See Sage on Paper
Short Bio
Hello wonderful being!
Welcome to a little bit more about me. I am a NeuroMagical (Dyslexic and Autistic) Pansexual Polycurious individual. I have danced most of my life walking between worlds. experiencing poverty on one hand and affluence in the other, conservative religion and free spirited spirituality, acceptance and the feeling of being an alien in my body and community. If this intrigues you read on...
I grew up South of the Bay Area, California; in a small town called Morgan Hill attending first a Lutheran Church and then a Baptist congregation, were I could not safely talk about being queer. In our household we attended Christian Congregations while holding many pagan beliefs. We talked to spirits and ancestors, believed in Fairies and burned sage when we had weird vibes.
I studied at Gavilan community college for two years before I went to Columbia Christian College in Portland,OR. I served young people in a program called CAL-SOAP with tutoring and afterschool counseling. The school I went to in Portland was a Conservative Church of Christ School, it was different than what I had been exposed to my whole life and gave me the opportunity to really think through and explore my personal beliefs so that I could articulate them clearly. My interest has always laid in studying people, and what influences us to do what we do and be our own people. With this thought, I earned my Bachelors of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies focusing on Sociology, Psychology and Intercultural Studies. This gave me a grounding in human behavior that has been invaluable as I have supported people with counseling over the years.
After graduation, I followed my heart to Mali, West Africa where I served in the Peace Corps helping to develop agriculture in a small village past Timbuktu. Here I was exposed to Islam and African Shaman faiths as well as attending a Catholic congregation when I could. When I was evacuated in 2009, I was led to a small non denominational Christian camp in Grass Valley, called Wolf Mountain. There I served as a counselor, outdoor education instructor and high school camp director. During this time I participated in a small house church that had mystic leanings and believed in the power of the divine to do influence this world. It was a powerful time of experiencing fire in my head and joy in my heart. In 2010, I went across the big pond to South Korea where I taught English for a year, working with kids from the ages of 6-18. While there I attended a Methodist church while exploring Buddhism and attending local monasteries and doing meditation practices.
In 2013 I graduated with my Masters in Social Change at Iliff School of Theology in Denver and while working with the youth at First Denver Friends. For me, this is a very powerful combination, giving me space to think about the relationship of Equity and Justice in faith and gain experience in acting a spiritual leader for young people.
After graduate school I worked with young people and their families who were experiencing challenges, trying to create harmony in their house when the neurodiverse child in their family had big behavioral impacts on the household.
Over the last 15 years I have been putting faith in action, serving as an Executive Director for a Interfaith Rotating Shelter serving families experiencing homelessness with the support of 34 congregations of all different faiths and most recently doubling the size of a Transition Age Youth Program in Santa Cruz California, providing counseling and connections to local resources as well as housing programs for youth and young adults that have been system impacted by foster care, probation and homelessness. These have been an amazing time of testing my skills as a leader and counselor outside of a faith tradition.
Over 6 years ago I started participating in Ecstatic Dance and through experiences of embodied expression as well as deeping my connection to earth based wisdom, I have felt the integration of all my past experience and have also had a renewed calling to serve as a soul guide for those that seek deeper wisdom. The role of embodiment with spirit medicine and to deepen the conversation around power and control, it’s relation to the different -isms and our role as well as faiths in creating change in power systems.
I believe that embodiment and self healing is the beginning of true social change and is revolutionary. I am devoted to creating spaces for people to be more wholly themselves. in connection with others and the earth. I believe that as we heal ourselves we heal the world and I makes spaces for us to learn to love all our parts and where all are welcome, especially when that is challenging.
I have always believed in magic. I see it in the spring with new growth, and the fall of leaves in the autumn , in the dark of the new moon and the light of the full moon. I see it in the tears of holy water that flow down the face of someone embracing their sadness and I see the magic when there is attunement and connection on or off the dance floor that reminds us that we are not alone. I hope to see you in your body some day soon.
