thought patterns which were not my own. My shamanic teachers & mentors have guided me towards my private practice where I offer generational healing and compassionate counseling. You can transform your pain into power too. Learn more about shamanic energy healing for women here. |