As a child, I was never afraid of the dark energy. From a young age, I could feel the light and dark energy emanating from other people and in a room, and I accepted this as a natural part of life. I remember challenging those dark feelings, telling them they could not hurt me! Without knowing what I would become, I was already a spiritual warrior. My younger sister used to run to my bed at night for comfort, knowing that the dark spiritual energy that terrified her didn’t faze me. She always fell peacefully asleep, and I was happy to be a channel of light in her life.

No one in my family understood or helped me cultivate my gifts, but my compassion found expression in the realm of physical healing. At 12, I decided to become a nurse. With my mother’s encouragement, I volunteered as a candy-striper at Albert Einstein Hospital in the Bronx. After two weeks of bringing water and flowers to patients, the nurses sent me to the Pediatric ICU where heroin-addicted babies lay in incubators. I remember how frightened I was that first day, not knowing how to pick up or feed such sick babies, but I didn’t hold back, and the babies relaxed in my arms. That experience taught me that I was supposed to spend my life helping people.

My childhood was the foundation for my work in addictions and grief counseling. I learned that the energy of love is able to release and unloose the dark hold of fear, guilt, and shame. Even though I didn’t have a spiritual mentor, life itself helped me hone my gifts  |READ MORE|