The Art of Going Within is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
We exist because of a simple, enduring conviction: the inner life is not separate from the sacred. When we turn inward, with curiosity and care, we are not merely working on ourselves. We are participating in something larger. The word psyche means soul. So, the work we do is soul work.
We believe that each of us carries an unrepeatable, one-of-a-kind articulation of Nature, an authenticity that is entirely our own, waiting to be uncovered. The psyche is inherently creative, and by expressing what spontaneously arises within us, we participate in our own unique unfolding. The wounds we carry are not separate from our purpose; in fact, they are the very gateway into purpose. As each of us becomes more conscious, more whole, more truly ourselves, the world also heals.
The practices and the methodology that form the foundation of our work emerged from a real, personal journey, and have been shaped, in turn, by the journeys of those we’ve walked alongside. If given the chance, we are honored to help illuminate yours.
We serve those who sense they have a calling, a vision, an artistic expression, or a life path, but have not yet found their way into it. We also serve those who already know their calling, yet feel challenged in fully embodying it.
Whether through individual sessions, our uniquely designed 12-week journey, or our self-study courses, we guide the same essential process: the unfolding of your inner experience into its outer, lived expression.
We believe your mental health symptoms are not separate from your unique evolution; they are part of it. We guide our clients in exploring and becoming conscious of their wounds, and in uncovering the deeper purpose held within that pain. There is an archetypal relationship between suffering and purpose, and this is what we aim to discover together.
As you consciously engage in inner work, what emerges is genuine self-awareness, real healing, and access to a depth of creativity that may have long been waiting beneath the surface. The transformations you experience are all in service of one ultimate aim: the discovery of your unrepeatable, personal expression.
In 1998, I was about as far away from a true calling as I could be. I was working in the automotive industry as a corporate field manager for Ford Motor Company. I was lost, unconscious, anxious, and depressed.
When I began to meditate that year, my life began to change. Within a month, I was shedding tears that had been locked up inside. Within a year, I felt strong enough to leave the corporate job and embark on a journey of self-discovery by traveling.
I wanted to visit a part of the world where no one knew me. I wanted to discover myself not as a daughter, sister, student, employee, or citizen of society, but instead as a human being.
Who was I as a breathing, sentient organism alive on this planet?
I wanted to discover my humanness.
In December of 2000, I flew halfway around the world to the South Island of New Zealand.
While I was there and as my meditation deepened, I began to feel guided by life. Little moments seemed to stand out, each one carrying a sense of being guided from within. Beneath my anxiety, there were whispers of purpose I had never felt before. In the early 2000s, I began to have visions of my future. Slowly, I began to sense that writing wasn’t just a pastime, but a thread woven into the fabric of my path.
Sailing seemed to be a significant part of my journey too. In the summer of 2001, I had the remarkable opportunity to sail across the Pacific Ocean (from Hawaii to Canada). This profound experience was the beginning of my love affair with Nature. It cracked me open to the miracle of our aliveness within all of Creation.
Three years later, in 2004, while working on a book, a friend and I began to write every weekday morning. I was writing and meditating at the start of each day back then, and this led to a profound and life-changing inner experience that is the foundation of all my work today.
This profound experience made it unmistakably clear that I had to study the human psyche and its deeper powers. In the fall of 2005, I began an academic program at Pacifica Graduate Institute, graduating in 2008 with a Master’s degree. The experience at Pacifica not only launched my career as a psychotherapist, it helped to affirm the deep insights I experienced in 2004.
Writing, sailing, studying the human mind, and my love affair with Nature have all taught me that there is an archetypal path for soul growth, a journey common across cultures. While everyone’s path is wholly unique, all of us will experience the same developmental stages when we travel inward.
This lens serves as a roadmap for the soul, the template we use with all those that work with us. The 12-Week Journey, in particular, is a structured container for the kind of inward journey that changed my life, one that holds you through the difficult passages and illuminates what is trying to emerge.
Whether you decide to participate in therapy or embark on the 12-Week Journey, you will be entering into sacred intimacy with the creative life force, a living current that shapes both our personal evolution and the unfolding of the collective. You’ll be invited to traverse the soul’s terrain, where your unique path begins to reveal itself, not only as a source of personal transformation, but as a gift that ripples outward as a blessing for the world.
