My journey began in 2002 when I graduated with my Bachelor’s in Nursing and started my career at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, where I specialized in neurosciences. Throughout my time in nursing, I experienced that while patient care was primarily evidence-based, the body was often not addressed as a whole.

I had questions, so I started looking for answers.

 

I knew the brain inside and out, but I also knew that zooming in on just one system would not address the body as a whole. My curiosity led me to pursue a certification in Holistic Health Coaching from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in 2015, which gave me different perspectives on the body and the mind, furthering my drive to want to treat the body as a whole.
 

With my knowledge in nursing, neuroscience, and my education in holistic health, I no longer wondered if there was something to this natural approach to healing - I began putting it into practice.

 

On my night shifts at Hopkins, I had more 1:1 time with patients than I would during the day. This allowed me to really listen and connect with them, and I noticed something interesting would happen during these shifts. For instance, when I would take time to engage with a comatose patient, hold their hand, and properly align their body to encourage restful sleep, I noticed their vital signs would go down from experiencing therapeutic touch.

 

I was witnessing nervous system regulation firsthand.

 

Therapeutic touch was a piece of the puzzle that just clicked.

 

I knew there was already science on the positive effects of therapeutic touch, but to witness patients’ heart and breathing rates slow down was affirming for me; seeing nervous system regulation take place gave me more proof that the body and brain need to work together, as a whole, in order to lower stress levels and facilitate healing.

I started giving friends and family massages here and there and they would rave about my hands, saying that they felt so relaxed and at ease from my touch. So, the next logical step for me was to attend massage school and study craniosacral therapy, furthering the foundation that I had built around the nervous system and mind-body connection.