My Journey
For many years, my body was a stranger to me.
As a child, losing both of my parents shattered my sense of safety. In the difficult years that followed, my system felt shut down. I stopped speaking and didn’t know how to connect with others, let alone with myself.
Reflecting on it now, the best way I can describe it is this: it was as if I had taken a sharp inhale without exhaling.
I stayed braced in that held-breath state for more than two decades.
Engaging with life took immense effort. The strain of pretending everything was fine quietly unraveled my relationships and dulled my ability to feel joy.
I tried talk therapy, but found little relief.
Then, I was introduced to yoga.
The movement felt like a slow thaw from my frozen state.
As sensation returned, I grew curious about who I was and how I had drifted so far from myself.
After seeing the impact yoga had on my life, I felt inspired to share it with others.
I gravitated toward therapeutic styles of yoga, training intensively, collaborating with physical therapists, and learning to support people navigating chronic pain and rehabilitation.
I saw firsthand how our bodies hold the stories of our lives.
I felt drawn to explore the less visible forces shaping those stories—the shadow parts of ourselves we often try to hide.
That curiosity pulled me deeper into shadow work and the psychology of identity, revealing how much of our behavior is driven by what we try so hard not to be.
The deeper I went, the more I noticed a steady undercurrent of anxiety in my body—so familiar it had gone unseen for decades.
Quiet, but unrelenting.
I saw how it had been steering my life from the shadows, shaping my very sense of safety in the world.
Like any shadow, the nervous system relies on familiar patterns to protect us—useful at first, but over time they become barriers to growth, connection, and presence.
I began to approach my nervous system the way I would any shadow: with curiosity, compassion, and a willingness to collaborate.
I learned its language and its protective strategies. Slowly, I found ways to increase my capacity to stay present with what had once been too much to feel.
This work—integrating a sense of identity with felt experience—continues to shape how I live and how I serve.
What I offer others is grounded in over 25 years of personal exploration, professional training, and experience.
In this liminal space, my clients learn to build a more collaborative relationship with their own system.
Training and Study
My work is grounded in a desire to understand the deeper layers of the human experience.
That pursuit first took shape in college, where I received a degree in Social Psychology at San Francisco State University. I was captivated by the ways we form identity: how we adapt, mask, and disconnect to belong.
Around that same time, I encountered the work of Carl Jung, which sparked a personal inquiry into the parts of ourselves we tend to avoid or run away from, also known as the shadow.
That curiosity deepened during my Integral Coaching Certification with New Ventures West, where I was introduced to the integrative frameworks of Ken Wilber. His work offered a map for developmental growth and gave language to what I had long felt:
True transformation requires both awareness and embodiment.
I immersed myself in yoga as a personal practice and a discipline. My training includes:
A certification as an Experienced Yoga Teacher (E-RYT-500),
Specialized certification in Yoga Therapeutics with physical therapist Harvey Deutch
Extensive study in Restorative Yoga under Judith Hanson-Lasater.
Mentorship and training with respected teachers such as Chrisandra Fox-Walker, Sean Haleen, Jason Crandell, Charu Rachlis, Darcy Lyon, and a variety of teachers at the Iyengar Institute in San Francisco.
In parallel, I’ve cultivated a long-term mindfulness practice rooted in Buddhist meditation, supported by teachings from Big Heart City Meditation SF and Spirit Rock, including Rick Hanson, Vinnie Ferraro, and Jack Kornfield.
Today, my learning continues in the terrain of the nervous system and trauma. I’m currently engaged in a three-year training program to become a Somatic Experiencing® practitioner, based on the work of Dr. Peter Levine.
Liminal Space is more than the culmination of what I’ve studied; it’s how I live, and how I continue to show up: with presence, humility, and tools for sustainable evolution.
My approach to teaching reflects this integration—somatic presence, contemplative awareness, and embodied movement into a practice that meets you where you are: real, whole, and ready to explore.
When you’re ready, I’d love to meet you.
“Catherine walked me through the process of stepping into a new version of myself. In her, I found a spiritual sister who was the perfect dose of challenging, honest, funny, relatable, authentic, and real.”
~Brinn L.
My Life
I was raised in San Francisco, CA, but relocated to Sacramento in 2017, where I currently reside. I love the pace of the smaller town, but I won’t be able to stay away from the ocean for too long.
I live with a goofy, furry companion named Luna Bella who micro-manages my every move and makes frequent cameo appearances in my classes.
I enjoy taking improv classes, making jewelry, hiking the beautiful California mountains, kayaking the American River with the rising sun, riding one of my many vintage bikes around town with friends, and seeing live music with my partner and his adorable sons.