Welcome to Rooted Community

My promise to life is that, in my presence, life shows up as all-inclusive, compassionate connection. I love to connect people, I love to bring people together in circles of trust and support, and I have been doing this practice of holding space for others to BE together, to PRACTICE together, and to HEAL together for over a decade. I have been developing and creating this ROOTED COMMUNITY in my head now for while, and I just know that, if we show up to participate and practice together, inspiration for and possibility of change will be present, both on the personal and collective level. 

For me, my biggest shifts of change and growth has been from the combination of daily practices, mind/body awareness, self-reflection and letting go on the energetic level, along with the important piece of community care. When I am grounded in my body and held in community, I am most inspired to share my work, to be brave, and to speak my truth. We live in a culture based on they systems of white supremacy, patriarchy and capitalism, and it is not working for most of us. Let's build a community to support each of our bodies to be able to stay grounded, to speak each of our truths, and to raise our children in a different mindset, a mindset of change and possibility.

I am inspired by the wisdom of  Valaire, Kaur, author of See No Stranger and founder of the Revolutionary Love project, Audre Lord, "self-care is community care",  Grace Lee Boggs, "transform yourself to transform the world" and adrienne marie brown, author of Emergent Strategy. I am creating a place and space for a rooted community, for people to be supported to be in consistent and daily  practice of self-care, IN community, with compassion and trust for each other. I am creating a community that encourages and supports daily practices that help you to stay grounded, in your body, using energy awareness through practices like the Japanese Art of Reiki, along with simple mind/body practices with a focus on language and the power of language for healing and new possibilities. 

This community is for people who know that self-care is a daily practice (and that we are human and it is easy to fall out of practice), and that to transform the world and to envision a different world, we must be in community, have a place to be inspired and supported, on a regular basis. To keep our own energy clear of what doesn't serve, to clear old patterns, so that we can be rooted in our truest self, in a Rooted Community- practice. energy. activism. trust. 

This space is here for support and encouragement, and also a place to keep learning and growing, to keep learning about white supremacy culture and all that it entails, and to be in a community that is envisioning a new future that is NOT based on white supremacy. You have the option to read, study and discuss books like See No Stranger by Valarie Kaur, to participate in discussions and classes by guest teachers, to gather virtually and see how powerful it can be, when held in a Circle of Trust. We will have celebrations and ceremonies to honor the cycles and wisdom of the Earth, and to recognize and feel how connected we are with Mother Earth. I will continue to share my journey with the Japanese Art of Reiki and will continue to teach the Be Rooted in Your Truest Self graduates through practice, and also will invite those who have studied Reiki with me in the past, to continue learning and growing with me with the beautiful practice of Reiki. 

I know so many amazing people in my life, visionaries who are doing such incredible work in the world. With my promise to life being all-inclusive, compassionate connection, I do see that the possibility of these people coming together is magical and healing for all. I hope to create a space for all to connect and share wisdom, knowledge, resources and offerings with each other. There is so much power in community, in a circle of trust, I am excited to hold the space, create the framework, and to continue to invite others who this is in alignment with, to join. 

Since the pandemic, I have quit social media and focused more on bringing people together in live circles on Zoom. After being away from social media for so long, I am unable to return. When I was there I was active, creating Facebook groups for the classes I taught and groups I held, and it was never in alignment for me. I am creating this Mighty Networks community as a place to bring people, circles and communities together without external distractions, and to be able to connect with others who talk the same language of energy, intuition, and healing. 

I know how powerful and healing it is to be in a Circle of Trust (Parker Palmer). I have over a decade of experience holding circles, and the last few years of "virtual circles" has been amazing and transformative. I am bringing these different circles together, and inviting others to join, to expand the circles of trust into a greater community. I envision this community as one that has each other's trust, encouragement and reminds each other to keep taking care of ourselves and each other for the greater good of the community and the world. 

We cannot be effective in our actions and our activism if we are not grounded, if we are too overwhelmed by the energy of the world to function. Through the community and the practices, we will continue to Root together, knowing how it ripples out beyond just us and even beyond our own generation. 

I am bringing together wisdom, practices and experiences that I want to share with you. I am known as someone who can really sell/market someone else (and not always the best at marketing me!) I want everyone to know all the good stuff in life, and I love to connect others! An intention of this group is to have guest teachers and have them here in the community to share their wisdom and offerings with the community. I will continue to share the wisdom from my teachers with you, and how these practices have served me and so many of my students and clients over the years. 

There are so many amazing teachers and mentors I've had throughout my life, and my "healing journey" of recovery and looking at life in a whole new way really  started at the Tai Sophia Institute in October 2008 when I attended a weekend course, Redefining Health, taught by Bob Duggan and Dianne Connelly. It blew me away and I continued with my master's degree program starting in January 2009, Applied Healing Arts (aka Transformative Leadership and Social Change). The years of this program brought the practices into my life that I live and love to teach now. During this time when my nervous system didn't even know how to meditate, I found Karen Brody of Daring to Rest, and practiced her recorded yoga nidra meditations daily. These got me through early motherhood and I still love and practice yoga nidra consistently, and continue to learn and be inspired by Karen and her amazing programs.  Bonnie Tarantino brought the practice of Reiki into my life and brought me to Ireland where I connected to my Celtic roots in the most powerful and magical ways. Her encouragement, laughter, friendship and love got me to take the leap to share Reiki and to keep taking the next leap in how I share this practice with others. I learned to trust and listen to my intuition and learned and practiced powerful tools of visualization with my teacher and friend, Stacia Synnestvedt, through 2 years of Intuitive Training based on the Berkley Psychic Institute curriculum. I love bringing these practices into my work and sharing them with students and clients. 

I met my now very close friend Maren Miller, right after she moved to Colorado, at a workshop sponsored by SURJ, when I was just starting to learn about Whiteness and White Supremacy Culture. I have learned so much from and with Maren and continue to with her, as I learn, unpack my own white fragility and white guilt. We now have deep conversations with other Reiki practitioners about our role as white women sharing a Japanese self-healing practice, and how we share these practices with others. These conversations and learnings are never complete, I am never an expert in any of the work, and I know that I will make mistakes. Through the support of incredible friends and colleagues who collaborate with me to create things like the 21 day restful reiki renewal, I am forever grateful to keep growing and learning together. 

Personally, my healing and growth has been in partnership with my inspiring younger sister, my partner, and some very close friends, as we navigate breaking family patterns of addiction and codependency, for the sake of my daughter, stepson, and the 7 generations (a concept I learned from Native American cultures and I know is more and more understood from a generational trauma healing perspective).