Karen grew up south of San Francisco, spending much of her free time split between art and sailing. Moving to Seattle in her 20's she studied at the Brenneke School of Massage and began attending births as a massage doula. During this time her love of making music developed, she explored harp, drumming, and chant. Another big move brought her to the Monadnock region of New Hampshire where motherhood, art, and music found deep roots to flourish. Introduced to yoga at a young age, she has always had a connection to spirit through movement. She began teaching Hatha Yoga to better serve her massage clients develop life skills that would enhance the effectiveness of their ongoing massage therapy. Travel is also a passion for Karen, in 2010 she brought her partner and four children to visit friends in their villages in Senegal, West Africa. They studied West African Drumming and held a weekly open practice group at their home in Temple, NH.  She attended Alisa Starkweather's women's mystery school, Priestess Path for two years and continued to serve and hold ritual space with music in following years. In 2014 she was drawn to follow her love of chant and joined Manasaa, now Anahata - Domain of the heart, providing kirtan for the community. She then studied Kundalini Yoga, diving deeply into the practice of Mantra Meditation. At Soul Yoga at the Union Mill, she collaboratively lead a weekly mantra meditation class. She loves living in the Monadnock community for it's connection to nature: forest, pond, waterfall, cross country skiing, for the local love of saunas, and for amazing inspiring artists and musicians for companions, and downright warm kind people. Opening her massage studio in 2015 at the Union Mill in Peterborough was like an extension of home and a joyful way to serve the community she loves by helping other to thrive. Enjoying the richness of the little village in West Peterborough, beautiful MacDowell Pond and river that flows behind the mill, the cafe at the Nature's Green Grocer, and the fabulous warm community of artists and yogis, and families at the mill. As she opened her studio, she also manifested her soul instrument which she plays at the end of massage sessions, a hand pan, a resonant sound sculpture to be played both melodically and rhythmically from the heart. 2015-2019 she dove into understanding the experience of Lyme disease from a bodywork perspective, which lead her to study Lyme Magnetic Protocol with Joan Randall and it's origins Biomagnetism with the Goiz family. To delve into the incredible world of the second brain: the gut, the center of our immune system she then studied Arvigo Mayan Abdominal Massage and also the brilliant advanced abdominal/pelvic work of Marty Ryan. Then to understand more deeply the lymphatic system and it's roll in physical detoxification of the body and  also the nervous system, she furthered her studies including new research on the glymphatic system, the newly discovered link between the central nervous system's glial cells and the lymphatic system for detoxification of the brain and then an introduction into poly-vagal theory: the roll of the vagus nerve in the flight/fight/freeze mechanism of handling stress and trauma and how through bodywork we can influence the reset of this ever so important nerve function. She continued even deeper into the study of Lyme disease with Hillary Thing, Uprooting Lyme, the focus of this training was the use of Traditional Chinese Herbs and Essential Oil Liposomals, but especially the wholistic approach to healing beginning with the lifestyle shifts of healing the gut as being essential to the process of healing the immune system in order to heal and prevent chronic illness. When working in the Uprooting Lyme clinic in New York, during the trainings, one thing that really struck Karen was the common presence of underlying distress or trauma still held the body in severe chronic illness as constriction in the overall fascia of the body, the gut, spine, and around the cranial bones, the reduction of fluid flow due to these constrictions, tension and chronic pain as a result, and with that spark, Karen shifted her focus of study to the facilitation of safe space for people who have experience distress, loss, and trauma, somatic energy release trainings within CranioSacral Therapy with the Upledger Institute and to Rapid Transformational Therapy  with Marisa Peer as a way to release stuck patterning in lifestyle habits and empower people to access their own ability to reprogram the body/mind utilizing hypnosis to create a bridge and program editing system between the conscious and subconscious mind. Independently and to support her own personal sustainability, Karen's love of yoga and movement has morphed into a passion for Argentine Tango and Contact Improv dance forms. After these many years of working with clients and learning so much about the body, mind, and spirit she is compelled to include that for sustainability having a daily movement practice that ebbs and flows with you and speaks to you is essential to maintaining the freedom of flow in the body and preventing the stagnation of energy that breed disease, as is understanding the dynamics of subtle negotiations in all human interactions, learning to listen deeply, empathically. She continues to study Chris Voss's Tactical Empathy skills, and George Kohlrieser's wisdom on bonding and the formation of a stable base, two incredible authors on hostage release negotiation.  A hostage can be anyone who is emotionally hijacked and doesn't realize or know how to come out of that mindset, it can be due to reaction to someone else's behavior, but can also be due to our own habits of thought and behavior.