Resources and Referrals

In addition to my direct 1-on-1 teachers, I’ve learned so much from my practitioners and what others have written. Here’s a short and growing list of my most influential guides, teachers, and healers. No affiliate links. * denotes organizations with which I’ve trained and studied

Therapists

– Tyler Walsh, Rose City Therapists, Portland OR—Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), Psychedelic Integration, Depth Psychology, CBT, DBT
– Barbara Leigh, Online in Alabama and Oregon
– Sarah Eden, Portland OR—Hakomi Mindful Somatics
– Erica Bolliger, Pacific Mind Body, Portland OR—Somatic Experiencing

Intuitives, Witches, Readers, and Astrologists

– Lindsay Mack, Tarot for the Wild Soul*, Online
– Chani Nicholas, You Were Born for This and Chani Astrology, Online
– Dana Hersh, Portland OR
– Cameo Garrick, Ground and Center, Austin TX
– Jenna Bowers, The Way Witch, Portland OR

Coaches: Leadership, Executive, Personal/Life

– Hans Philips, Ontoco—Ontological-focus; high-performance business and life; cofounder of Accomplishment Coaching
– Steven Fulmer—Leadership coach; author of Leadership Just Got Personal
– Susan Nichols, Right Alignment Living—Somatic-focus; leadership, executive, and personal; Master somatics coach via Strozzi Institute*

Classes and Trainings

Additional Practitioners

  • Barbu Panaitescu, trained & certified Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist under Franklyn Sills
  • more coming soon

Seminal Practitioners, Authors, and Books

I’d be remiss not to note that many of the “founders” and “discoveries” and “systems/fields” are not new; rather, they have adapted ancestral knowledge and indigenous wisdom into our Euro-and-US-centric systems, models, and nomenclature. This is not to devalue the work required to re-integrate such wisdom into our cultures, but to acknowledge all of our ancestors and inherent knowledge that have been eradicated and stigmatized through colonial settler practices over the past 2,000 years.

  • Somatics as Practice—some “mothers” and “fathers” of integrating somatic understandings into American awareness, from the structural to the spiritual
  • Biodynamic Craniosacral—
    • Franklyn Sills—The Foundations in Craniosacral Biodynamics
    • Hugh Milne—The Heart of Listening
  • Peter A. Levine—Therapist, founder of Somatic Experiencing, and author of several books on how trauma lives in our bodies, and how we heal. Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma; In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness.
  • Dr Gabor Maté and Daniel Maté—The Myth of Normal & others focused on the impact that trauma has on disease and addiction
  • Don Miguel Ruiz and Don Jose Ruiz—The Four Agreements, The Fifth Agreement, The Mastery of Self: A Toltec Guide to Personal Freedom, The Medicine Bag: Shamanic Rituals & Ceremonies for Personal Transformation
  • Polyvagal Theory—breaks up old model of 2 distinct autonomic nervous systems: parasympathetic (rest/digest) & sympathetic (fight/flight) to introduce a third focused on safety. This theory extends Western science to our understanding of how the vagus nerve relates to our ability to connect, communicate, and heal.
    • Stephen W. Porges—The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe
    • Dr Stanley D. Rosenberg—Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve: Self-Help Exercises for Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Autism
    • Bessel A. van der Kolk, et al.—The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
  • Internal Family Systems—Methodology around core belief that we are made up of many parts used by therapists, coaches, and healers. No Bad Parts, Richard C. Schwartz Phd (founder); Emodied IFS is a branch focused on the blend with somatics. Somatic Internal Family Systems Therapy: Awareness, Breath, Resonance, Movement, and Touch in Practice, Susan McConnell and foreward by Richard C Schwartz Phd.
  • Tara Brach—Radical Acceptance: Awakening the Love that Heals Fear and Shame
  • David Whyte, poet—The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America; The Bell and the Blackbird

Additional Books
—Journeying Between the Worlds, Eagle Skyfire
—Falling Through the Tree of Life: Embodied Kabbalah, Jane Meredith
—Post-Colonial Astrology: Reading the Planets through Capital, Power, and Labor, Alice Sparkly Kat
—Touch: The Science Of The Sense That Makes Us Human, David j. Linden
—Co-Active Leadership & Coaching
—Adult ADHD: How to Succeed as a Hunter in a Farmer’s World, Thomas Hartmann
—Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, Katherine May
—Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again, Johann Hari
—The Lost Gospel, Simcha Jacobovici and Barrie Wilson
—Groundworks: Narratives of Embodiment Volume II, Don Hanlon Johnson
—Anatomy Trains, Myers
—The Creative Act, Rick Rubin