At the tender age of 17, I had what can only be described as a mystical experience. I became aware of just how beautiful and expansive God’s love is even as I became aware of how rarely I lived from a place of love due to fear. There was no judgment there, only an invitation to the fullness of who I was created to be - someone who loves.

This conviction led me into justice work, for justice is love in action. I did asset-based community development, working with people who were unhoused and people who immigrated to the U.S.  As I served in this capacity, I came to realize that while I deeply cared about structural issues, I found myself more drawn to offering care on an individual level, creating spaces for people to discover themselves, connect to God, and process their experiences. I discerned my call as a spiritual director and began to meet with people individually.

I found myself on the edge of many traditional church spaces due to my work and my own journey, witnessing the way faith had been weaponized and working with people who no longer felt safe or welcomed in their faith communities. This grieved me deeply. As a spiritual wanderer myself, having spent time in and out of contemplative, charismatic, evangelical, and progressive streams of Christianity, and as a bicultural Ecuadorian American, I knew the pain of belonging at the cost of pieces of yourself. I felt moved to create communities that made room for all of who people were becoming and which honored the spiritual journey each individual makes in their lifetime.

Aside from my work, I’m passionate about getting outside (hiking, camping, hammocking), expressing creativity (collage, baking, haikus), and exploring new places!