Team | Mentors
Karen spent 10 years teaching academic reading, writing, and critical thinking for international students in American universities. But her true love was to find integrative approaches to facilitate the experience of feeling more fully alive. Since 2004, her training included various therapeutic bodywork modalities and mindfulness practices and then expanded to include Somatic Experiencing®, Touch Skills for Trauma Therapists, NeuroAffective Touch®, and now Organic Intelligence®.
Karen maintains a private practice in Orange County, California, working primarily with adults. She specializes in working with the dysregulated nervous system patterns underlying chronic pain and other syndromes. She collaborates extensively with mental health professionals, providing touch therapy for their clients with a history of early dysregulation.
and the joy will burn out the pain.
Dr. Heather Berberet is a San Diego Psychologist specializing in couples therapy and a Mentor in the OI HEARTraining®. When not working with adults, couples and adolescents in her private practice, she is mothering her daughter, loving her wife, and watching Doctor Who (and Star Trek, and Star Wars, and anything sci-if/geeky, really). In addition, she can found in the morning and evening walking her three dogs, trying to see the world for what it really is and enjoying the view.
Michelle Borok, LM CPM is a mentor with the Berkeley HEARTraining®. She is a California Licensed Homebirth Midwife, and holds a B.A. in Social Welfare from U.C. Berkeley. She has studied Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, working with both adults and newborns. She is currently completing the San Francisco HEARTraining and the Organic Intelligence® OI Expert Master Class Program with Steve Hoskinson and Sean Feit Oakes.
Michelle has a special interest in Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and weaves its principles into her beloved midwifery practice. She has taught many classes and original workshops, including Female Sexuality at U.C. Berkeley, and Legacies of Medical Racism and Transgender Competency for Healthcare Providers at Maternidad La Luz Midwifery School. She has been a mindfulness and insight meditation student for the last 12 years, studying and meditating with some of the most extraordinary Buddhist teachers of our time.
Michelle co-parents her amazing goddaughter and finds parenting and communing with nature to be her most devotional and resourcing practices.
Berkley practices nervous system support in the Organic Intelligence® tradition and is an OI Expert and Mentor.
Since then, alongside his private practice, he has played sax and percussion in funk bands, facilitated drum circles and samba bands in schools and the local community and currently plays in a New Orleans-style brass band. He lives with his wife and teenage daughters in the west of Ireland.
Andrew has a daily sitting practice which he regards as indispensable for both his personal well-being and his professional practice.
In his one-to-one and group work, Andrew draws upon a deep trust in the power of attuned presence, laughter and the embodied wisdom of the organism. There is an invitation for connection and coherence to arise as a precondition for the processing of discomfort and disregulation; a dance of attunement between persons and organisms.
Andrew feels deeply privileged and fortunate to be engaged in this work.
we come out of it...
The practice of meditation has changed how Robin views herself and others and allowed the changes she has experienced through OI to become trait changes, rather than passing state changes. Robin continues to study with teachers who emphasize the path to awakening that includes cultivating a joyful mind including Kittisaro, Leigh Brasington, Rev. angel Kyodo Williams, Thanissara, and Guy Armstrong. These teachers have opened the doors for the fullness of kindness and compassion in meditation, with clients, and in moment-to-moment living. Robin has found this to be the foundation from which true healing and awakening can arise.
Today, Robin is exploring how to restore physiological, spiritual, and psychological resiliency through the natural interweaving of Organic Intelligence® and meditation. Through her Meditation Teacher Training program and her time studying OI with Steve, Robin has been discovering the natural ways that OI’s understanding of going “beyond trauma” goes hand in hand with deep spiritual teachings and practice. Both teachings bring the understanding that joy is a part of the path to the deep spirituality and interconnection that is ours by nature.
Link to Robin's OI Blog Post
Eve’s practice began in 2001, and it includes training in various bodywork modalities and somatic approaches, is influenced and guided by the principles and teachings of Organic Intelligence®. She continues to remain curious, interested and inspired by her work.
She has been practicing Bikram Yoga since 2009. The mindfulness, focus, and discipline that practice offers have rippled through her studies and work. Additionally, she has studied and practiced various forms of seated and moving meditation which all influence her awareness, presence, and way of life.
and the seeds of the being.
Dana Duclo, EdS, MHS, has completed the three year OI HEARTraining®, is a member of the OI Expert training and is an OI Mentor in Tucson, AZ.
