About
Hi, I’m Sheila I'm an Astrologer and NLP Coach focused on Individuation, Self-Actualization and Healthy Relationships
If you knew my upbringing, you would realize what a coming-out statement is: I am a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP). We are about 20% of the population, we often work with children or in mental health.
I grew up on Public Assistance in Chicago. Affectionately named Chi-Raq for all the violent crime we experience every summer. I say summer, because I was there. I was friends with the 13, 14 and 15 year old boys who were stabbed and shot. The murders happen every summer when school is out.
When trying to find professional help, we first need to establish trust. I’ll offer my story in hopes that my clients understand that my life experience is varied. No life is the same, and we all have our scars and pain. This truth has led to my training as an Astrologer, Coach and Therapist. My training and life experience combined help me be neutral, reflective, analytical, compassionate and accepting of the singular individuality of every human being.
In my adolescence, with all the frustration, pain, anger and anxiety that came with the hormonal change, I honed my ability to pivot.
My mom who worked at a Waldorf school for mentally ill children and adults began to become mentally unstable herself. She worked at this Rudolf Steiner school so my brother and I could have a scholarship at our Waldorf school.
She began to gamble. My father was narcissistic and emotionally abusive. Her mental health deteriorated and my parents began to pull me into their toxic arguments. I pivoted. I went to the park and hung out with gangbangers and girls with big hair. Me and the girls started a dance crew and made mix-tapes off the radio. My mom drove us to underage dance parties that were popular at the time. It was 1988, the very beginning of electronic dance music in Chicago.
My mom died of Cancer when I was 18. My father died of Cancer soon after. I didn’t have any tools to grieve. I dropped out of school and began drinking and working in restaurants. I couldn’t live in Chicago anymore, everything reminded me of her. I moved and San Francisco and started a new life.
After a few years of heavy partying I began City College of San Francisco. Two of my three jobs was working at the Women’s Needs Center and as a Rape and Domestic Violence Peer Mentor. I met my first mentor, a Political Science professor, Sue Homer. I began volunteering as a Progressive Field Organizer for Affirmative Action. I met two Affordable Housing Organizers, Bill Sorro and Al Robles. They died now, but I want to emphasize how small kindnesses from adults can deeply impact the lives of adolescents.
I transferred to UC Berkeley and worked in non-profits and as a Progressive Field Organizer for the next ten years. Campaign work is seasonal. This gave me the opportunity to live abroad. I’m deeply curious about human development and the way culture impacts our experience of the world.
During this period my sister spiraled deeper and deeper into Schizophrenia. I felt a deep sadness for her and also great despair in my inability to fix her. I stopped working with adults and began working as a Nanny. Small children have the ability to bring joy to any situation. They brighten rooms and bring us into the present moment. I couldn’t really take care of my sister, so I took care of adorable babies instead.
I discovered how profoundly the experience of being in the present moment can heal the most complex problems and deepest wounds. The Buddhist monk and author Pema Chodron said, ‘a broken-heart is the open heart.’ I began a daily practice of yoga and Transcendental meditation that lasted 22 years at the Sri Brahmananda Sarasvati Sanscrit Institute and Ashram in San Francisco. Preparation for my work has been an active engagement in examining my life and exploring deeper truths around the purpose of life.
My parents believed in social change and had the ideological vigor of Liberation Theologists. As a good daughter, I didn’t claim my shadow.
Not acknowledging my shadow lead to projecting the parts of myself onto my romantic relationships. I went for the bad-boys, the projects, the wounded.
It wasn’t until I did Parts Integration work that I became individuated. That’s when my calling became clear. I fell into flow. The universe conspired alongside with me to make my dreams come true.
This campaign was in coalition with the Nurses of California union and the California Medical Association union of doctors. Our coalition was the key to our success.
Phillip Morris International, a multi-billion dollar multi-national corporation spent one million dollars a day against us. I mention this to emphasize the stakes are high, in all our decisions around contracts, including public and personal. We shouldn't care less, it would behoove us to care more.
In the U.S. people are struggling with our broken health-care system. To this point, I hired a friend of mine on this campaign as she needed a second job to pay for her and her daughter's health care.
Laws we vote on are contracts we make with the government. It's important to vote to create better contracts. It's just as important to democratically participate in our personal contracts and relationships with people.
Every person has a voice in a relationship. Every relationship is a contract we are making with others. We often feel silenced in our relationship with our partner, with our boss, with the government. What would happen if began to tell people how we actually feel?
We all have the human right to feel happy, seen and loved for who we are as authentic fully integrated human beings.
I’m certified with the Association for Integrative Psychology in the U.S. I’m a certified Neuro Linguistic Programming coach. I’ve been seeing clients as a Consulting Astrologer and NLP Coach since 2019. I graduated Cum Laude from University of California at Berkeley. I’m receiving a Master’s and License in Integral Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies.
I’ve had great success with clients and in my own life using a combination of NLP coaching, Jungian and Humanistic Psychology and Modern Astrology. Facilitating your own individuation and becoming self-actualized is the best gift you can give yourself.
A new path may be right around the corner.
English