From environmental sustainability to internal sustainability - my journey as a therapist

Isha Foundation. South India

Since I was a little child, I used to fell myself deeply connected to nature. Despite being from São Paulo, a big city, and raised in an apartment, my refuge and my place of well being were the weekly visits to my grandparents' farm in the countryside and the camping trips with my family in the Atlantic Forest.

With all this love to nature I had started my degree in Biology. I felt honored to study the "life". Planktons, invertebrates, ecology, genetics, ecosystems became part of my daily life. But it was in the interaction of all this with humans that I felt my heart vibrate. I had felt in love and I decided to be a teacher and dedicate my life to teaching how to take a better care of nature.

I continued my studies at the interface between education and the environment and completed my master's degree and then my PhD in Education. I joined the University of São Paulo as an educator and for 20 years I dedicated myself to work in the area of waste management, environmental education and sustainability. I used to coordinate and participate in beautiful projects involving the entire university community, aiming to incorporate sustainability into daily activities, curricula and campus management. I had also participated in international projects and networks in the area of sustainable campuses.

Myself as an invited speaker at UN event in Japan on Environmental Education.

I knew a lot about this entire academic universe, however, I began to realize that there was an important part of my life that was increasingly... unsustainable. What a contradiction! I was known as an environmentalist, the one who had sustainability as a lifestyle, but my rhythm of life, the relationship with myself, with my body and mind were unsustainable. My body was already showing signs that I needed to change.

And then in 2016 I decided to move away from my academic activities and travel around the world volunteering on organic farms. It was 2 years immersed in countries in Africa, Europe and Asia. And it was in India, where I ended up initially living for 6 months, that I recognized the part of sustainability that was missing in my life: the inner sustainability. We know the outside world very well, but the inside is a big unknown. We establish relationships between the different elements in nature, but we have difficulties in establishing connections with ourselves, with our essence. We understand very well how living beings work, but we are unaware of our own emotions.

Volunteering on a farm that rescues animals from abuses in South Africa

I wanted to know myself more deeply and so I trained to be a Yoga and meditation teacher in India and then started studying integrative therapies. I immersed myself in the hitherto unknown universe of the systemic family constellation, Thetahealing, biodecoding and Reiki. My therapeutic process with these tools was so transformative and had so much contribution to my spiritual journey that I decided to become a therapist myself and help people on this beautiful journey.

During my journey as a therapist, I realized how spirituality is a fundamental topic that is usually left aside in conventional therapies. Therefore, in my sessions I bring my integral perspective with me, after all, body, mind and spirituality are all part of us.

My husband Clever and I on the Ganges River in India, where we lived for more than two years.

I have been witness to the blossoming of those assisted and I am very grateful to be able to continue "extending my hands" to those who are also willing to make this journey.

Welcome!