About 15 years ago, I had a major crisis of performance anxiety. I already had ten years of gigging life as a classical pianist in Chicago, but in an effort to heal my chronically tense shoulders, I cracked open the deep reservoir of anxiety that lurked beneath the surface. I became nearly non-functional as a performing pianist.

In my quest to figure out what was ‘wrong’ with me, I found Internal Family Systems (IFS), which then became a deep passion of mine. It helped heal large amounts of the anxiety so that it no longer was my daily state of being.

But after 10 years of IFS healing, plus getting trained to be an IFS practitioner, I still struggled with feeling overwhelmed in life, like I was constantly on defense. I was frustrated at how slow the pace of IFS healing moved and wanted something faster.

AuraTransformation came across my radar and I knew right away that I wanted to try that, despite the weird name and knowing nothing about auras. My session was so beautiful, energizing, grounding, and the results kept unfolding over the coming months like little gifts showing up in unexpected ways. So I decided to train in this modality too.

AuraTransformation made it clear that music is still part of my purpose and passion in life. I have a completely renewed relationship with music - one of joy and fresh energy, a force for healing and connecting in the world.

My most recent training was to become an Aura Mediator, and I have completed Levels 1 and 2 in Internal Family Systems training, and was a Program Assistant for another Level 1 training. In addition to a BA in piano performance, an MM in Collaborative Arts as my formal degrees, I’ve done several music apprenticeship and summer programs, and I spent a year in improv classes with IO Chicago.

Additionally, I volunteered for a number of years with Planned Parenthood, Rape Victim Advocates, and IMPACT Chicago, building the capacity to hold space and non-judgement for people in intense trauma and vulnerability. I'm a mom to one child, and partnered with an actuary who balances out my emotional life with many spreadsheets and math. We all have fun together playing music and games, and being silly.