ABOUT 

 ABOUT 

Today, I work with individuals, families, healthcare professionals, teams, and organizations navigating serious illness, caregiving, grief, aging, significant transitions, and dying.

I am here to love and accompany what we are.

When I was two years old, lying on my belly on a beach in Northwest Indiana, I felt the warmth of the sun on my back and looked closely at the grains of sand in front of my face. In that moment, I knew that existence—what we are—is whole and connected. That knowing has stayed with me.

For many years, I have accompanied individuals, groups, and organizations through illness, caregiving, grief, death, learning, love, growth, and change. I have witnessed despair and wonder, loneliness and belonging, loss and discovery, uncertainty and clarity. These experiences have brought me into an intimate relationship with the human condition and deepened my understanding of what matters.

My own life has shaped this work. I came to know suffering early. Over time, meditation, TRE, inquiry, and years spent alongside others have taught me to soften and to listen. They have deepened my understanding that even in the midst of life as it is, there is an ever-present peace.

Caring for my father as he died from pancreatic cancer brought this understanding into the world of illness, caregiving, and loss. It revealed the importance of tending not only to practical realities, but also to the inner life that accompanies them.

What people tell me is that they feel met. That something in them can soften. I can sit with uncertainty without needing to resolve it while also helping people navigate the realities before them. The heart and mind are not separate in my work; neither are reflection and action.

Whether I am working with an individual, teaching, facilitating a group, or consulting with an organization, I listen carefully and respond to what is needed.  Together we draw from conversation, inquiry, embodied practice, and the resources already present within a person, team, or system.

My work is grounded in being, clinical experience, and decades of accompanying people through some of life's most difficult and most beautiful realities.

Speaker

Author

Teacher

 Selected Education, Certifications, and Training
 

Clinical & Academic Roles
  • Assistant Professor of Palliative Medicine, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
  • Inpatient Palliative Care Chaplain and Director, Individual and Collective Wellbeing Program, UCSF Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship
  • Director of Spiritual Care and Volunteer Services, Kaiser Permanente
  • Palliative Care Chaplain, Massachusetts General Hospital
  • Co-founder, Pediatric Palliative Care Services, Kaiser Permanente

Education & Certification
  • Master of Divinity, Harvard Divinity School
  • Harvard Medical School Fellowship in Bioethics
  • Master of Arts in Business Management, Antioch University
  • Seminary at ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal; ordination by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
  • Board Certified Chaplain, Association of Professional Chaplains

Contemplative & Mindfulness Training
  • Living Dharma Meditation Program, Spirit Rock Meditation Center
  • Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Teacher Training, University of Massachusetts Memorial Center for Mindfulness
  • Stress Management and Resiliency Training, Benson-Henry Institute

Somatic & Trauma-Informed Training
  • Certified TRE® Provider
  • Certification in Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy, The International Focusing Institute
  • Reiki I & II
  • HeartMath Clinical Certification

Palliative Care & Serious Illness Training
  • Being With Dying: Professional Training Program for Clinicians in Compassionate Care of the Seriously Ill and Dying
  • Dignity Therapy Training (Harvey Chochinov)
  • Licensed VitalTalk Faculty

Communication & Facilitation
  • Nonviolent Communication Certified Trainer
  • Certified Schwartz Rounds Facilitator, The Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
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Peace and happiness is the nature of our being, and we share our being with everyone and everything.
~Rupert Spira
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Peace and happiness is the nature of our being, and we share our being with everyone and everything.
~Rupert Spira

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