My Truth, Our Healing
Diné and Seminole · Indigenous Wellness Consultant
“Your blessings can only take you as far as your healing.”
I come as a relative
I am an Indigenous Wellness Consultant, proudly born for the Seminole and Diné tribes.
A Native woman who grew up in poverty, violence and addiction. Who survived childhood sexual abuse and brutal assault. Who battled alcohol from age four into her early thirties. Who walked through the risk of incarceration, through shame, and close to death.
And a Native woman who has been an athlete, a runner, a football coach and a wildland fire trainer. Who built diabetes and fitness programs still working twenty-four years later. Who completed seventeen years of therapy. Who has trained thousands of relatives and providers in ACEs and NEAR science, trauma, and Indigenous wellness.
My work comes from that whole story — not only the scars, but the strengths, the ceremonies and the teachings that helped me survive. When you step into my circles you are stepping into a space shaped by all of it. I walked through fire and learned how to walk back out carrying medicine.
Where I come from
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.
I left home at fifteen and supported myself cleaning hotel rooms. I had my first home at sixteen, became a mother at seventeen, and married at eighteen. Those years built the self-reliance everything since has stood on.
From four to thirty-three, alcohol and trauma ran my life. I survived abduction, brutal sexual assault, years of chaos, and multiple arrests. I was also a state-level runner, a top fitness instructor, a tribal program director and a national master trainer — the person communities came to for wellness help while I was still hurting.
At thirty-three, 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.
What I carry now
Over eight years of sobriety. Seventeen years of therapeutic work. 24+ years in Indigenous wellness and prevention. Certification as an Indigenous birth and postpartum doula, blending ceremony, trauma science and traditional postpartum nutrition with perinatal advocacy for Native families.
I bring the wisdom of my ancestors, the Medicine Wheel, Seminole teachings and intertribal knowledge into one holistic approach to healing and empowerment.
I am the proud mother of two adult children — a daughter with a master's in sport psychology who coaches and plays professional softball in Germany, and a son in his third year of college studying mechanical engineering.
The work behind me
Movement and the body. I lost a hundred and fifty pounds and learned the human body from the inside out, and was voted the most inspiring woman in my hometown. I was the first elected female football coach in my community — criticised hard at the start, and in the end held by that team. I have led an all-women's kickboxing team, taught advanced fitness classes, conditioned wildland fire crews, created city mud adventure races, and trained G League basketball teams and celebrity athletes.
Tribal programs. I developed a tribal diabetes prevention program and secured half a million dollars in funding. Those programs, built twenty-four years ago, are still changing lives. I spent a decade as a national master trainer for the Native American Fitness Council, certifying trainers and widening access to wellness.
Inclusion and young people. I have worked extensively with people with disabilities through Special Olympics training and caregiver retreats, and led camping, hiking, survival training and extreme outdoor experiences that build resilience in young people.
The courtroom. I have navigated hundreds of cases involving wellness courts and the Indian Child Welfare Act, pushing back against oppression and discrimination to protect the dignity of the people I serve.
Where I work now
I deliver monthly workshops and virtual sessions, and teach at major universities and in underserved communities. I advocate for Indigenous maternal health initiatives in Arizona and co-lead the Indigenous Parents Village. I am an active member of the Indigenous Mindfulness Coalition and of BIPOC recovery circles across the country.
Who I work with
Inter Tribal Council of Arizona
Pala Band of Mission Indians
Tohono O'odham Nation Health Care
Navajo Nation Division of Behavioral and Mental Health Services
Winslow Indian Health Care Center
Native American Connections
Moapa Band of Paiutes
Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of Duck Valley
Coconino County Courts and CASA
Central Consolidated School District
Arizona State University
Mesa Community College
Indiana University
Prevent Child Abuse Arizona
Walk the path of wise choices.
Heal the heart.
See the unseen patterns.
Nurture self-love and acceptance.
Embody true wellness.
Aho!