As the story is told, I came out of the womb singing. My mother declared that I'd be a singer or a social worker. I have spent a lifetime combining the two.

I studied voice at Cleveland Institute of Music with Jimmie Pitts-Caviness. I continued my studies with her teacher Leslie Chabuy at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where I also received an AB in Anthropology with a minor in Sociology. For 25 years I taught singing privately. In 1990 while dealing with difficult life circumstances my Expressive VoiceWork was born. In the mid 1990s, I began working with the legendary Lillian Loran, retraining my voice in a natural, body-based approach. Lillian has not only been my teacher and mentor all these years, but my inspiration as well. I am forever grateful to her for all the wisdom she has imparted to me.

I am a certified therapeutic music practitioner and story weaver in the tradition of Milton Erickson (I am a certified Ericksonian hypnotherapist). I am also a shamanic practitioner trained through renowned anthropologist Michael Harner's Foundation for Shamanic Studies.