Healer & Guide
Hello! Welcome. I’m Virginia. (You can learn more about me personally, here).
As a Healer & Guide, I combine modalities to bring gentle, caring attention to the body, where trauma AND healing happen. Drawing on intensive training and decades of exploration, I intertwine Buddhist practices (including meditation), IFOT, Hakomi, IFS-influenced parts work, psychedelic journeys, earth-based spirituality, and ancestral connection in my life and work. When we attend gently to the body and its wisdom, healing & resilience can blossom even in context of systemic oppression and ongoing apocalypse.
You’ll be supported with warmth, deep care, patience, and respect. Informed consent is a priority.
I can work with those who have caused serious harm, who are committed to stopping and repairing harm.
It is essential to know that this is not an old-fashioned paradigm of “broken” client being “fixed” by the “expert” practitioner. You are not broken, and you are the expert when it comes to your experience, your mind, your body, your heart. My role is to introduce skills and practices that can strengthen and stabilize you as you attend to your healing.
I specialize in supporting people who are Queer/Trans, and/or Disabled, and/or, Mad/Neuroqueer/Psych survivors. And, I am joyful to support anyone who vibes with me and what I’m offering!
Everything is sliding scale and barter is available. More about pricing.
IFOT Practitioner
Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy (IFOT) is a healing modality developed by Shirley Turcotte, a Métis (Indigenous) woman from Winnipeg. (Why is a white person offering an Indigenous modality?)
IFOT was developed to support those dealing with complex trauma (CPTSD), particularly descendants of survivors of slavery and genocide. However, anyone from any background and life experience can benefit from this extraordinarily gentle yet effective healing modality.
Originally, IFOT training was only provided to Indigenous people, but some years ago several Black IFOT leaders received authority to began offering the training in NYC, primarily to Black, Brown, and Indigenous people / People of the Global Majority. I was honored to be selected to participate in the training. (Because I am not a therapist I am referred to as a “Practitioner”—for what it’s worth, it’s also extremely different from European modes of therapy).
To learn more about the modality, and explore whether it’s right for you, you may be interested in the testimonial and videos below.
Anaya:
I entered the session feeling clogged up, confused, and hopeless. Virginia’s beautiful soothing voice guided me through the [practice] and enabled me to get in touch with those feelings of confusion, untangle many feelings I’ve been wrestling with and find viable tools.
I left the session feeling so refreshed, relaxed and connected to something very valuable and meaningful to me. I am still thinking about the teachings from that short session weeks later!
Virginia is so passionate about helping others and it is so palpable in all the work that she does for others. Thank you so much Virginia.
Testimonial
I entered the session feeling clogged up, confused, and hopeless. Virginia’s beautiful soothing voice guided me through the [practice] and enabled me to get in touch with those feelings of confusion, untangle many feelings I’ve been wrestling with and find viable tools. I left the session feeling so refreshed, relaxed and connected to something very valuable and meaningful to me. I am still thinking about the teachings from that short session weeks later! Virginia is so passionate about helping others and it is so palpable in all the work that she does for others. Thank you so much Virginia. ~ Anaya M.IFOT Founder Shirley Turcotte and Senior Teacher DaRa Williams speak about what IFOT is, including its main differences from European-style therapy. (17 min)
who was feeling overwhelmed by her life. (32 min)
Q: Why is a white person offering an Indigenous healing modality?
A: To those asking this question I can only say that I feel you—I would be dubious too. Nonetheless, I am a trained and certified lineage holder in this modality. On consideration, you may feel you can trust the judgment of the esteemed teachers who accepted me to the training. But if not, please feel free to contact me for a referral to a Black, Brown, and/or Indigenous healer offering this modality. I am more than happy to connect you to one of my amazing colleagues.
Buddhist Practices
I’ve been meditating for 20 years, daily for 10 years. I’m also a certified meditation instructor through a program at The Interdependence Project (certified in 2016, taught by Kate Johnson, Ethan Nichtern, and numerous supporting/guest teachers and coaches). I’ve taught meditation in multiple settings, including with one-on-one students, in jail, in a corporate setting, on retreats, and in my antiracism coaching practice (separate business).
In addition to meditation, I can share numerous Buddhist practices, such as contemplations and other types of bodymind work, which often meets the needs of our minds when we are struggling with our own emotions and memories, the suffering of others, and other complex situations.
Happy to support your practice whether you’re starting out or experienced, either solely your meditation/contemplation practice, or as part of my healing practice described above.
All practices are trauma-informed and fully accessible to people with all types of bodies. Please feel free to enjoy this sample meditation for rest and ease.
