Being in my own body has not always been easy. As an immigrant living in diaspora, a gender-fluid person, someone living with chronic illness and sensory neurodivergence, and as a witness to violence, my body has not always felt like a safe place. My deep sensitivity to the world has often made it difficult to connect—with myself and with others.

Yet over the past 15 years, by personally experiencing the healing arts—including qi gong, tai chi, movement meditation, and rooted in my South American cultural traditions—I’ve come to recognize the powerful tools my body and mind have developed to survive. These tools, these gifts, have carried me through. Through expressive arts, I’ve learned to create choice: to decide which tools I want to develop, which gifts I want to tend, and which I am ready to release. I’ve learned to honor my own pace, and to move in my own time.

My facilitation work is grounded in deep respect and belief in the inherent value and gifts of every individual. Whether supporting policy development, providing emergency response, offering personalized leadership mentoring, or nurturing artistic expression, I show up as a witness and collaborator. I accompany others as we heal, imagine, and create new possibilities—together.

Finding my way to embodied expressive arts practice has been a continuation of learning to value my lived experience and to discover internal resources where I once saw only faults. This path has helped me build my own rhythm of care—one that is in right relationship with my healing journey. It has also deepened my understanding of how I can contribute to transforming harmful structures, both within myself and in the world around me.