“I was diagnosed with leukemia at seven and spent the next three years undergoing chemotherapy. That experience shaped my worldview, my relationship with my body, and my understanding of life.
At 10, I was declared cured. But the experience continued to impact me. My identity became deeply tied to being a patient, and my mental health deteriorated. I felt abandoned by the system that had saved my life. I developed a serious eating disorder as I struggled to cope with the trauma.
When I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis at 17, I again felt betrayed by my body. Another illness. Another reason to believe my body couldn’t be trusted. I didn’t know how to live my life, but I knew how to be a patient.
“The trauma accumulated, each experience compounding the last. I fell into depression, consumed by shame and anger.”
During university, I underwent three major surgeries. They removed my colon and gave me an ostomy. Two weeks later, I needed a second emergency surgery. Six months after that, a third. The trauma accumulated, each experience compounding the last. I fell into depression, consumed by shame and anger. My body had become something to fix, manage, and endure, rather than something I felt connected to.
“Getting better didn’t have to mean being cured.”
Eventually, I began to understand that my suffering was shaped not only by illness, pain, and changes to my body, but also by the trauma of what I’d lived through and the way it shifted how I understood myself and the world.
Through integrative trauma treatment, I began to reconnect with myself and my body. Yoga, art, equine therapy, psychedelic-assisted therapy, and community all played a role. One encounter with a sick but perfect horse named Millie helped me realize that I could be whole, too, in any state of health.
Getting better didn’t have to mean being cured.
That realization led me toward my calling: helping others develop compassionate, connected, and harmonious relationships with their bodies. Today, I teach embodied practices that help people facing illness, pain, and trauma return to themselves through sound meditation and mindful movement.
I’ve learned that well-being isn’t about becoming free from illness or returning to ‘normal.’ It’s about the daily practice of coming home to myself, my body, and my life.”
