Get rich in bodily wisdom

My interest in flower essences began in 2005. The vet told my mother about Bach Rescue Remedy, which we gave my dog to calm his separation anxiety while we were away at school. He stopped clawing at the door after taking it for a month or so! In 2020, I realized I could try this for my CPTSD symptoms, as it works for humans and animals alike. The Rescue Remedy ended up settling my nightmares of two years. I would not say this crisis formula works 100% of the time, but it is the world #1 natural stress relief remedy for a reason! I trained as a Level 1 Bach Practitioner with the Bach Foundation in 2020 and completed the Level 2 training in 2021. My plan is to complete Level 3 in 2022 and finally become a Registered Bach Foundation Practitioner.

Flower essences are very much a part of the herbal medicine tradition. Dew has been for millennia for its healing properties. I started experimenting with creating my first flower essence out of borage in my garden in 2019. These energetic remedies can affect your spiritual, mental, emotional, and social selves. The Bach Foundation does not propone using flower essences for their physical benefits directly, but some have found that essences relieve certain physical symptoms. They are safe, affordable, and definitely worth experimenting with if you have an open mind!

I am all about turning my kitchen into a lab and experimenting with herbal products! My newest flower essence play fantasy is creating a line of fruit and vegetable flower essences, like zucchini, strawberry and tomato. Just have to wait 'til the right season...

My trauma work has been personal before professional, as I think it is for most people in this field. Finding out my Dad was ill in 2011 jolted me so much that I remained in a hyperaroused and disassociated way for a couple years. I was even having absence seizures which I was not aware of until a Nurse practitioner observed one. What brought me back into my body was actively pursuing embodiment, by grounding myself in parks in London, like Hampstead Heath, and visualizing roots coming out of my soles and digging their way through the floorboards, deep into the soil. I developed other grounding practices, some self-learned. I worked with many therapists, some trauma-informed, and others less so (they would always tell me how self-aware I was which amused me). I of course read lots of books as the worm that I am. And I participated in and led support groups for grief and chronic illness with Bereaved Families of Ontario, Generation Lyme and PEC Lyme Support.

I have advocated at certain times in my life for greater visibility and justice for sexual violence survivors. In 2020, I started receiving more signs, in dreams, coaching sessions and tarot pulls, to work with sexual trauma survivors holistically. I really respect my intuition so when both my logic and greater sense lined up, I knew this could be my lifelong calling.

In 2021, I stepped up to do The Breathe Network's Healing Sexual Trauma Professional Training and have not regretted it. I am always learning more and love to learn from my community, so please send me any resources that you think could help me support survivors more authentically.

In 2014, I completed my Bachelor's in Business Administration (Hons) with a concentration in Social Entrepreneurship from Hult International Business School. If you haven't heard of our breed, social entrepreneurs start value-driven businesses that serve their community and the environment, with profit as a secondary motive. I have never been surrounded by people from so many nationalities while at Hult's London campus! I think there were 141 represented. I co-founded the Changemakers' Society there with two dear friends. We used this as a container to promote action within three pillars: People (human rights), Planet (ecological conservation and justice) and Peace (conflict resolution). It won Society of the Year across all campuses in 2013...

After graduating, I consulted the nonprofit PEC Syria on building and managing social enterprises among the Syrian refugee families in the Bay of Quinte area.

I see Hale & Hart as a community-centered, health-focused social enterprise.

My love of plants and living things go way back. As a child, I used to eat whatever I could put in my mouth: flowers, leaves, even worms...(!) I got to cultivate this longstanding love after university. when I moved with my partner out of London into the Hampshire countryside. We apprenticed under Tom Petherick, a renowned biodynamic gardener and author. He stayed at our homestead every weekend for a year. We learned how to set up a polytunnel, a forest garden, veg patches and herbaceous borders. We kept chickens and bees. It was the experience of a lifetime for me, even with all the slugs and rain! We had a goal of becoming as self-sufficient as possible to offset our ecological footprint and managed to become 70% self-sufficient. We lived this way for two years.

While in the U.K., I volunteered at Thrive with gardener clients who were disabled, elderly, and socially marginalized. I learned about horticultural therapy and made some amazing friends. I have carried my training as a horticultural therapy assistant into my therapeutic approach at Hale & Hart.

I completed the Green Roof Professional Certification in Toronto in 2017 with Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. My fave part of this was learning how to design biophilic public spaces to boost urbanites' health and happiness. Biophilia means to be attracted to life; biophilic design is architecture created to connect people more closely with nature.

In 2020, I dove into a two year training to become a Master Gardener through the Master Gardeners of Ontario. After studying at the University of Guelph, I became a horticultural consultant to the public in the Bay of Quinte and PEC. I have given radio talks on the therapeutic power of gardening and on how to protect yourself from vector-borne diseases while outdoors.

I'm always moseying around my wild garden on the shores of Lake Ontario and planning unorthodox landscape designs, to the dismay of my neighbours with 1/4 inch lawns! You'll find me growing veggies, flowers, and herbs alongside each other, as one beautiful mish-mash of colour and purpose.

I've always been intuitive and spiritual, even as a kid. I remember becoming cognizant of energy at around 11, when I'd close my eyes and, half-asleep, see and feel energy moving around me. I would say I feel more at home among the evergreens than in my home, or with people. Nature was and is my meditative space.

In 2009, after going to India, my Mum told us about this spiritual organization called Isha Foundation. Some of my family and I tried their flagship Inner Engineering program, which was an introduction to classical yoga and meditation. I was 16 and none of my friends were really into yoga, especially not in its classical form, and I'll admit my body was super uncomfortable with the postures. But I became hooked on pondering my existence and wanting to transcend my body! At 18, I went to their centre in India, shaved my head at a full moon ceremony, and started volunteering intensively. Since, I've experienced all of their programs, including their 8-day residential advanced silence program, Samyama. The practice that is most in tune with my biology is breath-watching, which I practice for an hour as soon as I wake, every morning I remember to...

I trained as a Yoga & Meditation Facilitator with Isha in 2018. We are called Ishangas, or "limbs of Isha". I became Toronto's only Corporate-level Facilitator, and conducted large-scale programs for Loblaws and Scotiabank, as well as at community centres, public schools and libraries. From 2019-2021, I organized virtual programs for thousands of employees across North America. Some of my clients included the NIH, The Liberal Party of Canada, Salesforce and Boston Children's Hospital.

I no longer coordinate Isha's corporate programs or Toronto activity, but I do facilitate their wonderful yoga and meditation practices. Now, I'm more involved with my Qigong practice, and exploring spontaneous, earth-based meditation and prayer.