From Professor to Coach

Samantha earned her PhD in English and was a college professor. When she realized her students came to office hours to discuss their personal challenges (not to analyze Shakespeare), she discovered her greater calling: to support individuals in becoming the most thriving version of themselves. Samantha is passionate about helping people rewrite the narrative of their lives and become the author of their own story.

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Samantha founded her coaching practice in 2021, providing personalized support for individuals navigating mental health challenges, life transitions, and questions about their purpose and life's greater meaning. She partners with psychiatric and medical practitioners, and serves as a bridge between therapeutic and spiritual approaches to personal growth. Samantha is an IFS-informed practitioner and collaborates with IFS and EMDR therapists.

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Samantha also worked as a ketamine clinic staff member and co-facilitated women's ketamine retreats in partnership with the Bright Mind clinic in Bend, Oregon. She is a certified psychedelic integration coach.

Professional Training, Spiritual Orientation, & Creative Practice

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Samantha is currently completing her Master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy to provide deeper therapeutic support for individuals, couples, and families. She has also completed the IFS Online Circle, a 6-month certification open to non-clinicians. She is currently not a licensed mental health provider. With great respect for the therapeutic profession, she honors her current title as a “coach” and collaborates closely with her client’s therapists and clinical providers as desired.

In addition to her therapeutic training, Samantha is a devoted student of the world’s spiritual traditions. She studies Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, Christian and Sufi mysticism, Afro-Brazilian spiritism, and Indigenous earth-based practices. Raised in a Jewish home, she now identifies as a Universal Mystic, looking at what spiritually unites us, rather than what divides us. Open, curious, and non-judgmental, Samantha enjoys working with individuals of any spiritual orientation and also respects an individual’s choice to leave spirituality out of the conversation altogether.

Samantha is also a dedicated musician and singer, whose primary instrument is a 10-string lute from the Andes called a charango. She only began her musical journey at the age of 30, with no prior training, and is a huge advocate for developing creative practices to support mental health and general flourishing. She skillfully supports her clients in identifying how creativity can express through them, whether in movement, art, writing, singing/sounding, music, gardening, cooking, crafting, or decorating.

A Window Into Samantha’s Healing Journey

As I began UCLA’s rigorous PhD program at the age of 21, both of my parents were diagnosed with terminal cancer. To manage my anxiety, fear, grief, and stress, I sought control over food and exercise. I wanted my body to be perfect—I thought that if I could achieve "perfect" health, I could unlock the secret to save my parents and protect myself from getting cancer too. Besides, that "perfect" body gave me confidence in the cutthroat environment of academia. I found immense stress relief in training for marathons and Ironman triathlons, but I became obsessed. By trying to control every aspect of my food, exercise, and body, I severed my connection to my authentic self. I lost my intuition, not to mention my menstrual cycle, and it took eight years to heal from these toxic behaviors and thought patterns, a journey I took in tandem with processing the grief of losing my parents.

The passing of my parents within one year of each other launched me into a hero’s journey that involved traveled to the Amazon and later to Guatemala, where I met my spiritual teachers and became a dedicated meditator. I learned to sit with the profound anguish of my grief rather than escape it​. On a 12-day meditation retreat, I sat alone in my hut crying endlessly. One night, a particularly violent downpour arrived, the sound of thunder shattering the darkness. I felt viscerally ill from weeping. And then something inside me broke open: I expanded beyond the confines of my personal suffering and found myself in a kind of yogic union with the rain. It felt as though the earth was crying on my behalf, and I no longer had to hold the grief alone. I walked into the rain barefoot, buried my toes in the mud, and felt the healing power of nature take some of the weight from me. Suddenly, I could bear it.

My own healing has been guided by Nature, mystical experiences, spiritual discipline, creative expression, and loving community. I did not benefit from traditional talk therapy, and have a great deal of compassion for others who have not made progress in these conventional containers. I strongly believe that healing and transformation look different for everyone. I never attempt to map my own experience onto others. However, my own experiences have given me a profound capacity to hold space with compassionate presence. I am an unshakeable force of love in the darkness. Accordingly, I view the suffering in my history as tremendous gifts, and I hope to inspire and empower my clients to cultivate a similar orientation to their own challenges.

Today

I live on the mountain overlooking Santa Barbara, California with my husband, Tímo. We maintain close connection with our spiritual community in Lake Atitlán, Guatemala. My free time is dedicated to music, reading, running and hiking, and spending time in my orchard and garden.