My Background

Education & Work

I worked as a clinician in the Duke University Counseling Center for 6 years prior to opening my private practice in the fall of 2017. During that time I worked with hundreds of students from diverse backgrounds and a wide range of presenting concerns. I also helped Duke CAPS engage in a 2-year anti-racism process with an organization called Dismantling Racism Works. As a social worker, seeing the impact of cultural oppression on psychological health is foundational to my training. The process of attempting to deconstruct systemic racism on an institutional level, and doing the internal work of understanding my own privilege as a white person and how it colludes with those systems, was a profound experience that enriched my passion for social justice and my commitment to the unending work of personal and cultural liberation. 

I received my Masters in Clinical Social Work in 2013 from UNC-Chapel Hill. During my Masters I completed a practicum internship at the Duke High Risk Obstetrics Unit and a concentration year internship at Duke University Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS). I was subsequently awarded a 2-year fellowship at Duke CAPS following graduation during my supervision and licensure years. 

I completed a 1-year certification at Smith College School for Social Work in Clinical Supervision. 

I completed a 3-year certification in Somatic Experiencing and I am registered as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP). 

I received my Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from St. Mary's College of Maryland at Historic St. Mary's City in 2002. 

Mindfulness & Meditation Training & Experience

I was introduced to yoga and meditation in 2005 and the practices were personally transformational for me. It is through my own devoted yoga and meditation practices and the healing I experienced through them that I eventually decided to offer these practices as a teacher. I did my first yoga teacher training in 2009 and I have taught yoga and meditation practices to a range of people for over a decade in a variety of settings including studios, retreat centers, and in higher education.

I have worked as a Koru Teacher Trainer for the Center for Koru Mindfulness since 2013, and I currently serve as a member of the Koru Faculty and as the Koru Director of Training. Through my work with the Koru Center I have trained hundreds of teachers across the world how to teach mindfulness to emerging adults. Koru was originally offered in higher education settings, but is now offered in many other contexts including the military, prisons, and high schools. To learn more about the Koru Center, check out their website: https://korumindfulness.org

The following are some of the personal and professional immersion experiences I have undertaken to deepen my meditation practice and teaching.

  • Insight Meditation Society, Foundations of Mindfulness-Based Approaches, 8-day Insight Meditation Retreat, 2020

  • Southern Dharma Retreat Center (SDRC), Settling, Seeing, and Spacious Awareness, Donald Rothberg, 10-day Insight Meditation Retreat, 2018

  • SDRC, Guardians of the Heart, the Four Brahma Viharas, DaeJa Napier, 8-day Insight Meditation Retreat, 2017

  • Mindful Self Compassion Core Skills Training, UNC Chapel Hill, Kristen Neff and Christopher Germer, 2015

  • SDRC, Lucinda Green, 5-day Insight Meditation Retreat, 2014

  • Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Course (MBSR), UNC Chapel Hill, 2010

Yoga Training & Experience

I taught several weekly yoga studio classes from 2009 to 2019, accumulated thousands of hours of teaching experience, and earned the E-RYT 200 classification (Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher). I’ve also attended studio classes with a variety of teachers since 2005.

I’ve offered several modules over the years in Michelle Cassandra Johnson’s annual 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training called Skill in Action, including Mindfulness and Yoga, Yoga and the Chakras, and Trauma-Informed Yoga Teaching. This is a social justice-oriented YTT that I highly recommend to anyone wanting to deepen their yoga practice or offer the practice to others. Michelle will offer a 300 hour Yoga Teacher Training for the first time in 2020, and I will offer a section called “Becoming a Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher.” 

Some of my yoga training:

  • Asheville Yoga Center, Chakras, Michael Johnson, 2015

  • Asheville Yoga Center, The Yoga Sutras, Michael Johnson, 2015

  • Asheville Yoga Center, Beginning Sanskrit, Michael Johnson, 2014

  • Asheville Yoga Center,  Inner Life of Yoga, Michael Stone, 2014

  • Wilmington Yoga Center, Trauma Sensitive Yoga, Dave Emerson, 2011

  • 200 hour Yoga Alliance certified Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher (ERYT 200), Franklin Street Yoga, 2009-10