It has been a walk through the ancient ways, each discovery carrying me one step closer to the shamanic traditions—the same traditions that form the roots of healing practices reaching back over 100,000 years.

As a young girl growing up in Seattle, I was steeped in Catholic traditions, yet also touched by the gentle spiritualism of my mother—a Catholic practicing Zen. My dreams were filled with premonitions of ordinary life events, along with an overwhelming pull toward Native American traditions. Even then, the unseen world was speaking, calling me toward something greater.

When I moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1980s to pursue acting, I relinquished Catholicism and embraced Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism. This deepened my spirituality and created a healing connection to my father, one I had never known during his lifetime. At the same time, I was drawn into other doorways of discovery—past life regression, psychic journaling, automatic writing. My world cracked open to the unseen. My life became filled with ancient voices, benevolent middle-world spirits, and an insatiable longing to make sense of my desire to help others heal. This yearning soon brought me to Native American Pow Wows, Sweat Lodge ceremonies, and Vision Quest. I sought out sacred places—Bear Butte, the Painted Desert, the Sedona vortexes, and Taisekiji Temple in Japan—each one deepening the path.

In September of 2007, I began a shamanic herbal apprenticeship with Julie Charette Nunn. At the time my mother was quite ill, though the cause had not yet been discovered. I remember Julie giving each of us a seed and asking us to walk her land with it, listening for what life would be a year from now. The seed whispered one word to me: motherless. My mother passed away that night. The wisdom and healing of the plants shaped me in ways I carry forward to this day.

Still seeking, in 2008 I took Michael Harner’s The Way of the Shaman Basic Workshop through the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. I distinctly remember how quickly and abundantly the room filled with the Ancients as the teacher held the candle and whistled them in. I wasted no time signing up for the Two-Week Intensive, and in those teachings I knew I was home. It was the beautiful paradox of learning something new, yet feeling it was all deeply familiar.

It is the incredible beauty of the compassionate helping spirits that surrounds us each day, speaking through all life forms—the animals, the trees, the plants, the rocks, the rivers, lakes, mountains, and oceans. Within this vast web of life I find solace, wisdom, and a well of healing that never runs dry. Their presence is both intimate and eternal, reminding me that spirit is never separate from us but woven into every breath, every step, every encounter.

Along the way, I have been blessed with remarkable teachers who helped me deepen this relationship with spirit. Julie Charette Nunn first taught me to listen to the wisdom of plants, guiding me into the world of shamanic herbalism and showing me how healing is rooted in the natural world. From there, I entered the three-year program with Nan Moss and David Corbin of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, where the initiations forged my connections and understandings of the spectacular unseen realms. Arvick Baghramian then introduced me to the art of shamanic counseling, offering tools to hold sacred space for others as they discovered their own guidance.

My work with Betsy Bergstrom opened the doorway into compassionate depossession, curse unraveling, mediumship, and the mysteries of seidr, expanding my understanding of how to restore balance across many layers of being. Finally, Johannes Gårdbäck brought me into the traditions of Trolldom, connecting me to the old Nordic ways and showing me how shamanic wisdom reveals itself uniquely through different cultures.

Together, these teachers form a lineage of wisdom, each one strengthening my ability to walk between worlds and serve as a bridge for healing. From this lineage I now stand as a teacher and healer in my own right—guiding others through shamanic journeys, rituals, and practices that awaken their connection to spirit, empower their healing, and remind them of the ancient wisdom that lives within us all. In this way, the walk through the ancient ways that began as my own search has become a living path I now share with others.