After four years in personal retreat and healing solitude, I recently experienced a powerful awakening. While in meditation, a sudden sense of incredible wellbeing opened within, visualized in my mind’s eye as deepening, profound peace flowing between my heart the core of who I am.
For days afterward I remained quiet and mindful, allowing a growing insight to emerge and percolate. An important door within had closed shut behind me. It was time to turn and welcome whatever lay ahead with curiosity, optimism, and wonder.
Journalling afterward about this powerful, emotional reconnection, I wrote, “There’s a different heart~soul path ahead for me.”
And Heart~Soul Path came to be.
My journey of facilitating gatherings began in Calgary, Alberta in 1999 when I offered women’s circles in my community. There was a need for deeper connection between women, and I intuitively knew I could help fill that gap.
I held the first women’s circle in my living room. Seven women gathered, all of us curious and eager to be part of a deeper connection with other women, and none of us knowing exactly what to expect.
Most of these women knew only one other person in the room… me. Strangers to one another and with no real direction, conversation was surprisingly immediate and genuine. With very little prompting, the sharing circle formed naturally and flowed with wisdom, bravery and authenticity.
Since then, I’ve facilitated circles, workshops, and retreats in Canada, the US, and online. Now, after more than a decade-long hiatus from facilitating circles in Parksville, Whiskey Creek, and Errington on Vancouver Island, I’m following my heart~soul path, offering groups in communities across the island once again.
My style of facilitation has grown from offering simple sharing circles to more in-depth circles, workshops and retreats. I incorporate practices of mindfulness, meditation, journaling, intuitive movement, and sound.
I’ve received teachings in group facilitation and one-on-one mentorship from incredible, intuitive women and men who came before me, facilitators in their own traditions of gatherings and circles. I’m deeply thankful for their compassionate, physical, and energetic ways of healing that continue to inspire and inform my own heart~soul path.
I am certified as a Recovery Coach and Recovery Coach Trainer of Trainers, and consulted in the development of the Recovery Coaching Knowledge and Skills manual by Dr. Ray Baker. I was a consultant and designer for two addiction recovery centres in Canada and one in the United States, and was contributor and assistant editor of Phoenix Magazine. I’ve received hospice training and further education in trauma-informed, person-centred approaches to wellbeing.
I continue to cultivate welcoming, compassionate spaces for those who are discovering their own path toward wellbeing.