"When we explore the interior of the body, we discover a landscape as rich as that of the earth. A whole universe exists within the boundaries of our skin that mirrors in all its extraordinary microcosmic details the workings of the greater universe of which we are each a part.”
- Linda Hartley
- Offerings -
Somatic Therapy + Embodiment
Birthwork, Perinatal Counselling, Childbirth Ed.
Birthwork, Perinatal Counselling, Childbirth Ed.
Birthwork, Perinatal Counselling, Childbirth Ed.
Birthwork, Perinatal Counselling, Childbirth Ed.
Birthwork, Perinatal Counselling, Childbirth Ed.
Selected Creative Works
Birthwork, Perinatal Counselling, Childbirth Ed.
Selected Creative Works
- Acknowledgment -
lineage, land, un-learning, re-learning, re-membering
A part of this learning means acknowledge the lineage of where my practices come from, who my teachers are and what their influences were. Acknowledgment of lineage is an on-going process of uncovering the layers of history that has shaped the practices I am in relationship with, as a means towards reciprocity and repair. Without this acknowledgment, western somatic healing modalities, yoga and birthwork paradigms will remain embedded within the values of white supremacy. A fellow practitioner recently drew my attention this article by Susan Raffo which has been a helpful tool for me in addressing appropriation in somatics and related fields.
The first step towards lineage acknowledgment is naming my practices, from who these practices emerged from. I don't adhere to any one discipline or modality. I practice in an interdisciplinary way that includes my training in euro-western modalities. As a student of yoga asana and meditation, I have studied in the foundational practice of ashtanga vinyasa of K. Pattabhi Jois, shared with me through a western lens as a student of Downward Dog Yoga Centre, where I completed by YTT in 2013 with Ron Reid and many other teachers within the school and beyond as I continued my yoga education over the years. My primary somatic movement education and somatic psychotherapy training comes from Body-Mind Centering (Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen and Mariko Tanabe) and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (Pat Ogden), respectively. Both of these modalities have taken from Indigenous healing and contemplative practices originating in Eastern and African cultures/practices (mindfulness, somatics, etc).
As a co-conspirator, I have learned from and been shaped by the grassroots and artistic work of Rodney Diverlus, Ravyn Wngz, Syrus Marcus Ware, Renee Linklater, Sage Hayes, Marika Heinrichs, Katherine Belfontain, angel Kyodo williams, Kai Cheng Thom, Resmaa Menakem, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Layla Saad, Che Che Luna, Amanda Acorn, and Fiona Griffiths, just to name a few. I am grateful to these teachers, mentors, community members and to the many movement teachers I have had over the last 20+ years who have shared their wisdom and teachings with me.
Birthworker Acknowledgment
It is important to acknowledge the history of the granny midwives of the American South who very much paved the way for midwives and doulas today. Black granny midwives offered person-centered care and holistic support for their clients and we owe an acknowledgment to the important work they did. It is important to understand how the legacy of white supremacy has failed to acknowledge this history, as well as the mothers of gynecology (Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey) who gave up their bodies for the Western medical practices that are still used today.
Yoga & Somatics Acknowledgment
Many of the practices and techniques I draw upon include elements of yoga and somatic practices that originate from Eastern and African mind-body lineages. Many of these practices in the west blur the origins and traditions of these mindful practices. By acknowledging their origins I strive to honour these practices with care and reverence. I continually work to question and leave room for the ways I can better show up in these practices as guest, to honour them and their teachers. I am forever humbled and grateful as student to these practices.
Land Acknowledgement
I am a second generation Italian-Danish settler living on the stolen and unceded territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Anishnaabek Peoples, the Wendat and the Chippewa First Nations. Tkaronto is governed by many treaties including The Two Row Wampum, The Williams Treaty, The Toronto Purchase Treaty/Treaty 13, and The Dish With One Spoon. Tkaronto is home to many different First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. I acknowledge the ongoing violence and cultural genocide the First Nations peoples experience under the colonial project known as "Canada". I pay my respects to their elders, past, present and emerging, and stand behind them in their fight for justice and self-determination, we cannot be free until everyone is free. I acknowledge how the struggles and resistance of colonial violence of the Native population here on Turtle Island is connected to the same struggles and resistance of Indigenous peoples around the world who are currently experiencing on-going ethnic cleansing and genocide at the hands of settler colonial violence.
I continue to explore the ways in which my work can support movements for decolonization and liberation on this land. I am learning what it means to honour these ancestries, and my own ancestry in right way. With this acknowledgment comes a responsibility to educate ourselves to our real history. To critically challenge the conditions and attitudes that we have been mis-educated and socialized to accept as givens and to stand shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with Indigenous people in their just demands for Land Back in order to pursue and win climate justice and our collective liberation through a just transition.
Photo by @Abandonedaffair