My Story

I'm Deena and I have lived in a disabled bodymind for over 15 years, embracing a joyful life of gratitude, love, and radical devotional self-care woven into every breath.  As a trauma-informed holistic healer, I view and live my life as a meditation, embody my lived experience, show up and honour the present moment, and cultivate kindness.  Certifications and trainings include 1st & 2nd degree Reiki in the spiritual lineage of Usui, Hayashi, Takata and Furomoto; Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR); Movement for Trauma level 1; Embodied Wonderment Method modules 1-3; motivational interviewing; reflexology; and a plethora of other knowledge gathered from workshops, books, friends, loved ones and teachers of Life.  An avid tea drinker, my animal guide is the elephant and my favourite medicines are laughter, sunshine (vitamin D), and connection (oxytocin).

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After years of exploring healing and being failed by Western medicine's ableist culture, I decided to go a different route.  Everything changed for me when I slowed down to notice and feel what was happening in my life.  With the space to heal, meet myself where I was at, and work with what is, I came to a place of blossoming courage.  In time and within capacity, I learned, integrated and applied the healing that resonated for me.  Quality sleep yielded more life-force energy, and I slowly added in diet changes, exercises, movement, restorative practices, meditation, and quality connection with my passions, friends and loved ones.  Finding myself resourced to go beyond "band aids", I stepped into deeper healing with a lot of tears, feeling my emotions, sensing my body, and self-care.  By allowing the stored energy of trauma to move through me, I could fit the puzzle pieces of my experience into a whole picture.  Through dedication and resourcefulness, I created a joyful lifestyle. 

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The healing journey is one of ebb and flow, adaptability, and balance.  Each day, I start by tuning in, going at an appropriate pace, and riding the wave called Life.

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While I explore and discover the fluidity and flexibility of ‘self’ in every moment, some of my on-going and/ both current identities are: white-bodied settler living on stolen land in Turtle Island, agender, femme-expressing, thin-bodied spiritual and human being, from a middle-class background.  I am a neurodiverse relationship anarchist, bookworm and geek, living below the Western definition of poverty line in a sacred temple that is also a disabled bodymind (celebrating chronic pain since 2007 and trauma since infancy).  I am committed to social justice from a place of sacred activism.  I honour the language, people, and communities, especially DQTBIPOC (disabled, queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, people of colour) folk who developed the language of disability justice that is true to my heart and who lead the dismantling of systemic oppression.

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