I clearly remember that as a child I liked to stare at the sky trying to see deeper, clearer and higher into the firmament, as the bible called it. Also, in those days my grandmother was my primary caregiver. If I were to describe her indomitable spirit, innovativeness and humor the readers of this biography would burst into raucous laughter. Nothing stopped her, including my grandfather. She knew how to start a fire from wet wood and what bush was good for what ailment. She gave birth to about fifteen children to include three sets of twins. She lived to witness the transition of a few of them including my mother, before her own body was interred. This short stocky woman was a self made village nurse who the health officials had to recognize. One day she dryly commented that she did not like my hands after she evaluated wound care I performed on a local gentleman in her absence.
It was not to the fault of my hands, it was the man's debilitated physical condition that impacted his wound status. Something about her comment felt like a wound; because until then I was secure in that place saved for me as her good helper. I was still allowed to work with her though and beyond that, today, I use these same hands that seem to work quite well.
It was the headmaster of my elementary school that gave my mother the 'heads up' imploring her to reconsider changing my school from the public school to an untested, but Christian academic program that was about to start in Bethel village, Tobago. She did not heed his advice as she represented a different state of mind from the traumatized unwed teen mom of about five years prior. My grandmother, however, made good on that desire for Christian education when she arranged for me to attend a respected Christian secondary school. I am grateful for that. The teachers, with a few exceptions, were very good and the curriculum strongly academic. That calibre schooling helped to ease my transition into college life here in the USA where I endeavored to study to become a business attorney.
My uncle redirected my pursuits to nursing for interim economic reasons. I did not change this; it felt right and intriguing at some level. Moreover, I vaguely recalled my mother suggesting that I become a nurse when I grow up. As well, I had already apprenticed under a very powerful one, my grandmother.
I graduated nursing school in 1974 and went on to earn a BSN from Medgar Evers college in Brooklyn. Later, with an interest in becoming a cardiovascular nurse practitioner, I enrolled in the Nurse Practitioner program at Pace University in Pleasantville, NY.
I graduated as a Family Nurse Practitioner, and received ANCC certification in this field. My grandmother would have been so proud of me with these credentials and my scope of practice. It is true that a Family nurse practitioner requires a deeper level of education, skill and expertise than that engaged by a registered nurse. However, the scope of the registered nurse is by no means mundane. I continue to draw on those clinical experiences even now. My life as a practitioner has been shaped by many defining experiences with luminaries in the field. During my years as a registered nurse, I perused various herbal, metaphysical and theoretical material. Ayurveda stood out and my initial meeting with Dr. Lad, a foremost teacher in the field, strengthened its attraction for me. In addition, Polarity therapy and the works of Randolph STONE D.O., drew my attention more and more to which end I completed the two year course of cranial therapy and the energetic body with Roger Gilchrist. Advanced study in biodynamic cranial therapy was engaged with various other outstanding teachers. I had the good fortune to study at the Karuna Institute, England with Franklin Sills and his wife Maura, who taught The Foundation course in CORE PROCESS Psychotherapy. Principally, my first craniosacral experience was with Katherine Ukleja D.O., RSCT. Talk about a first trip! Dearborn, Michigan! What occurred in that session set the pace of and for my life forever. Being taught by Jaap van der Wal MD, Embryologist extraordinaire, morphologist and anatomist from the university of Maastricht, Holland has brought me to a place of deeper awareness and contact. For all these and more, I am grateful.
Over time an expansion in consciousness shifted my concept of religion and spirituality away from that which my mother and grandmother taught me. I chose to walk through the doors and halls of the science of mind, anthroposophy and other 'lines and precepts' that I find clarifying. This has opened up for me a grand way of contacting myself and the world. It can only get better. Engaging a healthcare practice from this place feels like dharma.