I grew up in Tucson, the kind of childhood that teaches you adult skills long before you expect to need them. My dad was in and out of prison. My mom was trying hard, but life was heavy. My baby sisters and I bounced through hotels, doing what we could to get through each day.

When I was 13, my mom told me to leave. I hold no resentment and no disrespect to her– she was doing the best that she could at the time.

My first official job was at 14.
By 15, I was at Sonic, skating burgers out to cars and pretending I was older than I was.
Then came Pant Warehouse — a very specific Tucson memory for those who were there.

I went to Catalina High for my freshman year and part of sophomore year, but rent doesn’t wait for teenagers to find themselves. I dropped out so I could work full time and survive.

A year later, I found Youth On Their Own (YOTO), and that changed the trajectory of my life — not because they “saved” me, but because they gave me something more powerful: independence.

For the first time, I could make choices for myself.

✔️ I could re-enroll in school.
✔️ I could track my own attendance.
✔️ I could be responsible for my progress without needing anyone else’s permission.

So I went back. I enrolled in an alternative high school and stacked credits until I caught up.

That was the first time I learned a lesson I still teach my team and my patients today:

You don’t have to start in the right place — you just have to start moving again.

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From Tucson → Seattle → Tucson Again

I eventually moved to Seattle and spent nearly twenty years there. I built a life, a career, and a level of clinical skill that most massage therapists never get the chance to train in.

Then in 2016, my dad passed unexpectedly, and I felt pulled home.

Tucson didn’t have many strong opportunities for LMTs (and honestly, that’s still true), so I did what my life had already trained me to do:

I built what I needed.

I started by renting a single treatment room from a chiropractor many people still remember — Dr. Cindy.

Two years later, I subleased the space next door. I didn’t understand commercial leasing yet, which was… an education. But I renovated the space myself, designed it the way I wanted, and turned 800 square feet into something meaningful.

It was small, but it was mine — so of course I threw a grand opening.

We made it work using the outdoor walkway, local restaurants donated food, and more than a hundred people showed up. And because coming full circle matters to me, we turned the event into a fundraiser for Youth On Their Own.

Together we raised:

✨ $5,500+
✨ hundreds of pounds of supplies
✨ gift cards for teens who were walking the same path I once walked

That moment wasn’t about charity.
It was about standing in a space I had built and saying:

Kids like me don’t just get through — we come back, we build, and we create doors for others.

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Where I Am Now

Today, I run a larger clinic. I employ people. I create safe, sustainable, high-quality jobs in a field that often lacks them.

And I’m just getting started.

My mission is to raise the standard of this profession — to train LMTs at the level I was trained in Washington, to improve patient care in Tucson, and eventually launch an educational program so more therapists can thrive here instead of leaving to find opportunities elsewhere.

I didn’t grow up with a stable family system.

So I built one —
one therapist, one patient, one team member at a time.