I was born in Flushing, NY and raised in Ridgewood, NJ since I was 3.  I went to Ramapo College of NJ and graduated with a BA in Psychology.  After graduating, I moved to NYC, the BIG APPLE to start my life!  I feel very blessed that I got to live and enjoy the "city life" working in the corporate world of HR doing benefits and compensation.  But the hustle and bustle and the fast paced life of living in the city wore me down after living there for a decade.  I wasn't happy or committed to my career either.  After switching companies a few times and still feeling unhappy, I started to think about what I could do with my life.  I wanted to do something that I enjoyed.  Something I could feel passionate about. 

I've always had a interest in and liked cooking and baking since I was a little girl.  My dream as a kid was to open up a bakery.   I also grew up with a mom who is very good at cooking but is also very spiritual.  She's always been open to learning about different religions and always listened to anyone who would talk to her about their beliefs.  She also took a class in the 90s for a healing technique called Seimei.  Back then spirituality, meditation, energy work was still not as well accepted but she wanted to learn it and so she did.  She would work on my father, sister and myself to practice and eventually started working on people around her.  She then urged me to take the course as well when I was in college and so I did.  This is where my journey as a healer started but not knowing myself well, I didn't get far with it.

​

So I racked my brain about my options.  I consulted with my sister and came to the conclusion that although culinary school would be a lot of fun, but realistically, especially living in the tri-state area and the competition in this field, it could be a pretty hard career.  So I decided to keep cooking/baking as a hobby that I can do for fun.  Although I wasn't sure if I would actually like massage, I took a leap of faith and enrolled in the Institute for Therapeutic Massage.  After graduating, I had the opportunity to work for the Atlantic Health hospitals (Morristown, Overlook and Chilton Medical Centers) as an Integrative Medicine Practitioner.  I worked in Mother Baby massaging mommies who just gave birth.  At the Valerie center, I worked on children with cancer or blood disorders, their parents and caregivers, and the wonderful doctors and nurses who worked hard to take care of them.  I also worked on the inpatient floors as well as at their Chambers Center for Wellbeing. I took great joy in being able to work on many patients/caregivers/staff/clients to help them ease their pain as well as support them emotionally.  After my girls were born, I did go back to the hospital but decided it was a bit of a commute and have been working privately under my own business, a lil peace! Here I am now, 10+ years later after deciding to change careers, enjoying and LOVING what I do!  I definitely made the right decision!  And I still bake & cook for merriment on my free time!