Meet Kelly
Originally from Richmond, VA, and born with an adventurous spirit, I’ve moved farther and farther west, to Chicago, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, the Big Island of Hawaiʻi and Joshua Tree, California before calling Crested Butte, Colorado my home.
I first visited in Spring 2024, and road tripped back every season until I finally moved here in January of 2025 so I could be awestruck more often and need way fewer oil changes.
A willingness to work for the view
This corner of the universe is a magnet for creative and independent thinkers who are excellent at navigating extremes, and I love that. The Gunnison Valley is an incredible ecosystem for connecting deeply to nature, exploring inner and outer landscapes, and bravely confronting growth edges. The humans and wildlife here have a grip on what it takes to survive, and a willingness to explore to access beauty most others never see.
The modalities I practice resonate with those seeking to uncover and transform hidden aspects of themselves. They involve active participation, curiosity, open-mindedness and an adventurous spirit as ingredients to create lasting change and personal evolution.
Not knowing you, your strengths or your struggles, it’s important to me now to let you know I wasn’t expecting to become passionate about bodywork and somatic healing at all. Not part of my original life plan—until something unthinkable happened to me.
My Story
When I was 28 years old, I experienced not one, but two, life-disrupting injuries. One required a year of recovery and a commitment to physical therapy. I tore my ACL in a ski accident as a byproduct of being too inexperienced and too intrepid. The other was a near death experience, by way of a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) that included a skull fracture and stroke, and significant time off work. As the victim of a violent crime, this one came unexpectedly, rattled me severely, and changed me completely.
Perspective I never asked for
Through that experience, I grew to appreciate my body and how incredible it is to stand on two legs and walk around without extreme vertigo, to think two coherent thoughts back-to-back without painkillers. Our lives here on this planet are ephemeral in the scheme of things, and it’s a rare day I lose sight of that. It took months and years to get to the poetic perspective, and before that mindset arrived were many chapters of pain—on physical, emotional, spiritual and interpersonal levels.
New levels of resilience
As I healed, I discovered that being resilient took lots of work. I lost my sense of smell for two years. I experienced distorted hearing for weeks. I came to know chronic neck and shoulder pain, what PTSD is like, and I tried so many new-to-me solutions to see what could help me feel better.
Healing as a research project
Before that point, I couldn’t justify spending money on what I believed were esoteric New Agey modalities. There’s lots to love about deep tissue massage, CBD oils and a well-timed cold compress, and though they brought immediate relief, I also discovered they were incomplete at addressing the root cause. I tried psychotherapy, acupuncture, EMDR, reiki, hypnotherapy, you name it—all with the hopes of finally finding an obvious winning choice, a game-changer for healing chronic pain and complex emotions.
Our bodies are beautifully designed, programmed to heal.
Somatic work and psychedelics helped me do that on a more profound and lasting level than other forms of therapies.
Having spent years in psychotherapy, and clocked countless hours of deep tissue massage, I was astounded by the immediate outcomes and breakthroughs to come from Somatic Experiencing, CranioSacral Therapy, and intentional journey work in a safe container with a trained professional.
It’s been 14 years since my Near Death Experience. In that time, my unrelenting curiosity led me to explore and learn so much that my decision to practice professionally felt like the natural next step.
Somatic work helped me move into the present and connect to my body on a new level, one I couldn’t have imagined without living through the challenges. Along with psychedelics, both helped me uncover my own limiting beliefs and work through old memories tied to emotional live wires stored in my body. I became brave enough to look at the impact of trauma from childhood and adolescence and how it shaped my identity and interpersonal relationships.
Over the years, practicing this work has deepened my perception and skills and I am able to expertly attune to subtle physiological shifts as well as emotional nuance. Across my career, I’ve worked in a variety of spaces for healing, from a holistic clinic for cancer survivors in Oakland, California, to a wellness studio at a retreat center in the remote jungle of Hawaiʻi, to a day spa in Joshua Tree and a psychedelic journey space here in Crested Butte. I am comfortable with delving into the unknown and appreciate how every person’s story is wildly different, and thus the interventions must be too.
My work is strategic and intuitive, and my favorite modalities involve dialogue—the ones I practice are those I have personally found to be the most transformative work there is.
Outside of this work, I love yoga, live music, ecstatic dance, hiking and soaking up nature, learning to ski and snowboard, reading actual books, road trips and travel, and being present for the people in my life.
I invite you to work with me to heal and restore deep connection with your body. It would be an honor to work with you to facilitate the growth you’re capable of.