PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH MINDFULNESS

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.

Someone reached out to teach me how to meditate. The concept of mindfulness captured my imagination, and I created a noticing game that I played every day. I got good at it, and it saved me.

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 uncertainty and transformation.

In the early 2000s, I created an unconventional mindfulness approach based on the noticing game I had invented years earlier. 

It 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 2005, my husband and I sold everything in the U.S. and moved abroad. We had four teenage daughters at the time, so we had to figure out how to usher them through high school and college in different ways.

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 painful systemic failures, humans remain capable of profound transformation through creative habits.

Collapse Companioning™ took shape during the early months of the pandemic while I was living in Buenos Aires under one of the world’s longest lockdowns.

Witnessing widespread grief, fear, and isolation, I began supporting women who felt unable to process the scale of personal and global change they were experiencing.

Blending my lived experience and the latest research, I developed a deeply personalized companioning process rooted in emotional honesty, mindfulness, creativity, and intentional adaptation.

For two years, I did pro bono work exclusively, helping over 150 women in 18 countries turn the most devastating experiences of their lives into a profound and surprisingly joyful calling.

After over a decade of our family being scattered across four continents, I now live in Amsterdam within easy walking distance of three daughters and their families.

This required big, intentional moves, and it has brought so much joy! 

I am fascinated by how different places and practices affect our ability to thrive.