the breathwork i facilitate mirrors shamanic principles of altered states, ancestral connection, and spirit. i don't claim formal training in any specific tradition (yet) but i honor the cultures who held this wisdom long before it became a wellness industry term.

my contemplative foundation comes through pema chödrön and tara brach. they have beautifully made ancient buddhist teachings more accessible to western audiences. i'm grateful for that accessibility and honest about not always knowing what gets lost in translation.

the political and philosophical spine of this work comes from black queer feminist thinkers. bell hooks, audre lorde, prentis hemphill, tricia hersey, and adrienne maree brown. bell hooks taught me how to reimagine dominant culture with a love ethic. audre lorde taught me that self care is political warfare, written while navigating cancer, which hit differently over here. prentis hemphill elevated healing as a personal & collective movement. tricia hersey showed me rest could be resistance. adrienne maree brown gave me the visionary language for co-creating what comes next.

i also hold the work of gabor maté and brené brown gratefully and critically. both have shaped this field and both undercontextualize who has historically been allowed to heal, rest, and be authentic. i believe in maté's most recent body of work that what we consider normal is often just a well-adjusted response to a sick society. as krishnamurti said: it is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

i hold my irish/celtic ancestry through land-based practice — nature, the elements, druidic and pagan traditions. my syrian ancestry is harder to access — colonization made that lineage less legible and i'm still finding my way back to it. i carry both diaspora roots that were severed and colonial roots whose harm i'm actively reckoning with. that tension doesn't resolve. it informs the in between.