May we know ourselves and live our dreams

I am delighted that my passions are my livelihood through AbunDance Healing Arts and am committed to a life of learning, growing, and sharing these healing gifts with my community.

A proud North Carolinian with life-long roots in Chatham County, my family has served as an early and essential source of inspiration for my healing arts education. While digging sassafras roots with my great-grandmother Rena Midgett on the Outer Banks, massaging my mother Karen‘s shoulders, and dancing into the night with my grandparents Margie and D.A. Calhoun, I learned at a young age the importance and joy of creating plant medicine, giving and receiving healing touch, and creative expression through movement. I have honed this passion for healing work through many years’ study with respected teachers, including:

  • Reciprocal relationships with the plants and trees, our living Earth, and my human ancestors
  • Apprenticeship with community herbalist Suki Roth, 2002-2010
  • Green immersions with planetary plant teacher, Frank Cook, 2000-2009
  • Ongoing studies in botany, ethnobotany, and dendrology through UNC, NC State, NC Botanical Garden, and various conferences
  • Massage Therapy Diploma Program at Body Therapy Institute, 2004
  • Somatic Energy Healing & Polarity Therapy Training with Janice Durand of the Tree of Life Center, 2004-2009
  • Body, Mind, and Spirit Yoga Teacher Training with Lisa Clark and David Beadle, 2004-2005
  • Dismantling Racism workshop, December 2009
  • Racial Equity Institute Phase 1 workshop: November 2014, March, June, & September 2017
  • Deep Rest Silent Meditation Retreats with Jaya Ashmore of Open Dharma, 2008-present

I received my BA in International Studies (Anthropology and African Studies) from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1994 and have been privileged to travel and live in Ghana, Guatemala, Cuba, Southern Africa, India, Thailand, and Europe. It has been a great honor to serve as a youth ally and mentor in multiple locations and capacities since 1991. Learn more about my teaching experience at my wild foods & medicine, yoga, and energywork & massage pages.

My on-going commitment to spiritual activism, economic and racial equity, and liberation for us all deeply inform my daily life and community building. Spending time with four generations of my local family, napping in the yarden, and remembering there is enough for us all sustains me in realizing my vision for AbunDance Healing Arts.