Hello, My Name Is Jeevan (she, her & they, them)
Hello! My name is Jeevan (pronounced JEE-vun).
My name Jeevan comes from the Sanskrit जीवन jīvana, meaning life force, or more specifically that which animates every living being. A name that’s fitting, as it speaks to my life’s work - guiding women, trans & gender-diverse babes back into the sanctuaries of their bodies, to reclaim their birthright of aliveness, wholeness and embodiment.
The work I offer locates itself at the intersections of mindfulness-based somatics and mental health, traditional earth-based medicines, personal and collective liberation and the pelvic bowl. I hold a doctorate in and am a lifelong student of traditional East Asian medicine. I concurrently received a masters of integrative mental health and have advanced training in the Hakomi method of mindfulness-based somatic psychotherapy, as well as somatic coaching.
I am honored to support my clients and communities in their movement towards reclaiming pleasure and deep rest, cultivating radical self-compassion and body friendship and remembering that our healing is healing for the collective.
When I’m not working, I love packing my bags to travel the world, as well as pleasure reading, soul connecting and belly laughing with friends and family, walking in natural places, and spending time with my sweet family, which includes my partner, toddler, two cats, two goats, four chickens and our herb-flower garden.
ancestral poem written by me, published in the amazing publication life as ceremony
Commitment to Collective Liberation
I am humbly committed to an anti-racist approach to healing, one that understands that our bodies are shaped within multiple contexts - the contexts of our personal identities, our social locations, our families, our communities, our cultures, larger oppressive systems and institutions, and within the medicine and the wounding of our ancestors and histories. Our sense of safety, well-being and agency is shaped by these contexts. How we relate to one another is shaped by these contexts.
As a queer, round, able-bodied cis-woman descending from South Asian, Indigenous & European ancestry, I arrive to my work with humble appreciation for the complexity of each of our identities.
I am committed to my own personal work around shedding the layers of internalized & externalized white supremacy & patriarchy.
I am committed to being transparent & open in the work we do together, getting to name how our identities show up in the room.
I am committed to practicing responsibility where I hold power & to work in service to empowering & uplifting my clients.
I am committed to the unconditional acceptance of you & me as wholly love-able, lovably “imperfect” human beings, while simultaneously believing in our ability to be accountable, to grow & to positively change.
I am committed to leaning into my ancestors & the Earth as deep resources of support on this journey.
My Training
I hold a Doctorate of Science in Classical Chinese Medicine and Masters of Science in Integrative Mental Health from the National University of Natural Medicine in Portland, Oregon.
The Masters of Integrative Mental Health program at the National University of Natural Medicine is a program for East Asian Medicine and naturopathic practitioners. The program is founded on principles from mindfulness-based Hakomi Somatic Psychotherapy and attachment theory, with a strong emphasis on providing trauma-informed care - all in the context of a natural medicine visit. While I’ve received many hours of learning and practicing counseling skills, I don’t offer “therapy.” However, I do utilize mindfulness-based techniques and body-centered counseling within my scope of practice.
Beyond my masters degree, I have complete professional training in Hakomi through the META Institute and currently through the Hakomi Institute.
I have extensive training in pelvic and abdominal massage. I have had the privilege to study in depth the Arvigo® Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy with Dr. Rosita Arvigo, as well as Chi Nei Tsang (Chinese medical organ healing) and Visceral Manipulation. I have also studied Holistic Pelvic Care™ with its founder Tami Lynn Kent, though at this juncture, I am not practicing internal pelvic floor work.
Lastly, I owe much of my learning to long-time Lakota-German healer, dear friend and mentor Shayne Case, who teaches intuitive healing, stone and flower essence therapy and how to be loving humans.
I am currently deepening my skills of Hakomi Somatic Psychotherapy at the Hakomi Institute, as well as embarking on a year-long mentorship that blends somatic experiencing and 5-element theory for trauma resolution through Tao of Trauma and teacher Alaine Duncan.
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase ‘each other’
doesn’t make any sense.
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.”
