Coaching and Guidance for Singles, Couples & Clinicians
How I Work
I see beneath the surface of what is happening in your life, to the underlying patterns that are creating your experiences as an individual or couple. With penetrating questions, I hold a space of deep inquiry for you to explore. Together, we’ll excavate the layers that obscure the hearing of your innermost voice, and draw it to the surface so it can become your living guide and expression. Attention, curiosity and approval are my tools. Providing full permission for every aspect of your being, I’ll help you to discover the wisdom inside of your painful, shamed or unintegrated parts. Intimacy, desire, and wake up are my speciality. I’ll teach you to cultivate the power needed to open the depth of freedom, insight and aliveness you desire. My own lived practice and training in buddhist psychology and the erotic informs the perspectives and teachings I share, alongside of the trauma integration modalities of Internal Family Systems and Somatic Experiencing. This is not theoretical work - it’s about embodiment, so it takes commitment to yourself and the process. I’ll challenge you, sharing my insight, while respecting your pace and boundaries. In between sessions, exercises support you in further exploring and integrating your growth. Sessions are $250/hour, with a sliding scale freely available for those who need it.
Areas of Expertise
Self acceptance & releasing shame
Trauma-informed nervous system regulation
Healing and liberating long stuck habits and fears
Cultivating awareness, self knowledge and embodied insight
Codependency, boundaries & expansive relating
Sex, aliveness, and midlife erotic reawakening
Integrating the spiritual and erotic
Attuning to & trusting desire
“My whole being and life have profoundly blossomed from working with Justine. I've had many mentors but Justine has been the most influential- I've been able to discuss every aspect of my life with her from creativity, love, eroticism, work, and Dharma...and I've always been met with her playfulness, spontaneity, humour, and radical openness to explore the depths of each of these and see the ways they are all connected. I trust her wholeheartedly and feel so much more truthful and intimate with myself, my world and others. This woman has changed my life and I am so fortunate to have found someone who will meet me where I am, and still challenge me to open to life's currents and ebbs and flows....and reflect me back to myself in a way I so deeply have desired.”
-Rachana Kshirsagar
“I have worked with a few therapists, am one myself and Justine is the person I go to when I can't do it on my own. I have known Justine for several years, and seen her throughout my fertility journey, relationship struggles, a challenging birth, first-time motherhood challenges, healing from chronic pain, and transitioning from chronic fatigue to wellness. What starts out as a problem or pain most often, by the end of the session, seems like an opportunity. I leave the session feeling blissful and confident to handle whatever I need to around what I brought to work on. When I reflect on my sessions, what stands out the most is the remarkable shift from beginning to end.
I feel well-supported, safe, and confident that no issue is too difficult. With her guidance, I work through my challenges and as a result have experienced deep and subtle change, as well as some monumental paradigm shifts dissolving long held patterns in my body and thinking and as a result my body is happier, my mind clearer and my relationship the strongest it has ever been.
I appreciate Justine's range, how much she knows about so many topics and her comfort level with traversing them. In my experience, her approach is masterful.
Justine leaves me feeling loved and accepted, no matter what I bring to a session. That has been deeply transformative, serving as an anchor I refer to outside of our sessions. I ask myself, "How would Justine respond to this part of me?" I recall her tone, facial expressions, body language, and welcoming presence. This has taught me to extend the same love, gentle inquiry and acceptance towards myself.
I am deeply grateful for her support. I highly recommend Justine to anyone seeking healing, a thinking partner to work through challenging thoughts or situations, or a guide who is likely a few steps ahead who will unassumingly support you to where it is you want to get to.”
- Prem Kalpa-Young, Individual and Couples Therapist
“I’ve had a life-long desire to be perfect. I’ve been through conventional therapy, trained in yoga philosophy, studied Zen Buddhism with monastic training, and it wasn’t until I came to Justine that I found a place of introspection that allows for everything to be present and accepted (the good, the bad, the ugly, the sad, the resentful). With Justine, I found out that desire is not a four-letter word. Instead, it is the way the universe speaks to me, and calls me to share my gifts and talents, to become the beautiful perfectly messy being I truly am. Working with Justine’s quality of nurturing that blends hard truths with unconditional compassion, I don’t get lost in techniques or tools. Instead, Justine gives real-world practices for everyday life that are directly applicable to my own individual situation. It feels like Justine meets me where I am, and then points to where I deep down know I want to be. While it hasn’t been easy, it has been the most rewarding work I’ve done.”
