Approach

My approach is grounded in the belief that process matters as much as, if not more than, outcomes — and that the people closest to the issues are the experts of their own experience. I approach my role as a collaborator and guide, not as someone who holds all the answers.

I also begin collaborations by acknowledging the tensions within the nonprofit industrial complex — how the systems we build for change can sometimes reproduce the very harms we aim to transform. I work to bridge values and compliance, navigating real-world constraints while staying anchored in a larger vision of liberation.

I’m especially drawn to collaborating with:

  • Small and mid-sized organizations navigating growth, transition, or formalization

  • Liberatory and justice-oriented groups seeking to align their values with the practical realities of nonprofit operations

  • Grassroots and movement-based initiatives ready to strengthen systems without losing their founding spirit or political clarity

  • Leaders and teams moving through complexity or change who want to stay grounded in care and collaboration

Teachers & Lineages

My approach is shaped by movements that go by many names, including the mad movement, the psychiatric survivor movement, and the broader fight for mental health liberation. I draw from disciplines such as liberation psychology and mad studies, and consider myself a lifelong student of healing justice, disability justice, and abolition.

I’ve had the privilege of learning from teachers, trainers, movement elders, coaches, and peers who have generously shared their frameworks, practices, and ways of being. Many of the lessons I carry have come through lived experience and relationships, and many others have come through formal and informal training, coaching, and mentorship. A few trainings and learning spaces that have been especially impactful in recent years include:

  • Somatic leadership coaching (in the lineages of generative somatics) – an embodied practice for aligning action, mood, and intention in service of deeply held commitments

  • Dialogue Across Difference (Growing a New Heart) – a training on cross-difference dialogue, grounded in popular education and adult learning theory

  • Facilitate for Freedom Fundamentals (AORTA)– a deep dive into anti-oppressive facilitation, centering access and principled struggle

  • Harm Systems Design Retreat (Spring Up) – an exploration of organizational accountability, harm, and legal considerations in movement spaces

  • Undoing Racism (People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond) – a foundational workshop examining how race, class, and power shape institutions, relationships, and outcomes

Each of these experiences has deepened my understanding of mental health as a social, political, and relational issue. They’ve also helped me cultivate practices of leadership, accountability, and collective care that I continue to refine.