My Body Was My First Teacher
For much of my life, I knew how to ask more of my body.
I grew up as a multi-sport athlete, moving from one season to the next and eventually earning a scholarship to play Division I lacrosse. When I tore my ACL, all I could think about was recovering as quickly as possible so I could get back on the field.
At the time, I thought pushing through pain was strength and that ignoring my body was resilience. I knew how to work hard, push through discomfort, and keep going — no matter what.
Over the years, my body carried me through more than an ACL replacement. I experienced other injuries, surgeries, pregnancies, and an unplanned C-section — each leaving its own imprint.
Even years after giving birth, I could still feel how my scar, the surgery, and the experience of becoming a mother had affected me, both physically and emotionally.
I also spent nearly two decades as a professional chef, asking my body to work long hours, repeat the same movements, and keep going — no matter what.
Eventually, everything added up, and I was hurting.
I realized I hadn't yet learned how to listen to my body or understand what it needed.
That search led me to try myofascial release.
My first session changed the way I understood my body.
My therapist would work in one place, and I would feel something shift somewhere completely different. I was fascinated by the connections, compensations, and patterns the body creates to keep us moving — and to keep us coming back to what feels familiar.
I began to see that my body wasn't working against me. It was adapting the best it knew how to keep me going.
Yoga gifted me another way to explore that relationship. Through movement, breath, stillness, and study, I began learning how to notice:
Where was I holding more effort than I needed? Could I soften? What happened when I gave myself time instead of pushing for a result?
My understanding of strength began to change.
I started seeing there was strength in paying attention. In respecting a limit. In allowing myself to be supported.
Together, yoga and bodywork helped me see how closely our physical experiences, emotions, habits, and patterns can intertwine. The body doesn't always sort our experiences into neat categories. It adapts. It compensates. It learns.
And that understanding became the foundation for the work I do today.
I'm a licensed massage therapist, Reiki Master, yoga teacher, and lifelong student of the body. My training includes therapeutic massage, myofascial techniques, manual lymphatic drainage, craniosacral therapy, nervous-system awareness, breath, sound, energy work, and more.
I don't believe the body is something broken that needs to be fixed. I believe the body is the teacher.
It is always giving us information; My job is to listen, bring my knowledge and experience to the session, and respond to what I find.
That's what makes my approach to integrative bodywork different.
I weave together anatomy and intuition, therapeutic skill and nervous-system awareness, science and subtlety. I don't come into a session with the assumption that one technique or modality is going to be the answer.
Your body leads. I listen.
That philosophy is at the heart of Nourish — and it's also why I created The Nourish Signature.
After years of experiencing my own bodywork, movement, injuries, surgeries, motherhood, and healing, I wanted to create the kind of session I had learned to value: one that doesn't require you to know exactly what your body needs before you arrive.
Rather than choosing a modality before you walk through the door, I meet you where you are that day.
I pay attention to the information your body is giving me — your patterns of tension, movement, breath, nervous system, and tissue — and let that information guide the session.
Myofascial work might be what your body needs one day. Manual lymphatic drainage, craniosacral work, or something gentler might be right the next.
There is no predetermined formula.
Because your body isn't the same every day. And you shouldn't have to fit yourself into a predetermined formula to receive thoughtful, personalized care.
Your body leads. I listen.
That's the Nourish difference.
If you're ready to experience bodywork that meets you where you are, book your Nourish Signature session below.
