Michelle Castor
Michelle originally hails from Kansas and moved to Colorado over 6 years ago. Despite her love for Denver, she will always carry a place in her heart for home and longs for thunderstorms and lightening bugs. Michelle is excited to be a part of the Denver Community Health Collective and considers providing anti-oppressive, honest and accessible care a lifetime goal. She believes that an individual is the best authority on one’s own body and that each person has the right to choose how to address their own health, without judgment.
Michelle is a curandera, a community herbalist and a student of massage therapy. As a curandera, or healer, she offers traditional healing practices of indigenous Mexico.
She offers therapeutic and energetic massage and a type of energetic cleansing known as a limpia. The energetic massage and limpias are means of moving energy that is stuck in the body that can cause mental, emotional or physical distress, in order to achieve balance and a more connected self.
As a community herbalist, she has studied herbal medicine for the last several years and will become certified as a Women’s Herbal Educator this summer. She recognizes this certification is not inclusive to all bodies and genders, and aims to continue to educate herself in herbal medicine as it relates to all peoples. She can help recommend and prepare herbal medicine.
As a student of massage therapy, she provides bodywork intended to relieve stress and muscle tension and to provide a positive experience of touch.
Michelle is also bilingual in Spanish/English and can provide bilingual services and/or help interpret.
As a community herbalist, she has studied herbal medicine for the last several years and will become certified as a Women’s Herbal Educator this summer. She recognizes this certification is not inclusive to all bodies and genders, and aims to continue to educate herself in herbal medicine as it relates to all peoples. She can help recommend and prepare herbal medicine.
As a student of massage therapy, she provides bodywork intended to relieve stress and muscle tension and to provide a positive experience of touch.
Michelle is also bilingual in Spanish/English and can provide bilingual services and/or help interpret.
Tanya Kearns
As a psychotherapist, and a human being in general, I am passionate about love, in its various forms. I am committed to supporting clients in fostering self support, coping skills, and greater ability to care for themselves more fully. What helps me to do this is holding a human rights/social justice perspective as the foundation of my counseling. This includes being multiculturally competent, understanding privilege and oppression, and being informed by a feminist lens. My eclectic modalities include but are not limited to Transpersonal perspectives, Family Systems, Gestalt therapy, Client-centered therapy, Positive Psychology, and Cognitive Behavioral therapy. The impact of trauma and attachment is also foundational in how I understand human development and functioning. Core techniques used in counseling include mindfulness, focused-breathing, somatic/body awareness, psycho-education, and experiential learning activities.
Danielle Mandrake Helm
Mandrake is currently a student at Southwest Acupuncture College, studying Chinese Medicine in hopes of bringing acupuncture and Chinese Herbs into her body work practice. She is working towards specializing in treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS, and hopes to spend her life working on community-based efforts for radical, accessible, and transformative healing. She believes in harm reduction practices, and in meeting bodies and people where they are at, without judgment.
Until graduation, Mandrake currently offers:
- Tui Na (Chinese massage) and Acupressure
- Moxibustion (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moxibustion)
- Auriculotherapy Ear Seeds (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auriculotherapy)
- Chats about Traditional Chinese medicine
- Support navigating Denver's low income health care services options.
Andrew Kurtenbach
Growing up, Andy has always had an interest in the magical and healing arts, in particular using those to help people help themselves. He took a small sidestep to attend college—three semesters of an accounting major—but has since then reclaimed his previous footsteps and moved to Colorado in August 2011 to attend the North American Institute of Medical Herbalism. With a curriculum comprising of herbal and vitalist therapeutics, nutrition, and flower essences, as well as being an intuitive energy worker with his Reiki levels I and II, Andy is excited to work on both himself (more) and others. Andy also makes and sells various metaphysical charms and crafts as well as doing specific spiritual and magical work through his business White String Charms.
Liz Green
Liz is a Denver native and grew up on the North Side, where she would have lived forever if her mother had any say in the matter. Much to her mother's chagrin, Liz now resides on the West Side. Liz was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tonga from 2003-2005, where she was a gender and HIV advisor for the only youth development NGO in the South Pacific. For the past six years, she has managed the volunteer program at Girls Inc., where they inspire all girls to be strong, smart, and bold. Liz has been a Licensed Massage Therapist since 2008, and practices massage at a wellness center in Stapleton. In addition to specializing in deep tissue, prenatal, labor and postpartum massage, Liz is also a doula.
Jessica Eubanks
Liz Green
Liz is a Denver native and grew up on the North Side, where she would have lived forever if her mother had any say in the matter. Much to her mother's chagrin, Liz now resides on the West Side. Liz was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tonga from 2003-2005, where she was a gender and HIV advisor for the only youth development NGO in the South Pacific. For the past six years, she has managed the volunteer program at Girls Inc., where they inspire all girls to be strong, smart, and bold. Liz has been a Licensed Massage Therapist since 2008, and practices massage at a wellness center in Stapleton. In addition to specializing in deep tissue, prenatal, labor and postpartum massage, Liz is also a doula.Jessica Eubanks
