About Zan

“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day I can hear her breathing.”  -Arundhati Roy

I aspire to have a revolutionary approach to therapy, an approach that supports growth towards all of our freedom. And I am still in the process of decolonizing a colonized body and mind, just as you are. I am inspired by Sonya Renee Taylor’s body-based, radical self-love as espoused in her book and social movement The Body Is Not An Apology. I honor the lens of intersectionality – the acknowledgement that bodies bear differing levels of burden according to their position within multiple oppressive systems, and do my best to be an ally in empowering all bodies to be free, with regulated nervous systems. I would like to name that I feel like I am a particularly strong ally for queer folks; I love what queerness brings into the world, some of my closest people are queer, and I have experience working with a variety of LGTBQ+ individuals as a therapist. Additionally, I have lived significant portions of my life in Latin America, speak Spanish, and would be honored to work with Spanish speaking clients.

“Pleasure is the point. Feeling good is not frivolous, it is freedom.” -Adrienne Maree Brown

Increasingly I recognize a regulated nervous system as a cornerstone of well being within our bodies. And thus I am drawn to learning about Polyvagal theory and all practices that help us maintain a regulated nervous system, including pleasure, creativity, and connection with Source/Spirit. Some of the forms of creative self-expression that have most supported me are writing, dance, and singing, and I would love to support your creative process as a part of your healing journey. Some things that bring me joy and pleasure include singing in community, dancing in community, being in nature, rock climbing, and any other backcountry adventuring that I can access, such as canyoneering or rafting. Nature was one of my strongest allies and regulating forces in my childhood and my connection to the earth is strong. Just as we co-regulate together, we can co- regulate with the earth; nature is one of the strongest and most reliable regulating forces we can access.

As a mother of two young adults, I have lived through many stages of the lifespan, which helps me support you through the many transitions of life, whether it be learning to adult, marriage, divorce, parenting, role changes, the loss of a loved one, a spiritual awakening, or any significant change really. I love to honor the depth and power of transitions and am well versed in the transformative nature of grief. I have been influenced by grief teachers such as Sobonfu Some and Francis Weller, as well as my own significant grief processes. Becoming capable of feeling our pain is one of the strongest and most revolutionary things we can do. A society cannot be healthy until it has metabolized its pain, and we have so much.

Life has presented me with a wealth of challenges, from significant childhood trauma, to relational loss, multiple head injuries, and a host of mysterious health symptoms, which has given me the opportunity to learn a lot about the nuances and many layers of healing. I have had to reach for the largess of my soul and the unconditional love of my spiritual support team to make it through the hardest times, and I am grateful for the inner sense of connection and resilience this has forged. For that reason, I am experimenting with how to bring Spirit, soul, and energy work into therapeutic sessions, for I believe these are essential resources that we should all have access to, and that make the healing process more efficient. In addition to being a trained mental health therapist, I am a budding channel and light language practitioner. Sessions may include things such as prayer, intention setting, ceremony, light language, and creative self expression, in ways that seek to align with your belief systems. My therapeutic approach draws heavily on Internal Family Systems Therapy. I find its parts work model to be an elegant representation of the fractal nature of the universe. As we learn to love and integrate all of our parts into a harmonious whole, we become more adept at loving all that we witness in humanity so that together we can become a more harmonious whole, owning and integrating its pain and darkness. 

Like any good healer, my aim is to support you in accessing your own wisdom and movement towards healing, wholeness, and empowerment. My tools, skills, perspectives, and experience are in service to you taking responsibility for yourself while leaning into the mystery of what healthy interdependence looks like. Thus I work best with those who are ready to be active in their own healing process. I am not the best person to go to if you are in active crisis – in this case you will likely be better served in a larger agency with more wrap around services. That being said, if you are in a more stabilized place, I am open to working with all trauma histories.

“Liberation is the opportunity for every human, no matter their body, to have unobstructed access to their highest self, for every human to live in radical self-love.” -Sonya Renee Taylor

If you are seeking depth, sensitivity, and compassion in a practitioner with the capacity to span the breadth from the embodied to the spiritual, the mundane to the mystical, the personal to the political, that’s me. I would be honored to help you navigate life’s greatest challenges. I hope at the very least our work together can inspire trust in you – trust in yourself and your meaningful place in the world, trust in a life force that is guiding us towards love, no matter how convoluted the path may seem.