I am a graduate level university certified dream specialist, having earned my academic qualifications at John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill, California. I honed my workshop leadership skills via my mentorship by dream expert Robert Moss, and am a regional teacher in his School of Active Dreaming. I'm a member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams, where I have presented a talk on Balinese dreaming at the annual conference and have won the Dream Telepathy Contest. I believe strongly in the great value of psychotherapy, and my dreamwork is not a replacement for the guidance of a skilled licensed therapist when working with deeper challenges; it is an adjunct inquiry.

My work is therapeutic and intuitive and is grounded in practical wisdom to help you live a more inspired life. 

I've earned a BA in Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley, and an MA in Consciousness and Transformative Studies, as well as a Graduate Certificate in Dream Studies from John F. Kennedy University.  I taught graduate level courses on dreams, the imagination, and synchronicity as an adjunct university professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, in 2014 and 2016. 

What makes my work different? I’m interested in how we find more hope and possibility in our lives, specifically by attending to dreams of all kinds. I teach about the power of dreams and the imagination to create personal shifts, and I work as a facilitator for deep insight and healing. We are born dreamers and I help people learn how to use their dreams to improve their lives. I teach people how to literally become better dreamers, by drawing on my extensive academic background in dreams and my experience as a teacher and dream counsellor. Everyone can find powerful gifts of insight in dreamwork. And often it happens that one dream can change your life.

In life, people grow psychologically and spiritually. My work is cross-cultural and inclusive of varying views on dreaming in addition to  that of Western psychology.  I've found sometimes individuals need only one session to transform something important in their life, and other times people heal and become inspired by learning how to develop a practice of actively working with their dreams over time.

A person's soul story is revealed through their dreams. There, we often find answers to our existential questions of why we are living the lives we do and discover hope we didn’t know lay just under the surface of our waking lives. We learn how to affect positive change in our lives. I’m fascinated by the power of myth and dreams to inform our lives, and the ways our personal life story unfolds with a mythological flare.

I’ve found my work to be very effective to help people who have recurring nightmares find relief by helping them understand and resolve what is causing the dream series and by teaching them how to reprogram the dream to have a more satisfactory outcome. I specialize in transformation through private sessions, dream groups, and workshops.

Both adults and children benefit from exploring their dreams, and I help parents learn how to help their children when they have scary dreams. I've also earned a K-12 multiple subject teaching credential from San Francisco State University and taught in inner-city San Francisco schools in the early 1990's. I have a special affinity for teaching children. To be a skilled dreamer means we are in touch with the child within us.

I've travelled to Bali, Indonesia, frequently since 2009, where I spent a year living and teaching about dreams. When visiting Bali, I independently research Balinese dreams and cosmology, and until the fall of 2014 I was mentored by I Gusti Made Pujana, a beloved Balinese traditional healer, or Balian, who sadly passed from this world at that time. So many blessings to him. 

Certified as an ordained minister, I find great joy in facilitating deeply meaningful wedding ceremonies customized for my clients. The power of ritual and ceremony is real, and by engaging in meaningful ways with life transitions we can fuel our lives tremendously.

I continue my original career as a professional gemologist and fine jewelry appraiser, with my office in Walnut Creek, California. I work in great detail, whether it’s assessing a jewel or a dream, and after over thirty-six years in the field of gemology, I'm committed to maintaining excellence in this field, also. My appraisal clients are often delighted to learn they can talk about their dreams with me, as well as their jewelry. I’ve become fascinated by the appearance of gems in dreams, and I’ve seen the way a person’s psyche and physiology can be affected in positive ways by the right gemstone or talisman. What a remarkable symbol for transformation a gem can be. I truly bridge the worlds of dreams and gems and am probably the world's only professional gemologist and dream specialist. It's possible to have more than one interest and career and to do well at both.

In my spare time, I’ve trained my wildly funny cat, Bowie, to do tricks like a dog, and enjoy seeing him splash around playing in the bathtub in a very un-catlike manner. I love adventures in the outdoors, and occasionally I pick up my LED hula hoop and take it for a spin. Life is truly an adventure and I intend to have one every day.

Finally, I know working with dreams in the right way can help you heal huge things. I’m living proof of that. I’ve penned chapters with a taste of how dreams have changed my life in two anthologies: Rebearths: Conversations with a World Ensouled, edited by Craig Chalquist, PhD, and Chicken Soup for the Soul: Dreams and Premonitions, edited by Amy Newmark and Kelly Sullivan Walden.

I know from first-hand experience your dreams can change your life.