In early 2020, I created Collapse Companioning™ to support thoughtful people navigating grief, uncertainty, eco-anxiety, and compounding shifts in this time of entangled crises.

My work combines deep listening, emotional steadiness, creative exploration, and future-oriented visioning in a highly-personalized process designed to help you adapt meaningfully to change. 

Together, we find your most enlivening ways to live fully now.

EARLY LIFE CHALLENGES

I have focused on building resilience my entire life. Early on, it was a means of survival.

I grew up in rural Oregon, and experienced significant loss and instability from the time I was born.  At 15, I survived a car accident that killed four other teenagers, an experience that profoundly shaped my understanding of grief, silence, isolation, and the heavy burden of pretending everything is fine.

In the years that followed, I became deeply interested in mindfulness, psychology, and the ways we humans adapt to overwhelming change.

I studied psychology and Asian Studies, and spent my senior year studying in nine Asian countries. Buddhist philosophy and cross-cultural experience deepened my interest in mindfulness and awareness.

Over the decades since, I have lived internationally, worked across multiple cultures and careers, and guided thousands of people through periods of reinvention, uncertainty, and transformation.

In the early 2000s, I created an unconventional mindfulness approach that helped people in more than 100 countries cultivate greater calm, clarity, and creative awareness.

My work was featured in more than 150 media outlets worldwide.

But it was the flood of stories I received from those using my techniques that convinced me that playful acts of awe and wonder can lead us to presence, healing, and transformation. 

In 2009, my book, The New Global Student, was published by Crown/Random House. 

It became a trusted resource for students and families exploring creative alternatives in education, international living, and life design.

"Funny, innovative, and meaningful...a how-to guide with heart."       The Boston Globe

"Tremendous insight...essential reading for families yearning to step off the treadmill and plunge into the world."                                        Daniel H. Pink, New York TImes' bestselling author of DRIVE and A WHOLE NEW MIND

While living in Mexico in 2015, I became seriously ill during an epidemic.  I contracted a mosquito-borne virus that triggered an excruciating degenerative condition.

That experience led to a two-year exploration of art and natural healing methods, with remarkable results for both my creativity and my health.

It strengthened my conviction that, even in times of personal despair due to systemic failures, humans remain capable of profound transformation through creative action.

I use the humble marigold as a symbol of companioning.

When I was a child, my grandmother told me that marigolds were “good friends to other plants just by being there.”

That idea of protective presence stayed with me, and eventually became the foundation of my work.

In recent years, I have spent significant time supporting loved ones through caregiving and end-of-life transitions.. Those experiences deepened my understanding of what people need during periods of profound change.

After over a decade of being scattered across different continents, I now live in Amsterdam within easy walking distance of three daughters and their families. This was an intentional move for all of us, and it has brought so much joy! 

I offer Collapse Companioning™ to clients around the world, and share my process and insights in articles, keynote speeches, podcasts, and collapse-focused events.