Dana is the founder of Inner Rhythm Consulting, LLC, where she teaches Heart Rhythm Meditation® and Organic Intelligence® embodied approaches to trauma and stress resolution that help clients restore a sense of inner rhythm and connect to the innate wisdom, aliveness, and coherence within. Dana is passionate about helping people discover they can live vibrantly and easefully beyond the effects of stress and trauma, offering nervous system education and compassionate support to children, adolescents, and adults.
Dana holds an EdS degree in Educational Psychology and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. She is a certified School Psychologist with over 20 years of experience in the education system as a psychologist, counselor, and educator. Dana is also a certified meditation teacher and faculty member at the Institute for Applied Meditation, where she has practiced and taught meditation for 12 years.
one must seek that rhythm
which is in the depth of our being.
Kevin is passionate about Organic Intelligence® and Craniosacral Therapy — independently and in concert with each other — and the many benefits these subtle yet powerful modalities offer in support of health and well-being. He is deeply grateful to be doing this work, and to his clients, teachers, and mentors. Using techniques and practices from both the Biomechanical and the Biodynamic approaches to Craniosacral Therapy, Kevin’s treatments include gentle work with structural alignment, the ebb and flow of cerebral spinal fluid, the movement of muscles and connective tissue, and restoring balance to the fundamental fascial structures of the body. Craniosacral sessions can be deeply grounding, and offer physical unwinding, emotional release, and improved energetic flow. In Nervous System Regulation sessions, Kevin supports an understanding of the nervous system state, and shepherds observable physio-emotional states using techniques from the Organic Intelligence protocol (which includes elements from the wisdom of mindfulness and is based on the science of self-organization).
In this way, healing happens from the nervous system up and leads to a more vibrant life in the present moment.
After 10 years of working as a Psychotherapist with the severely mentally ill in a variety of settings she was introduced to Somatic Experiencing® during a workshop. Almost immediately she sensed significant change in her system and entered the SE™ training.
Another 10 years later, having established a private practice based on somatic approaches, Organic Intelligence invites further expansion into her relationship with herself, her work and the world.
Maggie is a mother, a grandmother and a dual citizen of the United States and Ireland. Her life — much of it lived abroad — has been an effort to bridge different cultures and eras to find her ground amidst breathtaking change. While the kind of community and connection she knew as a child in a rural Irish hinterland no longer exists, she has found a sense of connection and grounding within herself, through the deep experience of her own body.
Her work aims to open this capacity for others who navigate their own losses and longings, to help bring them home to themselves in the natural world of their own physiology.
graceful in the low.
Ceci McDonnell, LISW, MSSA, SEP, OIX is a Mentor at Organic Intelligence. She holds a Masters Degree in Social Work from Case Western University in Cleveland Ohio, where she teaches as an Adjunct Faculty member.
For the last thirty years she has worked in State Psychiatric Hospitals, Residential Treatment Centers for children age 4-13 and their families. She has offered in-home services and worked extensively with adolescents and women. She has had the privilege to facilitate Women’s Circles internationally exploring the Divine Feminine.
Her Masters Program was steeped in Systems Theory, applied at both the Micro and Macro level and anchored as well in attachment and developmental theory. Practicing OI is returning home! After graduate school, she has immersed herself in archetypal psychology which deeply resonates with her maternal lineage of Irish storytellers and activists.
Her work as an OI Mentor integrates her strengths and passion, Systemic strategic analysis and interventions embedded in working with the inherent health and rhythm of developing nervous systems and supporting clients heartfelt connections, life purpose, and dreams!
Ceci is committed to the ongoing discovery and partnering within our community to integrate OI into all aspects of Social Justice. She currently works as a Mitigation Specialist on behalf of defendants charged with crimes were if found guilty the could receive the death penalty.
Mark has extensive training in the nervous system process, movement, structural integration, and group work. Mark has experience bringing the principles of Organic Intelligence into use at a residential substance abuse treatment center; working with individuals and groups. In addition to in-person and online sessions, Mark consults on several online nervous system class platforms.
Mark is grateful to be part of the mentoring team in the current San Diego HEARTraining®. Mark feels love and joy for all of those who are currently a part of the San Diego training; teachers, mentors, OI staff members, and students.
Nathan joined the Organic Intelligence team as Outreach Manager out of passion for OI’s model and practice, as well as his desire to serve and expand the OI Community. As part of the Communications department, Nathan is responsible for assisting in content arrangement, program organization, and public engagement.
