About Sakti
In 1974, I connected to my first spiritual teacher. In NYC and became one of the early yoga teachers. Yoga was very foreign to most mainstream Americans in those days. My teacher was Swami Satchidaananda, a genuine master in the art of yoga. He is known for his early poster taken in Hawaii on a surfboard doing tree pose. He said “You can’t stop the waves but you can learn how to surf.”
In 1975, I became a student of Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche and studied Vajrayana and Shambhala Buddhism. After his death, I spent many moons traveling to Asia and studying with great Dzogchen and Vajrayana masters, including the father of my present teacher, Tsoknyi Rinpoche.
In 1995, I met the remarkable master Venerable Ruth Denison, the first western woman chosen to teach by Burmese Sayagyi U Ba Khin. She has been a beacon to my spiritual unfolding and has been my personal guide for training in her unique expression of Buddhism and her love for all beings.
Thoughout these past decades, I have been training clinically to work with the difficulties we find on our path. Study at Naropa Institute grounded me in joining East and West psychological methods to help those in great mental suffering. I received my M.A. in Contemplative Psychotherapy from the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado (1984) and worked many years at the Boulder Mental Health Agency as well as Maitri Psychological Services, a service dedicated to working with severe mental disorders in a home setting.
Since then, I have been working as a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and did work as a senior assistant to trainings around the world, including disaster relief. (See what is Somatic Experiencing to see if this would be a good fit for your dilemma.)
For the past two decades, until the pandemic changed our life, I taught mind/body medicine and MBSR (mindfulness meditation) in many Bay area hospitals, corporations, and meditation centers. This is no longer an option for me at this time and I do miss the hands on component of my work.
I continue to practice and study Buddhist meditation in the Tibetan tradition of Vajrayana and Dzogchen. I have practiced and studied for many years in the Advaita and yoga traditions, as well as studying under my close teacher Ven. Ruth Denison and other Vipassana teachers.
When not engaged in personal and interpersonal practice, I love to hike, travel the world, and generally be in the elements.
For me, spiritual, psychological and somatic personal work leads to the insights so important to healing – for the whole being. This whole body healing is key to regulating this organism through the pains of trauma.
I am authorized to give consultations and individual sessions on all levels for SEPs in training. All sessions at this time are online.
I look forward to hearing from you.