My Story.

It was not a single moment that put me on this path. I was drawn down this path by a constant drive to move and a desire to deeply understand the nature of movement.

I began dancing when I was young: jazz, modern, and ballet. I continued dancing through my undergraduate programming, completing a minor in Dance Studies to go with my bachelors in Theatre Arts at Pacific University in 2008. Unfortunately, I started to experience chronic low back pain during the last 18 months of my undergraduate program and continuing to pursue dance as a vocation became impossible.

My journey to learning how to help others heal their movement began with looking for help in healing my own. I did not find much success in seeking help from physicians. I was given diagnoses and limited exercises, but nothing that made a significant difference for me. Through family and friends, I was introduced to Pilates, which became the first big shift in my physical struggle and the first big turn in my life path. I found that changing how I was moving dramatically improved my ability to participate in my own life. Then I became curious as to how and why movement practices like Pilates worked.

In 2009 I completed my STOTT Pilates teaching certification. I began teaching, what I thought would be a part time gig a few hours a week. I found that I became infatuated with teaching movement and problem-solving movement patterns to improve a clients overall abilities and ease of movement. I started to have more questions. I took more workshops and trainings. So many workshops and trainings. Each one offering valuable knowledge and practice tools. Each one driving me to ask deeper questions about how and why it all worked.

In 2012 I completed my MELT Method teacher training. I found that pairing fascial work with the movement pattern training was incredibly effective in helping my clients to achieve their goals. I had more questions about the why and the how.

I decided around this time the only way I would be satisfied would be to get down to the basic building blocks of movement: muscles, bones, fascia, nerves, the brain, cells, hormones, proteins. I decided to go back to school. As an undergraduate I had no interest in the sciences, I took the classes I needed to complete my program and moved on. Less than 5 years later I found a reason and deep desire to understand all the science.

Several years later, after a great deal of teaching and taking basic science courses at community college, I began my studies the at University of Western States. In 2019 I completed a Master’s of Sports Medicine and in 2020 I graduated with a Doctor of Chiropractic. I found myself some place I never would have expected yet feeling like I am exactly where I am meant to be. Here I have been able to deepen my understanding of movement on a mirco and macro level through evidence informed, scientific study.

In response to the stress of the doctorate program I found myself leaning harder into the philosophical side of my yoga practice. Previously I participated in yoga from a fitness side intermittently, but I found (through the luck of meeting some excellent instructors) that the spiritual practice of yoga helped me to temper my drive and maintain balance. Inspired by this, I began to pursue my yoga teacher training, focusing on yin yoga, in 2019.

One of the best things I learned in this time is how to find answers to questions. The goal of learning is not to know everything, it is to be inspired by knowledge that is new to you, to ask questions that help us all to see new connections between different systems.

Now I am starting down the next part of my path. My goal is to integrate my knowledge of the human body and the mechanisms of movement to help people find better, unlimited movement, to move well, and to hurt less.