I know what it feels like to stand in front of a classroom full of students while feeling completely empty inside. I’ve felt the weight of giving everything you have to everyone around you — your students, your colleagues, your school — and coming home with nothing left for yourself. Teaching can be one of the loneliest professions in the world, not because you’re ever truly alone, but because you’re surrounded by people who don’t always see you.

For years, I searched for something I couldn’t quite name. I tried to push through the exhaustion, ignore the disconnection, and convince myself that burnout was just part of the job. But deep down, I knew something was missing — a connection to something greater than lesson plans and grading rubrics. I needed to reconnect with my own soul, and I had no idea where to begin.

Nature found me when I needed it most. The moment I stepped into the forest and truly slowed down, something shifted. The trees didn’t need anything from me. The earth held me without asking me to perform. For the first time in a long time, I remembered who I was before the overwhelm took over — and I knew I had to share this with every teacher who was quietly drowning the way I had been.

Today, I guide teachers back to themselves through the healing practice of forest bathing. My work is built on the belief that you cannot pour from an empty cup, and that nature is the most powerful resource we’ve never been taught to use. Through intentional time in the natural world, I help teachers release burnout, dissolve isolation, and restore the energy and purpose that brought them to teaching in the first place.
If you’ve ever felt like you were disappearing inside your own career, you are not broken — you are depleted. And there is a way back. I’m here to walk that path with you.

That experience sent me on a path of deep study, practice, and certification. I trained as a Registered Yoga Teacher under the guidance of Robert Bob Butera, PhD at the YogaLife Institute, where I learned to honor the body as a sacred instrument of healing. I became a Certified Forest Bathing Guide through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy, one of the most respected organizations in the world for this work. I pursued Energy Healing and Reiki training through Ahimsa Yog in Chicago, deepening my ability to support the energetic restoration that burned-out bodies so desperately need.

From all of this — the pain, the practice, and the healing — the Forestia Protocol™ was born.