AtEssence is a sacred container for healing, awakening, and integration. Drawing from Compassionate Inquiry® developed by Dr. Gabor Maté, somatic trauma healing, ancestral connection, and the nature-based wisdom traditions of Peru, this work supports a gentle return to your deepest self and an embodied remembering of your inherent wholeness and authenticity.

Here your growth is honored, your healing is sacred, and your essence is remembered.

My Promise: You will receive honest and compassionate care. I do not believe that people are broken or in need of fixing. In a world where confusion, loneliness, and hopelessness have become increasingly common, I hold a deep trust in our innate capacity to heal and remember who we are. My role is to offer a safe and supportive space, along with practices and perspectives gathered over three decades of study and experience, so that your own inner wisdom can emerge and guide the way forward.

Studies & Experience

For more than thirty years, I have devoted myself to the study and practice of healing and spiritual traditions that explore the roots of human suffering, our innate capacity for healing, and our deep relationship with the living world. Throughout this journey, I have been continually drawn to one central question: What helps us remember our essential nature and return to wholeness?

My journey began with a deep immersion in Classical Hatha Yoga, meditation, Ayurveda, and the contemplative and non-dual wisdom traditions of Asia. These teachings profoundly shaped my understanding of the nature of mind, suffering, and human potential and continue to inform both my personal practice and professional work.

I earned a Master's Degree in Chinese Medicine from the Academy of Chinese Culture & Health Sciences and a Bachelor's Degree in Cultural Anthropology with an emphasis in Women's Studies and Religion from San Francisco State University. I became a licensed acupuncturist in California in 2004 and maintained a private healing practice for more than two decades, supporting individuals through acupuncture and integrative approaches to healing.

Over years of clinical practice, I found myself increasingly curious about why suffering often persists despite insight, treatment, and even meaningful physical change. This inquiry eventually led me to the work of Dr. Gabor Maté and Compassionate Inquiry®. Since becoming certified in 2019, I have worked with clients around the world through online and in-person sessions, supporting individuals in uncovering the unconscious patterns, protective strategies, and ancestral imprints that shape their lives.

As my understanding of healing continued to evolve, I also became increasingly aware that our relationship with the natural world is not merely supportive of healing but foundational to it. This realization led me to the Andean wisdom traditions of Peru and the teachings of Andean healer and lineage holder Puma Quispe Singona. Today, I continue to study and practice within this lineage, traveling regularly to Peru to deepen my apprenticeship, participate in ceremony and pilgrimage, and learn directly from my teachers and the families that have welcomed me.

My work is increasingly devoted to sharing these teachings through retreats, workshops, pilgrimages to Peru, and traditional Despacho ceremonies. Alongside this work, I serve as one of the stewards of the sacred lands known as Buckhorn Springs near Ashland, Oregon. For generations, these mineral springs and forests have been regarded as places of healing and renewal. Through thoughtful stewardship, ceremony, and community gathering, we are helping reawaken this extraordinary place as a living sanctuary where people can reconnect with themselves, one another, and the living world.

I hold deep gratitude for the remarkable teachers who have welcomed me into their traditions and entrusted me with formal teachings and initiations over the years. Through these relationships, I have been given practices, names, responsibilities, and ways of seeing that continue to shape my path. I am especially grateful to Andean lineage holder Puma Quispe Singona, Kashmiri Shaivite teacher Dharma Bodhi, His Holiness Lungtok Tenpai Nyima of the Yungdrung Bön tradition, and Daoist teacher Liu Ming. Their wisdom, generosity, and example have planted seeds that continue to unfold in my life and work.

Personal Background

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California with a deep curiosity about both the inner and outer dimensions of life. For as long as I can remember, I have been drawn to questions of healing, meaning, and our relationship with the natural world. That curiosity eventually led me to explore diverse spiritual paths and healing traditions from many parts of the world, ultimately finding a deep resonance with the contemplative traditions of Asia and the nature-based wisdom traditions of the Americas.

Over the past two decades, I have lived and worked in California, Thailand, Costa Rica, and throughout the United States, repeatedly creating and stewarding spaces dedicated to healing, contemplative practice, and reconnection with nature.

In 2002, I co-founded a yoga studio in Berkeley, California, where I helped lead trainings and community programs. Following the birth of my first child, my family moved to northeastern Thailand, where we established a yoga, meditation, and permaculture retreat center. Years later, I founded Trika Eco Villa in northern Thailand and continued developing my private healing practice, AtEssence.

After relocating to Costa Rica in 2017, I continued working with clients from around the world while stewarding a piece of river land and deepening my understanding of place-based living and community. Today, I divide my time between private practice, facilitating retreats and pilgrimages, traveling regularly to Peru for continued study and ceremony, and serving as one of the stewards of the sacred lands known as Buckhorn Springs near Ashland, Oregon.

Throughout these experiences, one thread has remained constant: a deep trust that healing unfolds through relationship, with ourselves, with one another, and with the living world. My work has been devoted to creating spaces, practices, and experiences that help nurture and restore these relationships. At its heart, this work is an invitation to remember our interconnectedness and to live in ways that bring greater healing, reciprocity, and care to the world around us.