Story

I returned to the United States after more than a decade of international travel, humanitarian service, and deep yogic exploration. What began as seven years on the road shifted irrevocably when the suffering of the Middle East landed on my doorstep—ultimately taking the life of one of my closest friends.

Out of that pain and grief, a quiet but unwavering calling emerged: to bring the healing tools of yoga and meditation to those impacted by war and violence, and to those serving on the front lines. I spent the next nine months immersed in study at Hridaya Hatha Yoga in Mexico, completing a 500-hour teacher training while tending to my own healing—learning how to stay present with heartbreak, uncertainty, and love.

Within a week of completing the program, I found myself on the shores of the Greek island of Lesvos, where refugees were arriving daily in overcrowded rubber dinghies from Turkey. Through the cold winter months, we helped boats land safely—work that quickly unfolded into a four-year journey of developing sustainable, community-centered projects across Greece, Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq.

Those early months changed everything. What I had imagined as a short-term service offering revealed itself as a life path. I continue this seva remotely as the Director of the Yoga Mandala Project while also laying roots in Northern Arizona where we are co-creating an off-grid retreat center nestled in the high desert mountains through Mystic Arizona Escapes.

This land holds the threads of all that came before: humanitarian work, yoga, nature, community, and restoration. Mystic Arizona Escapes was born from the desire to create a place where people can slow down, reconnect with the earth, and remember what it feels like to be whole.

humanitarian. Yoga teacher. retreat center creator. leader. nature lover. mom. forever student.

These passions are not separate—they are woven together by love and a heartfelt desire to contribute to a more compassionate world.

Mystic Arizona Escapes is now open, hosting seasonal retreats and intentional gatherings each spring and autumn. What you experience here has been a five-year labor of love—shaped slowly, thoughtfully, and in deep relationship with the land. We hold immense gratitude for this place, on the ancestral homelands of the Yavapai people, which we are honored to call home.

This land offers a place of deep settling as we create a family, slowly build our home, and continue to listen, learn, and vision alongside the land itself.

Yoga Mandala Project

I believe I have always been a carer. Starting with volunteering at Special Olympics events in grade school, to studying social work in university, and transmitting my own experiences of loss and suffering into a path of humanitarian service. 

Yoga has played an essential role in my personal journey of healing from traumatic loss and I am now sharing those healing tools with refugees and humanitarians around the world. Through years of working in refugee camps I have found a life of balance - embodying the lifestyle of self-care in order to look after myself, but also to support those around me.

The Yoga Mandala Project is a grassroots initiative dedicated to supporting the well-being of globally marginalized communities—and those who serve them—by fostering community and providing access to healing practices such as yoga, creative expression, and mindfulness.

We bring sustainable yoga programs to people impacted by war and violence, provide volunteer opportunities for yoga teachers, and support humanitarians through self and community care support and trauma informed facilitation training.