Ancient wisdom teaches that life began with sound, carrying a truth that resonates through all existence. Through our stories, our voices, and our practices, we remember, return, heal, and walk the path toward our destiny. This is my story - a journey shaped by tradition, nourished by life, and unfolding through presence. 

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It all begins atop the "Montagne Noire" (Black Mountain), where my family comes from. I was born in Occitanie, a region of winds, stone, and forests in southwestern France - a land rich in history where the Cathars' spirit lives on and folk medicine has been practiced for generations. My family is of a lineage of traditional healers known as "fire cutters", or in French, "coupeurs de feu", or "faisuers de secrets". This ancient spiritual method can help relieve burns and other ailments, such as shingles. These practices were common, discreet, passed down, and deeply woven into the fabric of local life.

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As a teenager, I developed an illness that gradually affected my vision. While our spiritual methods could not directly reverse the physical condition, they revealed something essential: healing is a mystery extending beyond the body and what the mind can grasp. It follows natural universal laws that cannot be controlled. Healing is a journey we walk hand in hand with our Self, an ongoing process of integration that unfolds in its own time and in its own way. Healing is not the absence of illness. Illness itself is a natural part of life's journey. It can become a companion, teaching us to meet challenges with honesty, listen more deeply, and discover the truth of what we are. From that awareness, we can grow, live fully, and flourish through whatever life brings. This understanding became the foundation for my life and exploration of meditation, which eventually led me to Reiki.

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In my early twenties, after several recurrences of vision loss, I noticed a pattern: each recurrence coincided with significant periods of emotional crisis in my life. It was then that I committed to remaining attentive to stress, tending to my own needs and rhythms. I experienced for the first time the profound connection between mind and body, discovering the importance of mindfulness, compassion, and navigating life from a place of deep listening and reflective care.  With this realization, I found my healing path. The illness stopped progressing, leaving scars I had to learn to live with. They became part of my story.

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A few years later, I met my husband in Asia, where we lived and worked for several years, immersed in cultures that offered new perspectives, rich experiences, and opportunities. Immersed in new cultures, my attention turned outward, widening my understanding of how people live, adapt, make meaning, and express themselves. I grew increasingly drawn to Asian arts and philosophy, especially their emphasis on balance and harmony with the natural flow of life, which echoed what I had begun discovering within myself.

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After moving to Chicago, raising our children, and navigating their special needs, I found myself once again overwhelmed by stress—feeling alone, powerless, lost, and hopeless. It was at that moment that I remembered and returned to meditation, a path that led me in 2008 to my first Reiki teacher, Ramaa Krishnan, and a lively circle of her students. For seven years, our weekly gatherings, sharing our stories and supporting one another, nurtured not only my spirit and practice but also deep friendship and soul companionship. It was here that I realized another profound truth: community itself can be medicine, a source of healing, resilience, and connection that lasts long after the class ends.

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As I deepened my own self-care and self-discovery, I also began practicing Reiki with my 9-year-old, who was struggling with severe anxieties and sleep difficulties. In 2012, after completing all my Reiki trainings, my teacher invited a few of her students to offer Reiki professionally at her studio. Initially, I declined: Reiki had been a personal practice for me, not a profession. But her simple guidance, “If a client contacts us and you are available and open, you can decide,” made it feel manageable, given my family's needs. This was my first step into community work and the beginning of my journey as a Reiki Professional Practitioner, leading to the launch of  Moonstone Sanctuary. Teaching unfolded just as organically. Some time later, a young, terminally ill client asked to learn Reiki with her family. Though hesitant, I could not refuse. Saying yes opened a new chapter, allowing me to embrace the role of a Reiki Teacher and support families, communities, including my own.

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This path led me, over the years, to offer Reiki in a wide range of settings: volunteering with cancer patients at Elmhurst Memorial Hospital in Western Chicago and the Cancer Wellness Center in Northbrook; participating in the Reiki Brigade throughout various Chicago communities—including the police department and organizations supporting non-violence; and offering sessions at The Mather, a senior living community.  I  have also practiced and taught Reiki in several yoga studios, creating opportunities to support clients and students both in groups and privately. These experiences have deepened my understanding of Reiki and its capacity to help individuals, families, and communities navigate various life challenges. They have also inspired me to create programs tailored to the needs of those I meet along the way, while continuing to grow as a practitioner, a person, and a mom.

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In 2016, I began studying with Frans Stiene to immerse myself more fully in the Japanese way of Reiki. Visits to Japan in 2018 and 2019, along with my involvement with the Japanese Culture Center in Chicago, deepened my appreciation for the cultural, spiritual, and aesthetic roots of this practice. This exploration naturally expanded into related disciplines such as Shodo (Japanese calligraphy), mindfulness, and Zen, each reminding me of our profound interconnectedness with all life.

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Today, Reiki has become less something "I do”, but something "I become". Practice and daily life flow together, informing and shaping one another as a single, continuous movement. What began as self-care has evolved into a way of being in the world. I offer Reiki so we may remember our natural wholeness, our belonging, our humanity, and awaken to the boundless potential that lives in the quiet space between all things. Presence is the real medicine —everything arises from it. ​May we each walk our chosen path with sincerity, compassion, and freedom for the benefit of all.