My Background Story

I come from Italian, Irish, and Jewish ancestors who immigrated to the US in the early 20th century. I grew up in an upwardly-mobile middle class family, in the heart of the Seneca nation in western New York. My upbringing saw me well provided for, but the lack of a meaningful culture - the hallmark of white-washed suburbia - left me spiritually itchy and restless.

Throughout my twenties, I found myself gravitating toward spending more and more of my time seeking spiritual and social justice frameworks that filled in the gaps in my education and sense of connection to a larger story. And lord, was there a lot of filling in that needed to happen. So fill I did.

I sought spiritual education through a Buddhist monastery in Myanmar, a spiritual intentional community in West Virginia, and a consciousness school outside of Baltimore. I joined training after workshop after seminar after retreat to learn about intuition, the sacred, ritual, my ancestors, my ego, and mysticism. I sought my political education through learning & practice groups focused on unearthing the conditioning of white supremacy culture, trainings, and study groups. I learned how to relate to land as something other than mostly dead through a permaculture certification, more trainings and courses, and working for environmental nonprofits.

Over the course of about 15 years, I had a tremendous amount of support from so many different groups, programs, friends, teachers both informal and formal, human and non-human, and work experiences to help my belief systems come into better alignment with the living world and the pervasive struggles within it. It took a lot of time and money - something that feels important to name. Did *not* just wake up like this.

The more I learned about other cultures and cosmologies, and the subjugated histories that surrounded me, the more what feels most important in life came into clearer and clearer focus for me. And then I found breathwork, and things just finally kind of clicked into place.

Because as I look back on that time of intense exploration, I realize how much I was doing to deal with the sizeable yet hidden sense of disconnection that was motivating my constant seeking. Pretty much everything you could feel disconnected from, I did feel disconnected from. My body, my history, others' histories, the Earth, non-humans, other humans, the seasons, the elements -- you name it. When I found breathwork, it created opportunities for me to experience a sense of connection that I had never known was possible. The more I got into it, the more capable I became of feeling in my body the actual things I had been trying so hard to make myself experience. Because that's the thing - we can't just think or learn our ways out of disconnection, try as we might. It's been a few hundred or even thousand years of a process of disconnection for some of us, and that's not something that just disappears when you learn more about it.

While disconnection is not necessarily the thing I want to center in my work, it is a common reality that so many of us are experiencing either consciously or unconsciously. I believe that our disconnection sneakily dictates and narrates our worldview, and influences us to perpetuate a culture of disconnection at all scales of relating. It creeps into how we interact with different parts of ourselves, with each other, the things and beings that support our lives, and the environments we are embedded in. I believe a lot of the systems that govern our society function to varying extents off of that disconnection, and rely on us not knowing what to do about it to sustain themselves.

Disconnection is obviously not the case for all of us, but what I offer here is designed for those of us who feel any level of disconnection to the things that matter most in our lives. As we heal these disconnections, my hope is that we grow within us an ability to feel and thus contribute to the great shifts being called for in our times. 

What I Offer

I created Everyday Aliveness as a response to the subtle ways domination and disconnection can sneak into our lives to warp our world view and relationships. Everyday Aliveness aims to create opportunities to expand our perception and our sense of connection through the disconnections we have internalized, different though they may be.

I offer this in everyday ways, like through breathing, noticing, and reflecting; activities that can stoke connection in daily moments, in our lives as they currently are.

Breathwork

Breathwork offers a potent way of opening up our perception, especially our unconscious perceptions, and entering into connection with parts, people, and perspectives that we have been disconnected from. I do one-on-one sessions with clients, and also offer introduction to breathwork circles & group breathwork for folks who want to dive into it in a group or open discussion format. 

Gatherings

I design, organize, and facilitate gatherings that aim to connect us back to something we may not be in close touch with -- whether it be the land, our senses, each other, or contact with the sacred. In the past they've include tree plantings, discussion circles, philosophy jams, death cafes, skillshares, land-based rituals, large gatherings, conferences, experimental performances, and more. You can always check out my upcoming events and past projects using the Gatherings tab on the website, and explore hiring me to support one of your events here.

For Organizations

I also offer services for ethical organizations wanting to engage in thoughtful self-reflection. My favorite offering for organizations is a facilitated employee visioning session, where I bring in breathwork and rounds of sharing to spark idea generation and input from workers or team members on the direction they want to see their organization go.