The professional stuff

• Master’s in Contemplative Psychotherapy and Buddhist Psychology from Naropa University (2019)

• Mental Health Counselor Limited Permit License in NYS

• Certified Indigenous Focusing-Oriented Trauma Therapy practitioner

• 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher training from Mysore, India

• Herstory Memoir Writing Facilitator

The witchy stuff

My studies have led me into natural medicines, spiritual, decolonial, Indigenous, alternative, non-Western, and somatic healing modalities.

I am a long-time meditator (17+ years) and Buddhist practitioner.

My given Buddhist name is The Embodiment of Love, later mirrored through my Human Design as a Manifesting Generator with the Right Angle Cross of the Vessel of Love.

Love is my compass, and I move through the world with a deep devotion to service and healing.

I learned in my early 20s that my great-grandmothers were the curandera and bruja of their town. This confirmed something I had felt since I was a child. Though their teachings were not passed down directly, I am re-membering their magic in the ways it comes through me.

To me being a witch means being connected to the medicine of nature, the power of of words (spells), the magic in rituals and ceremonies, the interconnectedness of gathering in community. It means reclaiming being a sensitive, intuitive, creator of a woman. It means deconstructing and unlearning what I’ve learned through colonized Christianity about life and God.

I believe life is complex and there is a great mystery beyond our human understanding. Everyone has unique causes and conditions that lead to their beliefs and I respect and honor everyone’s journey. My life conditions have led me to believe in a power greater than myself, a Grace and unconditional love which I connect to as God. I am in service to this Grace and God is my boss.

The identity stuff

I am a second-generation immigrant from Quisqueya. I live with the racial complexity of coming from a colonized land. I honor the complexity of being white presenting and I identity as a Person of Color. My ancestors include Taíno, African, Spanish, Turkish, and likely more.

I am queer as in lover of all bodies. I am a cis woman. I am neurodivergent. I was born and raised in New York City.

All my life I have been a misfit, weird, in betweener (“ni de aqui, ni de alla”) highly sensitive person.

I have never been able to function at the pace of cultural norms.

I feel deeply, and I feel others deeply. What once felt like a burden has become my greatest gift. It has led me to follow the beat of my own drum and carve unconventional paths for myself.

Though challenging, these paths have brought me to a deeply rich and meaningful life.

The lived stuff

I have been reborn many times in this life.

My name itself is a name of rebirth—Rysse, like Still I Rise.

I am a mold survivor, a complex trauma survivor, and a recovering addict in 12-Step Recovery.

I self-published a poetry book called Undoingthat explores my healing journey through intergenerational trauma, heartbreak, identity, and mold contamination.

Throughout my journey, I have listened to the call from the depths of my gut, gathering my intuitions, gifts, and lived experiences.

I have called it many things before—healer, transformational coach, light being, poet, sacred space holder.

All of these names are pointing to something bigger than me.

I am on a path of liberation for all beings.