I am a queer Spiritual Director and Somatic Practitioner. I work with individuals, groups and communities at the intersection of spirituality, embodiment, justice and healing. These are the elements of my practice and my life.
I want to create the space for questioning, anger, grief, joy, confusion, compassion, and reassurance that I wish I would have had during some disorienting times in my spiritual and life journey.
My spirituality was shaped by the “conservative” Christian school I attended, the “liberal” church I grew up at and our occasional trip to the family Buddhist temple. So…eclectic, but primarily evangelical Christian. (My first concert was Amy Grant and I can rap all the words to DC Talk’s Jesus Freak. IYKYK).
As a mixed race, Japanese American, I grew up with my feet in two worlds but never felt at home anywhere. As the grandchild of survivors of the Japanese-American concentration camps, I am acutely aware of social and economic injustice and how life-threatening it can be to live in America with the “wrong” color of skin or the “wrong” shape of eyes.
My commitment to justice and my immersion in White Evangelicalism led me to work for “cutting edge” non-profits and ministries with charismatic leaders (all male, all white). I spent 12 years working my ass off in white-led justice spaces before I realized that:
whiteness will protect whiteness at any cost (at the expense of me and others like me).
I will not let my value be determined by my output.
I needed to embrace my identity and lived experience as my strength and not something that needed to be conformed to other's norms.
God is not honored by my burnout.
Realizing that I had given so much of myself to missions and ministries that did not see me as their equal was painful. It was hard to separate my relationship with God from the trauma of these spaces.
I felt alone, abandoned, disoriented and heartbroken. I couldn’t imagine a way forward that included a relationship with God. But something wouldn’t allow me to let go of the knowing that beyond this pain was a God that craved my wholeness and healing.
I cried to God that I didn’t need to understand the whole journey, I just needed to know one step on the path.
And God answered.
One step at a time Spirit has been guiding me down a path of transformation toward healing.
If you are saying,
“God, I don’t know if I believe in you anymore.”
“I’m tired of being alone on this journey.”
“I don't know how to trust myself.”
I believe in wisdom over experience, and I know trust is vital when choosing someone to be with on this journey. Here are some experiences and qualifications that help guide my work each day.