Nathan brings a wealth of experience and understanding in psychotherapy and the Organic Intelligence framework, culture, and application. These strengths combined with his natural love for community and skill in engaging and supporting individuals and groups are valuable assets to his clients and the OI team.
In addition to applying OI daily as a lifestyle, Nathan practices daily mindfulness using orientation as a sitting practice, active imagination, and spontaneous mantras. Nathan lives in Bend, Oregon with his partner where he enjoys cooking, hiking, and gathering with others (especially around campfires).
Before starting his own coaching and counseling practice, Charlie spent 7 years working at the Soul Care House, a group therapy practice in San Diego. He also spent 2 years helping manage, train, and supervise the Soul Care House staff team as the Clinical Director. Charlie lives in San Diego with his wife Heather and their Great Dane Matilda.
Charlie is also a student of the Wisdom and Perennial teachings within the Christian tradition. He has seen a Spiritual Director for the last 7 years and he and his wife Heather attend an annual week long retreat focusing on centering prayer and other wisdom practices.
any challenge over time.
In addition being a continuity Assistant Trainer for the Boston Feldenkrais Training Program, and maintaining a private practice, Tiffany teaches and organizes classes and workshops in Boston, MA and online. She’s the creator of Movement & Creativity Library, an online resource/community with 150+ Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement® lessons and guided practices to support nervous system regulation and awaken creativity.
Tiffany is the editor and illustrator of Feldenkrais Illustrated: The Art of Learning, a visual guide to the philosophy and writings of Moshe Feldenkrais. Her drawings have been published in Tikkun magazine, Turning Wheel, and the Feldenkrais Journal.
Tiffany is a mentor in the San Diego OI HEARTraining®.
is the gift of paying attention.
Martin has worked with the Feldenkrais Method® in personal sessions through touch (Functional Integration®) and with groups (Awareness through Movement®), while deepening his understanding through NLP, Ericksonian hypnosis, focusing, Somatic Experiencing®, and Organic Intelligence.
Through the 3-year Embodied Life Mentorship Program with Russell Delman, a combination of Feldenkrais, Focusing, Meditation and Nonviolent Communication, he deepened his experience in Mindfulness and Compassion.
Through Aikido he found SEITAI Noguchi, a Japanese Method to support the body’s inherent energies and impulses for self-healing. He teaches SEITAI Groups in his DOJO and supports his teacher Unsho Sensei to bring more awareness to this work in Europe.
Martin’s hobbies are aquarelle painting and hiking.
Committed to the OI work, Martin mentors students in the Istanbul HEARTraining in Turkey and promotes and coordinates the first HEARTraining in Switzerland, which will take place in his new SHINGENKI DOJO in Arlesheim, close to Basel.
Connections are cut and parts are created.
Systemic thinking means:
Parts get clarified and connections are created.
Next stop, was the Navajo Nation where one of his tasks was to integrate traditional healing and western methods. This brought Charles’s childhood among the tribes of Oklahoma and his earlier career as a filmmaker to the fore. Much of the work documented cultural retention and spiritual practices.
He added EMDR to his toolbox and then Somatic Experiencing® with Steve Hoskinson and a seamless shift to Organic Intelligence® in 2017. In his private practice, he used Supportive Touch extensively. In addition to his therapy work, Charles is a singer/songwriter performing with his wife and a group of talented friends.
I try to help people tune into their own wisdom.
Any day my appreciation exceeds my expectations is a good day.
This belief, coupled with the teachings of Organic Intelligence, has meant bearing witness to awe-inspiring transformations in children and their families. Helpful tools along the way include lots of play, sensory awareness, dialogue and narrative-creation, and mindfulness.
Her two greatest teachers are her children, two boys under the age of five. They’ve taught her more about herself than she could ever hope to teach them — not to mention they’re experts in living playfully, with ease, and in the moment! Growing a personal practice of mindfulness meditation, one of Organic Intelligence’s guiding principles, has meant engaging with herself, other humans, and the world-at-large in a deeper and more meaningful way.
As a psychotherapist Amie has maintained a private practice since 2013 and specializes in working with children, teens, and young adults struggling with significant life events and transitions. She is a Licensed Graduate Social Worker in the state of Minnesota. Amie holds post-graduate certifications of Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner and OI Expert level in Organic Intelligence.
yet everything is accomplished.
