• finding a safe home for what I thought was a lost ladybug or stray cat
• “guarding” the wobbly red robins “drunk” on garden berries, making sure the neighborhood cats stayed away
• relocating the garden snails from the scattered garden poison and releasing rats caught in traps, much to the chagrin of my father
• attending to my “ill” Barbie dolls and stuffed animals, nursing them to health and new adventures
• dressing messy, putting dirt all over me and wrapping my arm in a sling, limping door to door to sell walnuts from my grandmother’s tree to feed starving children. I wanted to send the money to the ad I saw on TV for “Save the Children.” (My mother made me return the money!)

Adolescent Years

• Age 15-16: With a strong desire to serve, I volunteered at the Veteran’s Hospital as a “candy striper” assigned to sit at the bedside of dying patients, hearing their life stories, their beliefs in an afterlife (or not) or just quietly holding a hand. The power of listening and just being present was born here, an important skill for a future therapist.
• Age 16-18: My first paid employment during summers, serving animals as a veterinarian tech, grateful that I had a small part in overseeing their recovery.
• Age 17: The loss of my best friend and 10 others in a horrific car accident that taught me how short and fragile life is and the importance of loving and making the most of whatever time you have.
• Age 18: Graduated high school with highest honors and many rewards.

College Years and Early Adult

• 1970-1974: Back to the human species, I studied human development, child development, psychology and environmental health, earning a B.S. degree with highest honors from the College of Agriculture at the University of California Davis
• 1972-1980: Exploring life and love, I held numerous jobs, figuring out what I wanted to do with my life including:
• Volunteer work for Amigos de las Americas where I trained to go door to door immunizing children in remote regions of Equador South America. I nearly lost my life here and decided I was better suited to work in the United States!
• Research Assistant, Regional Primate Center Davis California, conducting social research on non-human primates
• Counselor, University of California Davis, providing career guidance and counseling to students planning professional scientific and medical careers
• Research Associate, Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California San Francisco, participating in all aspects of research into the habituation of aggression
• Research Associate, University of California Gastrointestinal Unit San Francisco, participating in all aspects of pure research on the interaction of drugs and hormones on liver membranes
• This bench research experience made me realize that I wanted to contribute in a more applied, holistic way to the improvement of mankind, rather than on such a molecular level. Although I learned to appreciate the value of pure scientific research, I learned I was definitely more interested in working directly with people rather than with chemicals!

*Note: I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to experience medical research and the validity it supplies and also realize the need for quality research in its application to alternative medicine and medical hypnosis, the area of my greatest passion.

Post Graduate

• 1980-1982: Attended the Masters in Public Health Program, Yale University School of Medicine and graduated with an MPH degree.
• 1980-1984: Planning Consultant at the American Red cross, learning policy, long range planning, budgets, program development, all skills for a time ahead when I would own my own business.
• 1984-1993: Stay at home Mom raising 3 amazing children, Justin, Troy and Sheena, my greatest accomplishments and from whom I have learned the most.
• 1989-2008: During this time, and while raising my children, I worked nights as a childbirth educator and prenatal fitness instructor, as well as studying relaxation, hypnosis, guided imagery and eastern medicine/philosophy.
• I earned master certificates in both clinical and medical hypnosis, with specialties in pain control.

I developed my own program in “Hypnobirthing”  called “Fearless Birth” and taught at several hospitals, as well as provided bedside hypnosis for patients referred by physicians who were suffering from pregnancy related problems (preterm labor, hyperemesis, PIH, etc).

I taught seminars in stress management, sports enhancement, childbirth, weight control and more and produced and wrote a multimedia relaxation experience for OMSI’s planetarium, “Innerspace” and “Equinox-A Journey to Relaxation.”

*Note: During this period of life, I realized teaching and empowering others was a passion.

Also, I witnessed how the power of positive thinking combined with visualization and hypnosis can aid in healing not only for stop smoking, weight control and anxiety but for anything it is applied to.

This included pregnancy diseases, cancer and cancer treatments, pain, fibromyalgia, migraines, irritable bowel, allergies and other immune system diseases and many more. The use of these tools in conjunction with professional medical care is one of my favorite parts of my practice as a medical hypnotherapist.

I realized how the role of stress and the use of visualization/relaxation skills for healing was under emphasized and underutilized in allopathic medicine.

• 1993-Present: Private Practice, Medical and Clinical Hypnotherapy, Lake Oswego, Oregon …..which brings you to me now!