My Personal Journey
Seems like what I've come here to do is to experience Big Change! I've not only had a tremendous amount of professional training and experience, but I personally could be the poster child for learning how to birth radiantly new life from painful transitions.
I spent my teens and early 20's preparing to be a concert pianist. Unfortunately (or fortunately for the rest of my life, as so often happens with painful challenges) I got a whopping case of tendinitis and had to stop playing. Ouch. Really serious ouch, not just physically, but in my heart and soul.
Something happened, though, in my pain and despair: I got curious about misfortune. I talked to a lot of people who had experienced big crises, and discovered two basic responses to the hard stuff life throws our way. The first group of folks shut down and stop growing. They become bitter, victimized, or permanently depressed.
The other group meet the same challenges in a radically different way. They allow the pain to break their hearts and souls wide open. They let go and lean into the mystery of how their lives unfold. These folks are the most radiantly alive people I've ever known.
I want what they have, I told myself. (Be careful what you ask for, right?)
I returned to graduate school in psychotherapy, studying life transitions. I traveled around the world learning how different cultures marked transitions and initiations such as birth, adolescence, marriage, elderhood, and death. I taught in Vietnamese refugee camps in Hong Kong, learning profound lessons in resilience in the face of huge change from my "boat people" students.
And I got plenty of personal practice. Marriage and parenting. An autoimmune disorder that laid me flat out for several years. Divorce after 13 years of marriage. Loss of both parents, empty nesting, and yet another serious illness. Destruction of my home in New Orleans (born and bred there). Lots of experience in big time letting go and learning to trust life, spirit, Mystery, and love.
I'm now married to David Ohannesian (o happy transition!), a landscape designer and fine pruner, and am the proud mom of a vibrantly alive and adventuring daughter in her twenties.
I love gardening, chocolate, traveling, reading in bed with my cats, chocolate, Tai Chi, practical jokes, yoga, knitting, walking Green Lake with friends. Did I say chocolate?
The Professional Stuff
I've worked with tens of thousands of women in transition over the last 25 years as a psychotherapist, life coach, and spiritual counselor. I have also:
- Authored four books on transitions, transformation, and spirituality: Silver Linings: Finding Hope, Meaning, and Renewal in Times of Transition (Fair Winds, 2005); Exploring the Labyrinth: A Guide for Healing and Spiritual Growth (Random House, 2001); Souful Living: The Process of Personal Transformation (HCI, 2000); and If Only I Were A Better Mother (Stillpoint, 1994)
- Taught internationally and led retreats on life transitions, and taught graduate classes on life transitions at Antioch University, the University of Washington, and Bastyr University.
- Written articles on life transitions and spirituality for Spirituality and Health, New Age Journal, Personal Transformation Magazine, BodyMindSpirit, and Common Ground.
- Served as Program Director for the Harmony Hill Retreat Center for 10 years, where I created and facilitated retreats for people living with cancer, and retreats on spiritual renewal in life transitions.
- Served as Director of the Forge Institute's Guild of Spiritual Leaders.
- Co-founded the School for Mystics, a one-year learning group for people who've had direct experiences of the divine and long for community to deepen their spiritual journey
If you have any more questions, drop me a line at [email protected] or give me a call at (206) 427-1325. Any and all questions welcome!