-Beth H.
“Having spent years working with teachers and coaches who had a very intense and sometimes harsh approach, Justine’s compassionate and gentle method was a refreshing and much needed medicine for my heart and soul.
Justine’s approval and curiosity for the good, bad and the ugly gave me the space to finally be able to turn toward parts of myself that I’d previously shunned. I was able to heal from deep childhood wounds that were activated through multiple relationship endings and painful life events, I shed ways of being that were keeping me from having what I want, and opened to a lighter, softer, more open-hearted version of myself.
I am forever grateful for Justine’s support, wisdom and skill in holding deeply transformative space. And I highly recommend her work for anyone who is ready for a gentle healing experience that will forever change their life for the better.”
-J.M.
COUPLES
Is sex good, but you want to experience more of what’s possible in you or your partner? Are you wanting to explore a new form of relating and aren’t sure where to begin? Or have you reached an impasse in your relationship, feeling unheard and unseen, and long for an experience of greater understanding? In real time, I help elucidate the patterns that are preventing the deepest intimacy between you. Together, we’ll draw out the truth, desires and expectations that need to be expressed and heard for your connection to thrive. Through dialog, insight and practical exercises you’ll discover your partner (and yourself) in a whole new way. All relationship forms and sexual orientations are welcome.
SINGLES
Do you sense there is more to life than what you’re living? Are you struggling with connection, confidence, sex, or self-expression? Or have you excelled in other areas of your life, while intimacy has gone lacking? These were all true for me, and I know more is possible. With my warm support, you’ll learn to convert fear, anxiety or disconnection into aliveness. We’ll explore the underlying patterns that have been driving you and develop new pathways to insight & fulfillment. You’ll develop the capacity to get out of your head and into your body, more deeply and confidently inhabiting yourself in all regards. Through growing your visceral knowing, your confidence and capacity for connection will expand. Play, joy and aliveness are the result.
CLINICIANS
As a coach, guide or mindfulness teacher, have you been trained in ideas that remain theoretical? Do you feel out of range when it comes to your clients’ challenges with sex, desire, and taboo? Or do you simply wish to deepen your own personal understanding of the erotic? In one-on-one or group consulting sessions, expand your skills, while deepening your own insights and practice. Receive guidance on how to work in a more penetrating and nuanced way. Review your client cases and gain confidential support to serve each person with embodied confidence.
"Justine came into my life at a time when I was so fearful of my own desires, I couldn't even recognize them. Her intuitive guidance and compassionate heart continues to open all the windows and doors of my own desire allowing the light to flow in and the joy to flow out. I am learning that it is safe to feel pleasure and that it continues to be one of the many reasons that we were born embodied. I am an entirely different person for the better since Justine and I have been working one on one. She is a guide to me and her soft guidance and supportive presence continues to give my strength long after our sessions together."
-Naomi Matlow
“Justine provides a safe place for me to explore my relationship with the erotic. I can be completely open about what is coming up for me, knowing I won't be judged, but encouraged and supported. She points me in a direction to find my own way. So I simultaneously receive great guidance AND a deepening ability & confidence in my own inner knowing. I appreciate her experience and wisdom. It is very apparent that she has already explored the path that is ahead of me."
-Jayme Dill
“I’ve been working with Justine on and off for almost ten years. I love working with her for so many reasons. She’s deeply compassionate, has a generosity of spirit, and yet she’s got a sharp bullshit meter. She lovingly keeps me on my toes, puts me to task, laughs with me in the tight spots which softens my rigidity and helps me to open more fully, and she inspires me to reach new heights of growth, self-inquiry and exploration. Her ability to be deeply present in the moment is rare. Her reflections always feel true and never forced. She’s perceptive and skillful, thoughtful and clear. I’m so glad to know her. My life, my relationships and my health are more full & grounded, more alive & expansive when working with her.”
Jennifer G.