About Me

1984     Rock Port (MO) High School. Valedictorian

1988     (Cum Laude)  Missouri Western State College, St. Joseph, MO. BA Engligh

1993     University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. JD

1997     BMSI Institute, Overland Park, KS

I grew up in rural northwest Missouri, where my parents owned a general merchandise store in a very small town that catered to the farmers and townsfolk. I was the baby, and all four of us lived in the back of the store when I was very small.

The summer I was 11, my parents sold the store. We traveled frequently in the motorhome. I was blessed to be in a small school where I could do, well, everything. Except band. I did play the piano for chorus; participated in every athletic season (Title IX baby); lifeguarded; and excelled academically. I loved problem solving. Mom was super protective. Dad was 44, and she was 40 when I was born; they had already lost a son in the late 50s.  Their second son was born very early 50s and me in the mid-60s.  I watched my parents become old people as I was becoming an adult.

Going into the world created many challenges I wasn't ready for, but through it all, I became editor of the college newspaper and continued to excel academically. I graduated with 2 emphases and 2 minors, becoming one of the first music minors to graduate MWSC.

Upon graduation, I landed a job as a proposal/marketing coordinator at an engineering firm in Kansas City. After about 21 months, I applied for and was accepted to law school. Why not? My brother had been. Well, until he wasn't. Turns out, I didn't have enough interest to know whether I had aptitude for the law. What I did learn, though, is that I was more interested in helping the person than helping with the person's stuff.

It was while I was fiddling with law practice that a woman explained how much better she got after a car wreck with the combination of massage and chiropractic than chiropractic alone. OK, I was interested. Circumstances came that I accompanied her for a treatment and she and the therapist invited me in to watch. As I sat in the chair taking it in, I had the sensation of a lightbulb going on over my head. (Yes, exactly like in the cartoons!) A few weeks later, I got my first massage.

Then my dad died.

Then I went, hunting for a massage school. Then I was in massage school, taking lots of classes -- sometimes out of order, sometimes combining some that should have been sequential. Turns out, I had a talent.

I started in Lenexa at New Life Wellness in 1998, working with a man who was suddenly short-handed and needed a female therapist. Turns out, people liked the work I was doing. I could make a living! Moreover, when I found Dale Alexander in 2010 and began utilizing his teachings, clients got even better and my practice continued to grow. 

I opened my first shoppe in Shawnee in 2012. Then life happened, and I moved to Florida, where I got to learn and teach and yoga and practice and connect and tons more things to create a better me and a better practitioner. I have practiced in Merriam now since late 2018. The work evolves. My teachers learn more. My peers learn more. I learn more. And we share. And we consult. And, as in the beginning, I am still more interested in helping the person.