After graduating from Pomona College with a degree in Media Studies, I found myself working at Google’s headquarters in the heart of Silicon Valley. The outside world was telling me I had hit the jackpot by landing such a great job.

But inside, I was not well.

Soul-sickened by the culture of capitalism and tech, existentially lost, and struggling with the residual effects of childhood trauma (like longstanding anxiety, depression, shame, disordered eating, and exercise and alcohol addictions), I turned to shamanic journeying for answers. It was a last-ditch effort after traditional psychotherapy failed to offer the right kind of support.

During my first drumming journey with a shamanic practitioner, I experienced something indescribably sacred. The wisdom I received through the drum spoke to me so clearly, and I knew I had tapped into a key piece of my purpose.

But it felt too scary and unknown to fully open the door to spirituality and root-level personal healing.‍

I spent the next seven years working on a related area of my life that felt more culturally acceptable: my creativity.

In 2015 I earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Animation & Digital Arts from the University of Southern California and created an award-winning short film. And I returned to tech as a software designer in the cybersecurity industry in Los Angeles.

The whole time, I continued to struggle internally, but my coping strategies kept me afloat.

Then in early 2017, another wave of heavy depression hit me. And psychedelic plant medicine came knocking at my door.

This time, I knew avoidance of spiritual forces and the part of me that was longing for soul nourishment wasn't an option. I felt ready to answer the call I had heard years earlier through the beat of the drum.

My initial meeting with Ayahuasca revealed that I needed to heal the traumas that were keeping me stuck living in shame and with misguided coping strategies.

From my first ceremony, I knew Ayahuasca would be a powerful ally for me on my healing quest. And it felt important to me to experience it and learn from it at the source, with people whose ancestors have collaborated with it for countless generations.

In 2018, I went to Peru for the first time and began learning from my teacher, Ricardo Amaringo, head shaman and co-founder of Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual, a renowned retreat and training center in the Amazon Jungle.

Ricardo has over 45 years of experience with Ayahuasca and is widely regarded as a leading expert in the field. You can learn more about him and Nihue Rao in Dr. Joe Tafur's book The Fellowship of the River: A Medical Doctor's Exploration into Traditional Amazonian Plant Medicine, an account of his life and journey co-founding Nihue Rao with Ricardo and Canadian artist Cvita Mamic.
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My first experience with Shipibo-style training (known as a medicinal plant diet or dieta) in Peru revealed the roots of my deep-seated shame and addictions: buried sexual trauma and ancestral wounds.

Upon returning to the U.S., I started working with a wonderful Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapist and some profoundly skilled Somatic Experiencing Practitioners (SEP) to help me integrate my ceremonies and painful realizations about why I had struggled so much throughout life.

As I healed wounds from my past, my path became clear: to learn to work with plant medicine and eventually help and guide others who, like me, were seeking transformation while navigating the tension between mainstream culture and inner healing and liberation.

I back went to Peru for more short dietas and soaked up as much firsthand learning as I could with plant medicine.

After years of contemplation and preparation, I left my corporate software design job and moved to a little hut at Nihue Rao to begin a year-long dieta under Ricardo's guidance. This is a traditional foundational step in Shipibo plant medicine for those who want to become practitioners (or curanderos/as).

My long dieta in the jungle rewired every fiber and atom of my being, and helped me come home to myself. It feels as though I will be integrating and learning from this experience for the rest of my life!

Upon completing 13 continuous rigorous months of dieta, I received Ricardo’s permission and blessing to share the practices I learned from him and directly from the medicinal plants and trees I worked with.

Since 2023 I've been guiding and coaching dozens of people through the full experience of plant medicine healing, from preparation to integration.
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In addition to my deep experiential training in the Shipibo tradition with dietas and many hundreds of ceremonies over the last 8+ years, my ongoing experience as a client in regular therapy and somatic healing sessions inform the way I work with people. I also have certificates in integrative trauma healing and continue to seek Western training.

My background in design and storytelling also helps me guide clients towards seeing the full picture of their lives and in crafting new self-loving and empowering narratives about their experiences.