I come from a hard-working Italian family in Chicago, though it's been a long time since I called the Midwest home. I’ve lived coast to coast in the States, as well as in Europe & Morocco. I've also traveled to over thirty countries, sometimes to work with spiritual teachers & indigenous leaders, other times to hike through magical forests & jump through waterfalls - and always to observe the world from wildly new perspectives. 

I have formally studied at New York University, in Aix-en-Provence France, and at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where I received my graduate degree. Upon graduation, I was invited to teach in the UNLV Honors College, where I am currently a Professor teaching multi-disciplinary seminars. You can find out more about me as a Professor here. I also enjoy writing and have published several stories & poems. You can read some of my older, published work (or glimpse newer, unpublished work) here. 

My background as a spiritual guide, counselor, and healer evolved over decades of intensive shamanic work & dedicated learning from intuitive therapists, spiritual teachers, and indigenous medicine carriers who shared their wisdom, lineages, and direct transmissions with me. I am eternally grateful for the 14-year relationship I had with my primary teacher/healer/shamanic guide who played a vital role in shaping the way I hold space for my own clients; he always places integrity, alignment, and love at the center of his healings. I am also indebted to the Sufi master with whom I studied in France, who first activated my innermost heart. And I give great thanks to the Yawanawa family of Amazonian Brazil for sharing their pure, unadulterated, Earth medicines with me; my relationship with plant medicines wouldn't be as grounded as it is if I hadn't made multiple pilgrimages to Brazil to learn from Peû (the respected Yawa pajé), Biraci (the chief), and Putanny (the chief's wife & first female Yawa medicine carrier - and my favorite person to dance with beside the sacred fire.)