Hi, I’m Diana—

Over the past 20 years, I’ve stepped into many different roles. I’ve been a second grade teacher, a Spanish teacher, an Etsy shop owner, and a photographer. I also lived in Haiti during the 2010 earthquake, where I helped manage a prosthetics lab and started a sewing business employing twenty amputee women whom society had deemed “unemployable.” Those women taught me far more than I ever taught them. While I taught them to sew, they taught me about joy, resilience, and community. It remains one of the most meaningful experiences of my life—witnessing how profoundly people can transform through connection and empowerment, even in the face of extreme trauma.

When I returned to the U.S., my life took a difficult turn. I began experiencing chronic anxiety, pain, fatigue, insomnia, and brain fog. I was diagnosed with Lyme disease, which felt frightening and only increased my anxiety. I felt overwhelmed and lost, searching for answers everywhere while also feeling like there were none. My life became centered around trying to fix my body—finding the right doctors, changing my diet, and avoiding triggers. My world was becoming smaller and smaller, and I felt like I was completely losing myself.

One of the gifts of being a recovering perfectionist is truly knowing when you’ve exhausted all your options. I had tried everything, and nothing was working. Symptoms would increase or decrease in intensity at times, but they were always there. It was at this point of desperation that God led me to a different path towards mental health— one that taught me to listen to the cues of my body, pay attention to what I truly needed, and regulate my nervous system. Through counseling and lots of research, I began to see the connection between the mind and body, and the neuroscience behind my pain and other symptoms. I came to understand that, under the right conditions, the body is designed to heal, but a system stuck in fight-or-flight will always prioritize survival over recovery. No amount of discipline or “doing all the right things” can override a dysregulated nervous system when the body is still trying to be heard.

I also began to understand how unprocessed emotions don’t disappear—they show up in the body. I realized how much of my own story and emotions I had been repressing, often by staying focused on helping others. Through the support and care of several counselors, I slowly began to heal from the inside out and reconnect with myself, God, and others in a new way. Not only this, I was healed of every chronic physical symptom, even those attributed to Lyme’s. My joy for life returned, and I began to feel like myself again.

This journey sparked a passion for mental health. I went on to create a social-emotional learning curriculum for children, which I taught in a local elementary school for several years. Eventually, I felt called to become a counselor, and I continue to experience it as a gift and privilege to do this work.

My time in Haiti and my own healing journey have deeply shaped how I see people—their pain, their resilience, and the importance of creating spaces where they can feel safe enough to be fully themselves. I understand how life experiences don’t just stay in the mind— they live in the body, in relationships, and in our very sense of self. And I’ve come to deeply believe that we were never meant to navigate life alone.

As you read through my site, you may notice words like attachment, nervous system regulation, or somatic work. Simply put, my goal is to create a space where you feel safe enough to connect with your emotions, listen to your body, and begin to feel more like yourself again.