About Me.
I worked 13 years at Walt Disney Animation Studios in a Communications Design role that took me in all kinds of challenging creative directions. For eight years I assisted the Technology team with their goals and aspirations to communicate publicly their innovative and groundbreaking work. I acted as a translator or liaison between mostly introverted technical engineers and creative outwardly expressive marketing and publicity folks. It was a great many years spent digging into problems and challenging work that resulted in some of the greatest animated films of all time. It gave me a lot of years as an introvert working with other introverts in an extroverts world.
My Psychedelic Journey
In 2016, two months before I was to be married, I had a deeply profound and transformative experience on MDMA. It was one of the first times that I was actually able to articulate and be heard how I was feeling and it changed my perception on what I was capable of as an introvert. It made me realize that I have the ability within me to speak up and express myself in a way that can be heard and understood by others.
After years of pursuing this self work path with the assistance of other plant medicines, entheogens and psychedelic substances, I was able to finally know what it felt like to show up for myself fully present. I pursued talk therapy, somatic therapy, reiki healing, shamanism, witchcraft and other healing modalities that would teach me the path towards self expression. Create a place for me to be accepted, seen and heard. It was a transformative journey and one that led me to be a better person for myself, my partners and my friends.
My INFJ & HSP Journey
As an INFJ and Highly Sensitive Person, I have spent a lifetime learning about myself and navigating a world that doesn't seem to make space for me. I am a more extroverted introvert which means I sincerely enjoy deep conversations with others, feel comfortable around them, but only for a limited amount of time. As a highly sensitive person I find that I am sensitive to others feelings, am a good listener, moved emotionally by the arts, and feel restored out in nature.
My Full Introvert and HSP Journey
Growing up there were many things that made me different. A lot of the time as a child I was raw, and often felt or was told I was being too much. Yet, timidity and shyness have followed me all my life. I'd always admired or fantasize about being the loud, funny, and quippy person in class.
Around high school I began to focus myself inward and started to feel different. I felt the way I saw the world was very different from how all my youthful peers saw it. I used art as a medium to express myself and get out my inner feelings. It was a shift that would shape the next 20 years of my life. Filmmaking became a creative outlet for my feelings and eventually I made a career as a communication designer for the Walt Disney Company, working with the best storytellers in the world. Yet, somehow I still felt strongly that it was hard to fit in. At first I wrote it off to imposter syndrome, but after 12 years of continual employment the feeling still didn't leave me. I finally came to terms with the fact that I felt and thought differently than my peers. This lead me to work within the studio that focused more closely on creating a better culture experience for my colleagues. This is where I found true happiness and a feeling of belonging.
Unfortunately, with the Covid-19 pandemic, all good things must come to an end, and no longer physically being in the same environment with my coworkers made it difficult for me to find my purpose there once again. At that point I had already been working with psychedelics to dive deeper and address my long standing feelings, behaviors, and to love myself better. This all lead me on a path that involved working with others in a more supportive and emotional way. I kept getting feedback that I was intuitively good at this and that people genuinely felt safe, supported, and heard around me.
Integration Specialization
In 2020 I chose to lean fully into my gifts and see my highly sensitive nature as a positive for the world. I began training and working in art therapy and psychedelic integration and have since seen them as transformative tools for introverts and highly sensitive people to learn and explore the most about themselves.
It has been a total paradigm shift from thinking that I was burdensome, shy, or not for everyone into thinking that I am here to see and witness others like me and provide them with a platform for healing.
In 2020 I began training with the Psychedelic School of Higher Learning, now known as the PlaySkool of Integration and Soulpreneurship. Under Shiri Godasi’s leadership I spent 12 months integrating myself and learning the ways to make a difference in this psychedelic renaissance taking place. I provide Psychedelic education, coaching, and also hold monthly integration circles for people to process deep emotions within a psychedelic and psycho-spiritual lens.