About

I have been grounding (putting my feet in the grass/earth) since I was a teenager in boarding school in Massachusetts. I didn't know that it had a technical term but I knew that being in nature, I often felt compelled to take my shoes off and lie down in the grass. It felt... home.

I am a dancer by trade and had the fortune of opening years touring the world. As I have traveled and lived in other countries, grounding became a way that I would “settle” in moments of stress and connect with the new environments I was in.

This awareness intensified while living in Italy for 9 years. Through the way of life and culture of food there, I learned to eat seasonally, locally, and with a different rhythm and connection to the source of my food. Going to the daily neighborhood markets was my first experience in “foraging” in a sense — not relying on supermarkets for my fresh food. I began to connect with the farmers that would come to the urban centers daily. I knew who grew my greens, the family that cultivated my favorite cheese, the butcher and fishermen who brought meat and fish to the markets, and the farmer who foraged mushrooms. It is where I began to expand my palate in gourmet and edible mushrooms.

Upon returning to the States, as a new mother, I went out of my way to get to the farmer's markets in Brooklyn and make sure I was gathering my fresh food from local growers.

I then experienced a few traumatic years that put my body in an imbalanced state that I had not experienced prior. I lost my older brother to a motorcycle accident when my daughter was 16 months old, and by the time she was three, I knew that I had to divorce my Italian husband due to erratic emotional abuse. I had developed chronic insomnia and was navigating ways to work as a dancer and multi-disciplinary artist as a new mother.

One day, while researching deep meditation techniques, I discovered Reishi — “the immortal mushroom.” I immediately ordered some, made myself a large “pasta pot” of tea, and over the next few weeks began ingesting Reishi daily. I call it my “gateway mushroom.” I began researching the medicinal properties of mushrooms — ones I knew and new ones I discovered voraciously.

Ingesting mushrooms daily became a conscious way of grounding — literally eating the Earth, and one of its most important organisms — knowing that they all possessed hidden benefits. I felt amazing: I cured my insomnia within weeks, had more mental clarity than I had in a while, experienced bursts of energy, and felt more able to focus with the many tasks that being a primary caregiver entailed.

Over the years, I have become a devotee of the magic of mushrooms. I have been a doula for 22 years, and through my work with women, birth, and recovery, I have deepened my herbal and naturopathic studies to aid my clients and myself in natural and preventative care. After becoming a mother myself, I deep-dived into herbs, mushrooms, and naturopathy. Once I discovered the innumerable benefits of adaptogenic mushrooms, it was a game changer.

I have been “experimenting” on myself (and sharing with friends and clients) for the last 10 years, and I am certain that my overall health and well-being — amidst many life transitions, solo-mothering my now 14-year-old daughter, moving, and work shifts due to the pandemic — has been aided by ingesting adaptogenic mushrooms and their allies daily.

After a decade and the past 3 years of sharing and selling my mushroom and herbal blends with my community, I am excited to unleash my brand, MycoMundo, into the world.