I found mindfulness — or rather, mindfulness found me — in 2009, during a season of life that felt a little like survival intermixed with moments of joy. I was caring for a sick child, navigating the impacts of substance use disorder in my family, and quietly struggling inside. I felt like a shell of who I once was and didn’t know what to do — I just knew I needed something to help me feel steady again. Then I came across a book by Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, and something in me exhaled.

Since then, I’ve spent the last fifteen years learning from a wide range of spiritual and mindfulness teachers— including and not limited to Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Ram Dass, Pema Chödrön, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Michael Singer — each offering their own lens into the deeper truths of being. Their wisdom has shaped how I live and how I teach. I love weaving together these voices and practices to help others find their own path back to center.

In 2016, after the passing of my oldest daughter, Norah, my spiritual life expanded in ways I never could have imagined. Her crossing opened my heart to deeper questions about life, death, and what continues. I began studying near-death experiences and was drawn to soul-centered teachings, including the work of Dr. Michael Newton and Abraham Hicks, which continue to significantly inform how I understand healing, transformation and living a fufilled life. 

In 2021, I became a certified Mindfulness Meditation Teacher through the two-year MMTCP program with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. I'm also a trained yoga instructor, certified Spiritual Life Coach, and longtime project administrator.

Cushion Tree is the home for everything I’ve gathered along the way. It’s a space where I can serve others who want to live their daily practice in the midst of whatever life messiness is happening— not as something rigid or perfect, but as a deeply rooted home base to return and remember what matters.

I’m also a PROUD mom of three amazing, loving, best of the best kids who remind me daily that love, laughter, and presence are what matter most.

In Light and Love for ALL,
— Erin