About Kristine
My StoryOur stories are vital and integral. They need to be heard, processed, and integrated.
The feelings and thoughts, “I don’t matter,” or “I’m too much,” were at the root of my own sense of separate self. It was the 1950’s “children are seen not heard“, was not uncommon. I organized to minimize my impact, my energy, to feel safe.
As a highly sensitive and empathic child life was magical and miraculous. In many ways. Growing up in northern Minnesota I was found joyfully running barefoot down country roads and across the fields, swimming in crystal clear waters with loons calling, frogs sitting on lily pads, turtles sunning themselves on fallen logs while dragonflies darted here and there. I especially loved trees, climbing a tall oak, curling up in the lee of the roots of a fallen cedar tree when sad or discouraged, lying in the shade of a graceful birch looking up into the blue sky pondering life’s mysteries. My husband and I to this day still find our vacations spent in nature and wilderness areas. Nature and my gardens are a source of pleasure and joy, of deep connection.
My Trainings and Certifications◆ Full Certification in Realization Process. Advanced certification in Stillness Moving and Empathic Ground with Dr. Judith Blackstone
◆ Mystical Principles of Healing, Ancestral Healing, and Collective Healing trainings. One in person retreat.10 years of sequential 6 month online trainings with Thomas Hubl.
◆ 1200 hours Yoga Teacher Training, Yoga Therapy Certification, and Advanced trainings. Gary Kraftsow: American Viniyoga Institute
◆ Fully Certified Qigong Instructor with Spring Forest Qigong 5 years Master Chunyi Lin
◆ Yoga for the Special Child, Sonia Somar
◆ Ancestral Healing
◆ Pediatric Yoga Teacher training Yoga Ed
◆ B.S. in Science Education from the University of Minnesota
◆ COTA/L Occupational Therapy Assistant
My father was physician, my mother a nurse. I was immersed in a world of healing. I grew up working in the medical office and exploring the hospital. I began my own professional career teaching Science and substituting grades K-12 for twenty years serving Native American communities in Montana and Oklahoma. Following a divorce I changed direction to pursue Occupational Therapy. I provided care and led groups in Acute Care Rehab, Emotional and Behavioral Health, and Neuro Rehab. I came to specialize in pediatrics and sensory integration. I became proficient in early growth and development, and emotional and physical regulation, using sensory integrative principles and protocols. I was drawn to start my own clinic to provide pediatric Occupational, Physical, and Speech Therapy.
I have been interested in religious and spiritual studies, and practices since I was a child. I loved going to church with my friends. Catholic high mass, Lutheran and Presbyterian, Unitarian Universalist, Episcopalian. They all fascinated and delighted me. My parents were deeply engaged in spiritual studies and practices. I’d listen outside my parents’ library on my tummy, meeting with their friends to tapes from Alan Watts and Krishnamacharya, and many others. I sat at their feet as they discussed books. Zen Master Katagiri Roshi emigrated to the United States from Japan. I remember my excitement to be invited to meditate with the adults in the Zen Center my parents helped establish in Minnespolis/St,Paul. As a teen our family drove to California to stay at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. I met Suzuki Roshi. It was a life changing pivotal interaction for me being seen, heard, met so deeply and lovingly. As an adult on my own I found myself in Montana with no Buddhist practitioners. My best friends were a newly ordained Episcopalian minister and the daughter of an Episcopalian bishop I decided to dive deep in this Christian practice which lasted 20 years.
At a Yoga For The Special Child training I had an intense Kundalini experience. The first of many awakening experiences that changed the course of my life. I had already begun meditating regularly for long periods over a decade before that. I started attending in person meditation retreats. I did not have the inner resources and support I needed. I found myself pursuing Yoga Therapy certification with Gary Kraftsow of the American Viniyoga Institute. He is a lineage holder in the Krishnamacharya line of teachers. As an Occupational Therapist I was drawn to his work because he had studies ongoing with the National Institute of Health showing results with statistical significance of his Yoga system at that time in treating anxiety, stress reduction, and back pain. I dove deeply into Advaita Vedanta, Āyurveda then Kashmir Shaivism, a tantric path, for 18 years.
And yet I needed something I didn’t find in my Yoga training and practice.
I turned to Chinese medicine and Qigong to learn more about the energy I was experiencing following intense kundalini experiences. I trained for 5 years completing certification with a Qigong master from China who received his training at the Shaolin Temple. However, I was later to understand his practices were more for transcendence while I needed grounding and embodiment.
The present Khensur Rinpoche Lobzang Tsetan came to Tulsa for a month every summer. I attended weekend retreats, teaching gatherings and studies of Tibetan Buddhism in the Gelug tradition beginning in 2007. Imagine the wonder studying and practicing in person with the Panchen Lama of Tibet, head monk and teacher of the monastery in Dharamshala.
In 2019 I contracted COVID. This triggered an immune response that intensified into long term COVID. I worked and trained in Qigong and studies of Tao for 2 years with a Chinese Medical Doctor, Joe Chu who specialized in Chinese herbology. He taught me grounding and healing Qigong practices and prescibed herbs. I learned the practices and wisdom that supported energetically the grounding and clearing I needed. My immune activation healed.
Judith Blackstone’s book Trauma and the Unbound Body was released in June of 2019. I read it probably three times that summer. I was hooked.
It seemed to be just the information and practices I needed. That fall I pursued training and practice with Judith Blackstone’s Realization Process to support embodiment of my realizations. They proved over time with consistent practice combined with my movement practices and devotional practice to be the perfect healing and support for embodiment of my awakenings.
The practices I offer combine my experience teaching, providing adult and pediatric Occupational Therapy, Yoga Therapy, Qigong, and Realization Process. It is informed by a spiritual journey to include Mystical Christianity, Zen Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, Kashmir Shaivism, Tibetan Buddhism, non dual teachings from Mukti and Adyashanti of Open Gate Sangha, and Loch Kelly’s Effortless Mindfulness.
The practices and meditations I offer are tailored to your specific needs body, mind and spirit.
About Don
My Experience:
Fully Certified Realization Process Teacher
Stillness Moving and Empathic Ground
Ways I May Be of Support:
+ Offering Grounding in Couples Sessions
+Attunement and Stabilization
I grew up in the countryside, among the hills and trees. Free time finds me in the forests and on or near the water. The calm stillness helps me return to wholeness. Nature feeds and recharges my spirit.
My background includes several years in law enforcement. In that capacity and in my younger years I saw people experience numerous emotional and physical types of trauma. I took the phrase “serve and protect” very seriously. Helping people in trouble was extremely rewarding and satisfying.
I worked as an independent contractor and later owned my own company for several years. In this capacity I trained new people. Courtesy and respect for the people we dealt with was a key part of the training.
Before retirement I completed a successful career as a Senior Oncology Pharmaceutical Representative. I also spent time as a trainer in this area. I felt responsible in my capacity to provide the best information and service for the medical personnel that I interacted with on a daily basis.
These varied experiences have given me the opportunity to see stress, and trauma in numerous areas. I also came to understand how people manage and had difficulty from the effects of stressful and traumatic events.
A course in the Silva Method, a form of meditation, helped me develop mental awareness, focus, and relaxation. In more recent years I have studied under Adyashanti, Mukti, Loch Kelly, Panchen Lama in India, Judith Blackstone and others.
I work with my wife Kristine to help people move forward past trauma into unbound stillness.
I am a fully certified Realization Process teacher. I have also completed training in Stillness Moving and Empathic Ground.
