About Me

I’m a fat, white, 50-something, able-bodied, queer, cisgender woman. I’ve spent a lot of time at war with my body, trying to make myself smaller because I thought that would make me happy. It turned out that trying to shrink my body only made me anxious, sad, and miserable.

I wanted a way out. Therapy helped a lot. Dancing on the beach helped some more. Finding community brought it all together. I am no longer afraid of or ashamed of my body. My body is my home.

Since doing this work for myself, I have transitioned to working with others as an advocate, Body Trust® coach, and group facilitator, helping people explore how to reconnect with their bodies and trust their innate wisdom, despite the anti-fatness and noise of diet-culture.

Body Trust®

In 2022, I was introduced to The Center for Body Trust™ and its founders, Hilary Kinavey, and Dana Sturtevant. Hilary and Dana wrote Reclaiming Body Trust: Break Free from a Culture of Body Perfection, Disordered Eating and Other Traumas. In this book, I found a reflection of all the work I had been doing for myself since 2017. This led me to their Body Trust® Professional Training program.

One thing I have learned from Dana, Hilary, and the larger Body Trust® community is how important connection is for this work. We are surrounded by messages that shame bodies that are seen as weak, fat, sick, outside of gender norms, etc., etc. Even people who inhabit bodies that are closer to acceptable norms live under immense pressure to maintain that status. All of this is needless suffering. Our only chance for breaking free is to find new truths about our bodies that we can amplify over time to drown out the stale, oppressive status quo.

We cannot break free by ourselves.
We need to share our stories.
We need to laugh and cry together.
We need to know we are not alone on this journey.

My Background

I have had a Master’s in Social Work for 25 years and have worked in social services, training, and community education for almost 30 years. Over that time, I have worked with teens, survivors of sexual assault, adults with Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers, homeless veterans, and families involved with the child welfare system. I took a detour for a while to train as an acupuncturist and worked with patients for three years. I have also spent significant time teaching professional groups and community members how to be supportive and affirming of gay and trans youth. A theme through all of my work has been advocating for social justice and freedom from oppression.