Are you feeling a restlessness from deep within, something calling, a sense that something isn't quite right, perhaps that you are going along with life's program but not feeling truly fulfilled, or maybe that there is something else you are "supposed" to be doing, if you could only figure out what that something is? Are you wishing for more joy, more vitality, deeper expressions of love, stability and a felt sense that you are doing what you came here to do? Do you feel healthy in spirit, mind and body? Do you want to know how to experience all of these things?
When I hit mid-life I felt depleted. I wasn't sure who I was any more. I had lost my voice and my trust in my inner knowing. I sold my home, moved to the edge of the wilderness in Western Massachusetts, reconnected to my love of the wild and being comfortable alone in the woods, and slowly began to reconnect to all that is authentically me. I wrote a book as a way to find my own words and tell my own story, a book on the healing power of play, imagination, storytelling and love, and then I wrote another book on the power of stillness. I reconnected to the knowing and belief that, no matter how things look right now, in time all will be more than well. I emerged from my time of solitude and began working with individuals, couples and families in serious crisis, including the pandemic, and I witnessed the human spirit at its most desperate as it found courage and strength from the power of being seen, being held, proving to me what I had learned about the healing power of love and community.
With my expertise in psych counseling, spiritual development, relationships and holistic health, I help you to find what I have found. I help you become whole in spirit, mind and body.
More About Me
Employment history - I have lots of interests and have had lots of different jobs, starting at age 11 when my mom told me that, as the fourth of five kids I was going to have to start saving up to pay for my own education. That was fine with me! I ventured into the world of work and found I could do anything I put my mind to - babysitter, paper girl, "page" in a children's library, volleyball coach and sewing teacher at Upward Bound Amherst, MA, Residential Assistant - Westover Job Corps, Waitress - L'Amitie, Longmeadow MA, typist and editor of Procedures and Policies Manual for Housing Services, UMass Amherst, Front Room Manager Hungry U Restaurant, Amherst, MA, Aerobics Instructor, Elaine Power's Figure Salon, Lynnwood WA, Assistant Manager, Carrow's Restaurant, Lynnwood WA, High School English Teacher - Springfield Christian School, Springfield, MA, Donna Havens Daycare - owner, Donna Havens School of Music - owner, teacher of guitar, piano, ukulele, saxophone and vocal performance, Hampden and Belchertown MA, Quabbin Music Lesson Studios, teacher - guitar and piano, Belchertown MA, Club Passim School of Music, teacher, faculty and student relations manager, Cambridge MA, Community Mental Health Worker - The Bridge in Amherst, Clinician and Case Manager - The Continuum, CHD, Easthampton, MA, Therapist - Thriveworks, Amherst, MA, Therapist - Handel Behavioral Health, Amherst, MA
Fun Facts -
Published two guitar stories in Mel Bay's e-zine Guitar Sessions
Arrested in Communist Yugoslavia while on a missions trip
Recorded a 10 song CD live and in the studio
Studied instrumental guitar with many of the great guitarists on the list of the top 100 of all time
Mom of three and grandmother of the two most darling little girls
Author of three books - Luke and Me: The Healing Power of Play, Imagination, Storytelling and Love- a midlife reckoning. Sometimes The Stillness - writings from a writing course I took with Martha Beck and Elizabeth Gilbert. My third book is a mystery book, a love story, not published. A fourth book - Luke and Me and the Mighty Kindness - coming to you soon!
Passions - hiking, nature photography, music, writing - and -
Working with my clients towards true healing of underlying causes and back to joyful living!
What/who I am influenced by and who I am reading right now:
Gabor Mate, Martha Beck, Jeffrey Davis, Richard Schwartz, Lissa Rankin, Bessel Van Der Kolk, Bruce Perry, Mark Hyman, Peter Levine, Brene Brown, Phil Stutz, Martin Seligman, John and Julie Gottman.
