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 growing list of my most influential guides, teachers, healers, and references. No affiliate links. (* denotes people and organizations I’ve worked with directly as a client or student)

    • The Forge*—transformational leadership and coaching program (2023-24)

    • Strozzi Institute*—Embodied Leadership (2005), Somatic Coach Training (2022-2023, certification in-process 2024) Online and in Petaluma, CA and other international locations

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

        • Richard Strozzi-Heckler, PhD—cofounder of Lomi School and founder of Strozzi Institute, a leader in non-therapy rooted embodied training for over 35 years and with a rich history of teachers including Elsa Gindler, Wilhelm Reich M.D., Doris Breyer, Randolph Stone M.D., Dr. Ida Rolfe, Magda Prower and Moshé Feldenkrais Ph.D. in Theoretical and Practice Basis of Somatics; Morihei Ueshiba in Aikido; Charan Singh (India), Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (Tibet) in Meditation/Paths of Enlightenment; Fritz Perls/ Gestalt Therapy, Lomi School, Jungian Psychology in Western Psychological Distinctions. You can learn more about these teachers and additional influences in Strozzi’s Living Lineage.

    • 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

    • 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