Psychedelic Journey Support
Increasing numbers of people are finding that psychedelics can be an integral part of healing from trauma, depression, anxiety, and other conditions that psychiatric drugs may mask or mitigate but cannot cure. It is said that just three to four trips (taking time between them to assimilate the learnings) can bring significant long-term healing. (This statement is not endorsed by the FDA).
If you choose to obtain and consume MDMA, I am able to support your medicinal (rather than recreational) trip experiences. I highly recommend this modality for increasing self-love, deepening connection with others and oneself, releasing shame, and other incredibly positive transformations.
E.E. says:
Virginia provided vitamins that eased the beginning and end of the trip, offered patience and kindness, and respected my boundaries and desires for the trip. During the trip, I made art, verbally processed traumatic experiences, meditated, and stretched. After the experience, I felt calm, relaxed, and supported. I highly recommend Virginia to any wayward soul seeking to heal and deepen their connection with the natural world. Taking your lead, she will make you feel seen, heard, and safe.
Testimonial
Virginia provided vitamins that eased the beginning and end of the trip, offered patience and kindness, and respected my boundaries and desires for the trip. During the trip, I made art, verbally processed traumatic experiences, meditated, and stretched. After the experience, I felt calm, relaxed, and supported. I highly recommend Virginia to any wayward soul seeking to heal and deepen their connection with the natural world. Taking your lead, she will make you feel seen, heard, and safe.
~ E.E.
M.T. says:
Virginia guided me for two trip sessions in a period when I was struggling with changes in my life. Before the trip, I was struggling with overwhelming negative feelings about myself and my past actions. Virginia guided me to see an end to the struggle I was going through, and to overcome the shame I was feeling. I continue to see things in a new way, even weeks after the trip.
Testimonial
Virginia guided me for two trip sessions in a period when I was struggling with changes in my life. Before the trip, I was struggling with overwhelming negative feelings about myself and my past actions. Virginia guided me to see an end to the struggle I was going through, and to overcome the shame I was feeling. I continue to see things in a new way, even weeks after the trip.
~ M.T.
Parts Work
Parts Work (also known as inner child work, although parts may not always be children/child-like) is primarily associated with Internal Family Systems (IFS) theory. I definitely am familiar with this theory and draw upon it, and many people find it to be helpful. I find it useful to draw on other sources as well. I am perhaps most heavily influenced by the work of Thích Nhất Hạnh who wrote a beautiful book called Reconciliation: Healing the Inner Child. Some quotes from the book:
Go back and take care of yourself. Your body needs you, your perceptions need you, your feeling needs you. The wounded child in you needs you. Your suffering needs you to acknowledge it.
You have to practice going back to your wounded child every day. You have to embrace him or her tenderly, like a big brother or a big sister.
Even more than these external sources, however, I am guided by my own practice. I sit, daily, with my inner children / parts, seeing how they’re doing and what they need. In fact, this is the core of my personal healing practice.
I will not necessarily recommend this to my clients right away—it requires a lot of tools that I’ve developed over the years. (With clients, we will work to help develop those tools, first. We may do parts work, but only in sessions and only with fully informed consent.) But it’s taught me, more than anything else, how to do this work.
Training
2023: INELDA End-of-Life Doula training, certification process ongoing (hence these services being offered on a volunteer basis)— taught by Garrett Ellis.
2020-2023: Year-long (prolonged by lockdown) training in Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy (IFOT), certified as an IFOT Practitioner—taught by DaRa Williams, Beatrice Hyacinthe, and Isabel Adon plus guest teachers Alannah Young, DeeDee Laverdure, Belinda Lacombe, and Amy Simpson.
2021: Hakomi Workshop—taught by Halko Weiss
2015-2016: Year-long Meditation Teacher training program at the Interdependence Project, certified as a Meditation Teacher—taught by Kate Johnson, Ethan Nichtern, , and numerous supporting/guest teachers and coaches.
2013-2018: Tergar & other meditation trainings & retreats (multiple)
2003-2011: Shambhala meditation trainings & retreats (multiple)
Professional Experience
2016-present: seeing a few private clients for meditation and healing of different kinds (take note of the dates of training above; that shows what types of work I’ve been doing for how long). This particular offering of this particular configuration of modalities is new.
2019-2021: Weekly Meditation Guide, JPMorgan Women in Technology group (TakeITforward)
2018-2020: Weekly Meditation Teacher, Rikers Island
2017: Queer Dharma Retreat teacher, Windhorse Retreat Center, Wisconsin