If you would’ve told me when I was 17 that I would be a self-assured, resilient mother of three today, I don’t know that I would’ve believed you.

Back then, I was a nerdy, anxiety ridden, college-bound teenager eager to spread my wings & rebel against the religious cult where I was raised. The trauma I’d experienced left me convinced of my inherent brokenness & feeling utterly alone.

Living on campus at SDSU was a turning point for me. It’s where I first encountered Yoga & where the seeds were planted for my work in reproductive & women’s health.

In response to witnessing the dangerous & disempowering sex culture on campus, I joined clubs where I rallied for reproductive justice legislation, educated my peers on consent & distributed condoms.

During these radical years, my battle with mental illness came to a head. A suicidal episode followed by a hypomanic episode lead to a diagnosis of Bipolar II and my first pregnancy at 19 (oh the irony for the girl handing out condoms!)

I leaned into my budding yoga practice, pursued layered mental health care & reconnected to a Higher Power (who I call God)...all of which saw me through a painful marriage, postpartum depression & early divorce.

It was on my yoga mat that I began to see myself with new eyes. My practice had become my anchor in the storm as well as my training ground. I was experiencing a transformation that I knew was profound

On a physical level, I was learning that I could regulate my nervous system through breath and movement – this meant that I had tools respond to anxiety and ease that response in my body.

On a deeper level, I was learning that I was much more in control of my life than I had once thought. I knew that a shift was occurring in my inner-world! 

This newly empowered perspective is what enabled me to find my footing as a single mom & finally graduate with my B.A. in Psychology when my daughter was 3 years old.

In an effort to better understand my own transformation and in hopes of sharing the gifts of this practice with others, I completed my first teacher teaching in 2012. Since then, I have completed over 1500 hours of formal training & had the joy of training countless yoga teachers in the field.

This practice, has held me through some of the most trying years of my life and continues to comfort & fuel me when life is full of joy & heavy with sorrow.

When I found new love & had my second daughter, my yoga practice was there.

In February 2020, when my (then) 22 month old was diagnosed with a chronic illness after a life threatening episode of Diabetic Ketoacidosis landed her in the PICU for days, my yoga practice was there.

Later that year, at the height of the pandemic, when I found out I was pregnant again despite my IUD, my yoga practice was there.

On the seemingly mundane (and frankly boring) days of the motherhood grind, my yoga practice is there.

This isn’t just a professional journey for me, it’s a deeply personal one.

That scared, overwhelmed, lonely girl who first stepped foot on a yoga mat in the SDSU campus gym has blossomed into a confident, graceful, connected woman who is stoked to use her nerdy-ness to educate & serve others in the realms of trauma resolution, mental health, reproductive health & parenthood...what a miracle!