About me

Hello!  Thanks for visiting this page and reading my bio. I have been a bodyworker for over 20 years and started my business YOUU-NESS in 2019. A native of Chicago, I made my way west after completing my master’s degree in music at Northwestern University in 2010. Along the way, my path took many turns—from studying piano performance and education to teaching privately and in schools, exploring music therapy, and navigating my own experiences with depression, anxiety, trauma, and ADHD.

What began as a practical need to support myself and my father after college ultimately led me to pursue massage therapy, where I discovered my true calling as a healer, bodyworker, and later, Feldenkrais® practitioner. My experiences as a survivor have given me unique insight, hope, and empathy, enabling me to guide others through their own healing journeys with patience and compassion.

I enjoy working with people from all walks of life, from young athletes to seniors. I specialize in fascia-focused bodywork and have a special interest in providing Feldenkrais® workshops for musicians, helping them navigate performance anxiety and tension in playing, as well as offering trauma-informed, somatic experiences that foster safety, body awareness, and empowerment. What serves you and what does not?

I also specialize in my own intuitive and corrective style of fascia-based manual therapy, adjusting my touch from gentle to firm and subtle to deep, responding intuitively to what your body requires in the moment. I don't believe there is "one way" (all gentle or all deep) and don't worship one modality but see all as tools or rather, spices in a chef's kitchen!

I often work with clients experiencing chronic tension or conditions resulting from stress, injury, or overuse. I've tried to give up "corrective" bodywork but to be honest, it's too great a passion and from working with thousands of bodies, I have experienced that the combination of assisting the body in physical healing AND attending to the mind through somatic education and gentle attunements (hello nervous system!) is a pretty powerful pacakge.

My approach is influenced but not confined by my trainings in ART® (Active Release Technique), MFR® (Myofascial Release), Structural Integration, Medical Massage, CST (CranioSacral Therapy), and the Feldenkrais Method®.

I am committed to making bodywork equitable, offering care to those in need, and ensuring no one is turned away due to financial constraints. I reserve community hours for this cause and have a special interest in working with “hopeless” cases that have exhausted the plethora of traditional medical offerings. I enjoy witnessing the transformative power that deeply present listening hands can bring to the most challenging situations. It can be life changing and I believe everyone deserves wellness.

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When I’m not in the office, I enjoy camping, hiking, backpacking, cooking, drawing, traveling, and spending time with my husband, friends, and our two corgis, Latte and Ato (Macchiato), who were named after my late corgi, Mocha.