​My Truth, Our Healing

“Your blessings can only take you as far as your healing.”​​

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I am not a perfect healer. I am a Native woman who has:

1. grown up in poverty, violence, and addiction

2. survived childhood sexual abuse and brutal assault

3. battled alcohol from age four through my early thirties

4. walked through incarceration risk, shame, and near‑death

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I have also:

1. been an athlete, runner, football coach, and wildland fire trainer

2. created diabetes programs and fitness initiatives still working 25 years later

3. raised two children now thriving in sports psychology and engineering

4. completed 17 years of therapy

5. trained thousands of relatives and providers in ACEs/NEAR, trauma, and Indigenous wellness

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My work comes from that whole story—not just the scars, but also the strengths, ceremonies, and teachings that helped me survive. When you step into my circles or programs, you are stepping into a space shaped by all of that.

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​​"I grew up between Winslow, Teesto on the Navajo Nation, and visits to my Seminole relatives in Oklahoma. My childhood held both beauty and brutality—horses, sheep, grandparents waking me for prayer, my sister Cynthia teaching me about strength from a wheelchair—and also hunger, abuse, addiction, violence, and the long shadow of boarding schools.

From age four to thirty‑three, alcohol and trauma ran my life. I survived abduction, brutal sexual assault, years of chaos, and multiple arrests. I also became a state‑level runner, top fitness instructor, tribal program director, national master trainer, and the person communities came to for wellness help even while I was still hurting.

At 33, facing prison after harming a female officer while in crisis, I chose a different path. I entered recovery, began long‑term therapy, and returned to ceremony in a deeper way. Today, I carry over eight years of sobriety, seventeen years of therapeutic work, and more than two decades in Indigenous wellness and prevention..."​

Read My Full Story → Blog page