ABOUT Me

The seed of my work with Reiki was planted during my first ‘accidental’ appointment years ago. I thought I was going in for a massage to help with a 30-year old hip condition to enable my continued hiking through the beautiful California landscape. It was during this appointment that my life took a huge left turn.

The Reiki seed has grown throughout my own induction into the modality followed by thousands of hours of watching client concerns and health conditions improve and resolve. Watching the often surprising transformations brought about by Reiki, and hearing how thrilled my clients are by the changes that begin in their lives as they become more emotionally balanced and less physically sick, is a gift that keeps on giving.

I continued my studies with a two-year Mastership that was completed in 2026, and I am now able to initiate students to be strong conduits of Reiki energy using the exact same in-person method the founder developed in the 1920’s. Watching students feel the impact of Reiki initiations and discover their own healing abilities is the coolest part of this gift.

Reiki has instilled me with a powerful sense of calm and grounding, and reduced chronic pain, allergies and other auto-immune conditions. I am committed to helping others improve their well-being and outlook on life using this incredible healing modality.

Now for my bio. As an already anxious child, I experienced many health events that required hospitalization. I had an auto-immune condition called eczema that caused me a full body rash that was uncontrollably itchy, often became infected, and defined most of my childhood and young adulthood. It induced an incredible sense of anxiety and depression, and the itching constantly interrupted my sleep cycle and life plans. I was usually covered in an ugly, hopeless rash, which made me feel insecure and unloveable. As an adult, I understand that this condition opened my ability to welcome Reiki clients into the Oakland Reiki Center’s container with a greater sense of empathy and compassion than I would have otherwise been able to provide. The eczema was controlled by a medication in my 30s, and the condition and mental health issues it brought about have been eliminated using self-treatments with Reiki.

While eczema defined my childhood, I had many other health events that were treated using traditional western medicine, including childhood stroke, pneumonia, and asthma. Western medicine at times controlled the symptoms, but ignored the root cause. As a teenager and young adult, I began self-medicating using maladaptive coping mechanisms such as drugs and alcohol for many years, including during college at the University of Michigan, while working at a consulting firm in Chicago, during my time overseas serving with the Peace Corps, and throughout Graduate School in New Jersey.

In 2017, I was able to commit to sobriety with the help of others. I learned that without alcohol, I am more sensitive than others to sight, smell, touch and all of the other senses. While I owe my sobriety to a 12-step program, in 2022 I was introduced to Reiki to help develop my boundaries and use my sensitivity for good. This magical healing modality has been a wonderful tool that has removed blocks to happiness and enhanced my spiritual wellbeing. In doing so, the practice has helped heal many long-standing ailments, improved my outlook on life and brightened the tone of my thoughts.

Our bodies have an innate ability to heal themselves, and Reiki strengthens and facilitates this process. Reiki has helped my clients sleep better, experience less anxiety and depression, feel a drastic reduction in chronic pain, and experience numerous other health benefits.

As a practitioner of Usui Shiki Ryoho lineage of Reiki, I have received formal training under Reiki Master Christopher Tellez, founder of the San Francisco Reiki Center. I am a member of the Reiki Alliance, an international community of Reiki Masters dedicated to the practice of Usui Shiki Ryoho, the Usui System of Natural Healing.