I'm so proud of the people I see who say that they've been clean and sober off hard drugs for X amount of years. But I'm proud to be able to say that I have better — I've never tried hard drugs. I've never gotten into cocaine, crack of course, meth, opiates or anything else hardcore like that. My only ongoing addiction has always been nicotine (as well as, of course, caffeine). At the same time, i've been deeply invested in the use of traditional psychedelic plant medicines and that has led me on a journey of admiration for addiction recovery arts and culture. Addiction recovery is a huge passion of mine, even though I've thankfully never had to recover. I have healthy boundaries against getting too mixed up with addicts, and yet I have some dear, close friends who do struggle with addiction which has brought a lot of sadness and compassion to my heart. 

As a young girl, my family moved around every 4 years to a new part of Toronto area. I was born in Scarborough Ontario, which at the time was a very nice little place. Now it's more like Surrey, BC. I much preffered the nice places we lived in Toronto, ilke Yonge & Eglington area. I enjoyed it, but enduring the cold winters and hot summers was enough to keep me away after I moved to BC at the young age of 19 with travelling friends on an adventure. I immediately fell in love with the area, and remained ever since. 

Classically, I've always lived either on the Sunshine Coast of BC, or where I am now in Vancouver. I've found my time on the coast deeply therapeutic and emotionally purifying, but very financially unstable due to the rural economy there. The Sunshine Coast is a beautiful, mossy and forested (and very spiritual and artistic) community which is about a 40 minute ferry ride from Vancouver. All told, it takes about 4 hours to reach a destination there. As much as I love it, I'm currently not missing it that much. I prefer the amazing ways that urban Vancouver provides so much access to amazing facilities like the Vancouver Art Gallery, and I appreciate the realistic and down to Earth atmosphere of the people I meet. The small-town mentality is insular and sleepy despite the arts and culture which is so inspiring there. 

In 2007 I had my awkward and chaotic start into offering these kinds of services. As a young woman of only 24, I had so much to learn. I'm so inspired by how much wisdom, experience and maturity I've gained now in the years since I began. My young mistakes of projecting my insecurity or fear onto others, or my paranoia about what might be wrong have all dissolved away through a lifetime of self-healing, meditation, personal growth, and experience with this kind of practice. I've gained the comfort and depth to be able to fully appreciate and enjoy the connections made in these times of intimacy. 

That all said, I think a huge part of how I grew so well and maintained myself as a healthy and balanced individual over the years was by cycling in and out of providing intimate healing. Reflecting back on the lessons and growth in times when I was doing other work — schooling, graphic design and web design, Hawaiian massage and reiki, ecological education, etc — I feel those times were important to maintaining perspective on how life is outside of this one bubble. It's an extreme thing to offer, and I think it's important to know how life is on the other side of that extreme experience, in order to appreciate fully for what it should really give back in return for my investment. That way I've been able to harvest the best personal benefit from my work and enjoy it the most. 

After a rough breakup in 2014, I was surprised that I remained single for so long after the first couple years when it was obvious that I just needed a bit of recovery time. It wasn't just the occupation of my work that kept things that way — that did probably add to it, but that came later in 2021. For whatever reason, I felt that I needed the space to just invest into myself. Sometimes, being down and out financially was a part of that, as I was too stressed to feel ready for a deeper relationship anyway. But what I found was that making friends through intimate healing post 2021 slowly started to make me realize that I'm very fond of polyamory and finding love outside of a standard relationship model of monogamy.

It's pretty official now that monogamy doesn't appeal to me. I might feel that once I'm in a deeper committed relationship, that might change as the depth if the relationship demands more from us both. But at this point in my life, I find it most emotionally profound to realize that I've been in various relationships without even labelling them as such. I haven't found that proclaiming commitment resonates, but I have found that certain types of cmmitment naturally happen quietly inside without having to be a promise to someone else. These feelings of trust and stability seem part and parcel with emotionally accepting that they may not be always returned by the other person. 

I love my current apartment. After 4 years away on the Sunshine Coast, I moved here to Vancouver again to begin this business in 2021. Immediately I scored the best rent price in Vancouver for this small, private and contained studio apartment with my own bathroom and kitchen. The rent was about $1,300 CAD when I moved in, and is now just over $1,400. I used to have a fabulous huge place in Kitsilano for $1,400, which is unheard of today. The rent prices in Vancouver have escalated to insane proportions. But at least I got something to myself which suits the budget I've always pretty much allowed for rent. 

The benefits here also include a back yard gardening opportunity. I've become the community garden co-ordinator for the building, and I ensure that every possible garden plot is loved and tended to by various neighbours and tennants at the building. As well, I have a parking spot, where I keep my motorhome. In 2022 I got an auto loan (a brutal one, but it seems meant to be) for a 1982 Citation motorhome. 1982 is my birth year. This vintage retro GMC is a nostalgic celebration of the year I came into the world. It's really cute, and I don't drive it yet, but I enjoy having it as an extra space to hang out in or host guests during warmer months. 

I'm very woke, meaning that I'm deeply inspired by issues such as anti-racism and BIPOC / indigenous cultural issues and sensitivities to the unique challenges of marginalized groups )) As well, extremely LGBTQIA+ friendly as you can read more about in this article I wrote which breaks open the woke debate. As a healer, as you can imagine, I'm also extremely compassionate and understanding towards those who suffer with trauma. As a radical feminist, I see the deeply, historically embedded issues of misogyny in our world — but by definition that makes me also against sexism against men. I'm not a man-hater, and I'm thoroughly repulsed by sexism against men due to my passion for equality between genders, by definition of being a feminist.