Our Team

I am a physician, mother, professor, educator, researcher, and learner (for life). My journey as a healer and medical doctor is focused on treating the most needful populations. I witness the effects of complexity and social disparate conditions has on illness in the US and even while practicing medicine overseas.
I realize our health care system even with its “technological” advances has great barriers to true healing. People’s health is more digitized and dehumanized than it has ever been.
Yet throughout my medical career, I continue to pursue better ways to help children and families in their most needful states. My career as Clinical faculty at Baylor College of Medicine to Univ. of California, San Francisco, ranges in implementing and teaching better ways to caring for children and their families. I founded programs for children with special needs, Down syndrome, obesity, complex care consultations services, and narrative medicine, only to emphasize “whole” person care. More importantly, it is a provider’s presence and connection that is mandated to help people in their struggle.
I am galvanized to prove, be it by academic pursuits or the art of medicine to demonstrate thriving health can be achieved, holistically. I harness the methodologies of my master’s training in Narrative Medicine from Columbia Univ. to teach caring with compassionate-based inquiry to illness and peoples’ lives.
With Narrative Medicine, the arts and creative explorations are the fountainhead to connect to people in their illness, community, and social constructs.
Even greater means to healing, naturally and holistically are possible with integrative and psychedelic medicines and therapies. I have obtained accreditation and certification in psychedelic assisted therapies, Ketamine therapy and fellowship trained in Integrative psychiatry from IPI, (Integrative Psychiatry Institute). I aspire to enrich my learning and practice from the Guru’s in the field of psychedelic medicines and integrative medicine.
My mantra is healing the self and others with empathy and with the respectful fusion of self-wisdom, ancient, and novel therapies.

Along my 15-year journey I discovered that being a nurse is not about acquiring skills. Being a nurse is about treating an individual’s body and spirit and my nursing abilities are just a tool in the venture.

I truly believe how we nourish our bodies, the mindset we foster, and the habits we cultivate can have an immense impact on our quality of life and future. Knowing how unique every body is, I make sure to tailor every session to your individualized needs and we work collaboratively to achieve your health goals.

I specialize in sustainable weight loss, mindful nutritious eating, digestive health, behavioral change, work/life balance, chronic disease prevention and more.

Through my work at Facebook, the VA Medical Center, corporate offices and private practice, I’ve witnessed hundreds of individuals exceed their nutrition and health goals and truly create a lifestyle centered around wellness – and there’s nothing that brings me more joy that that!

Credentials:

• Registered Dietitian – Trained in clinical medical nutrition therapy at the San Francisco VA Medical Center + Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
• Didactic Program in Dietetics – Simmons College
• B.S. Nutrition & EcoGastronomy – University of New Hampshire + University of Gastronomic Sciences (Pollenzo, Italy)
• Diabetes Prevention & Lifestyle Coach – CDC National Diabetes Prevention Program
• Integrative Health Coach – The Institute for Integrative Nutrition

As a therapist, and as a person invested in her own healing journey, I have come to find that so much of our healing work involves the capacity to develop an emotional attunement with the self; attuning to our needs and our feelings while creating an allied connection to our bodies, our rhythms, our ancestral lineage, and the natural world around us.

I developed an interest in working with non-ordinary states of consciousness in 2012 after personal experiences with spirit, and my own extensive research on the benefits and use of transpersonal states of consciousness to promote healing and spiritual transformation.

As a trauma informed practitioner, I am concerned with the usual stages of human development and the attachment bonds that are formed from infancy through adulthood. I approach our work with cultural and spiritual humility, and believe that our inherited forms of coping with life’s stressors may be the result of an unhealed intergenerational transmission that were once a means of survival and familial strength.

While working with client’s I believe in providing a warm, relaxing, and empathetic environment. I have experience working with individuals, couples, children, and families in community mental health settings with specialized training in trauma-informed practices, Attachment theory, and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy. I specialize in helping clients build emotional intelligence and develop appropriate coping skills to manage their stress by providing a safe space for my clients to move through their feelings and achieve emotional regulation.

Whether you are taking the first steps towards your healing journey or are interested in strengthening your mind-body connection and overall sense of self, I look forward to helping you achieve your wellness goals, and providing the container to process and integrate your personal insights gained throughout your treatment process.

I completed a 500+HR yoga teacher training, taught by Ana Forrest. I have facilitated individual and group work since 2001 and currently weave trauma informed yoga into therapy sessions. In 2005, while living in SE Asia, I entered a monastery to continue my studies of Theravada meditation practices and utilize mindfulness-based practices with clients. I approach therapeutic work in an integrative way—working from the ‘neck up’ using cognitive and behavioral frameworks, while also exploring the ‘neck down’– contemplating how the body affects the mind. I am committed to supporting you through your courageous trek into the terrain of healing, growth, and change. Metaphorically and literally, expeditions into unfamiliar lands often include elements of being and doing. The focused preparation, the letting go into unknowns, the being with fear and lack of control, the finding of unexpected joys and wonder, and the continuing through–even when it feels almost impossible to do so—can be your launchpad to creating lasting change. Important too is finding a guide you trust and feel comfortable with—who has tools, supplies, experience, and training. I value providing a non-judgmental space where you can feel safe enough to open into what can feel uncomfortable or scary. My own growth through personal life struggles is what helps me relate so deeply with clients. Although my journey may not look like yours, know that I’ve been there. I am informed by the wide breadth of client experiences I have encountered; including depression, anxiety, trauma, mood challenges, addiction, grief, loss and high sensitivity.

At ShaMynds, I offer Medical Herbalism and Yogic studies to support client’s wellness using a vitalistic approach. Vitalism is the idea that an innate ‘Life-Force’ is present in all living beings. This life-force gives the body a natural ability to
heal itself. The Vitalistic Principle is to prescribe sleep, food and lifestyle changes before medicine; to create a balance between palliation and non-suppression. To prescribe the proper plant-medicine, we start by diving deep within the clients unique story to address the ‘root-cause of dis-ease’. After addressing physiology and pathology we take time to create detailed plant-based formulas.

I am a graduate and continuing student of North American Institute of Medical Herbalism-where I have studied over 500+ hours of materia-medica, physiology, in depth formulation and case-study in a clinical setting. I am also a humble, life-long student of Iyengar Yoga and Jyotish. I find my life’s work revolves around my dedication to this sacred lineage, this is my heart.

I have also completed 500+ hours of experience working in a clinical setting at the California College of Ayurveda as the lead herbal assistant. Here I made custom (plant-based) medicated oils, ghees, capsules and churnas for Ayurvedic and other non-Ayurvedic providers nationwide.

Medicated Oils have taken a special place in my heart.One of the areas of focus I have taken akin to is women’s reproductive health. Combining these two interests; I have created product line called Vesel Wellness. Here, I formulate medicated-oil- suppositories to support a myriad of women’s sexual and reproductive dis-eases. Anything from HPV to painful intercourse, endometriosis to peri-menopause can be addressed.

At ShaMynds, at your request, I offer one-on-one herbal consultations for both men and women. Here, I collaborate with our physicians, review your medical records, dive into your unique story, and reflect on your ketamine journey’s, to create a plant-based wellness plan. From there, I suggest a standard herbal formula or create a custom-made herbal formula paired with a wellness plan that fit into your program at ShaMynds.

Certifications

• 200hr. YTT Iyengar Yoga 2016
• 200 hr. Acorn School of Herbal Medicine,” 2018
• 300 hr. North American School of Herbal Medicine 2019, Continuing student
• Level 1, Science of Light, Vedic Astrology, Continuing Student