The present

Me Now

The formal stuff...

I have a decade of working at various non-profits ranging from national, local, and volunteer-run organizations.

Supporting people through grief & loss, crisis and thoughts of suicide, and pregnancy/postpartum.

The past

Me and Stacy

Stacy (2nd grade) 
me (Kindergarten )

Mandatory photo for mom

(Probably somewhere in a tote with everything else from our childhood)

The unknown

Graduation Pic

Probably one of the last pictures of us together before I lost my past, my present, and my future with her in it...

as siblings

From middle to oldest

The Power of 3

Stacy died in a car accident that I was also in.

She was 18.
I was 16.
Taylor was 2.

Doing the work and giving back

22 years later

I started attending a grief conference at  21, and a few years later I was giving back.

  • Facilitating queer sibling groups
  • Former Chair, Inclusion & Diversity Commission
  • Sibling Committee Rep

The future

Somatic Breathwork

A skill I went to learn to teach others BUT...

somatic breathwork had other plans for me!

Grief, do we always have to live with it?

Grief is a nasty, disgusting, and horrible thing to experience. It never goes away, no matter how many years pass.

Grief reminders also suck - dates, times, holidays, birthdays, smells, food, music, quirks you see in other people that remind you of them...

You learn to live with your grief, pain, and emptiness. Yearning for them and trying to imagine what life would look like with them still here.

Years or decades pass. You think about them. Miss them. And your grief, whether you know it or not, gets stored in your body. Remembering.

How does somatic breathwork tie it all together?

Of course somatic breathwork is not the end all be all cure for grief or any emotions BUT it was a transformative experience that helped me connect to my grief that my body was holding onto. Grief that I thought I had dealt with and worked through.

I attended grief groups, went to a yearly grief conference, and I now volunteer and present workshops supporting others through their grief.

It wasn't until the certification course for somatic breathwork that I was able to fully express my grief. The grief my BODY was holding onto.

  • Has anyone ever told you your grief did not matter?
  • Has anyone told you their grief was the worst?
  • Did your job give you 3 days or zero days off?
  • Do you remember when people just stopped coming over or talking to you?
  • Do you still feel that emptiness in your heart?


Maybe you are like me and you just learned to cope with grief the way you always have, knowing nothing will ever bring them back.

If you are curious to learn more on how somatic breathwork can help you or your organization... Reach out!

Meet your certified SomatIQ™ Breathwork practitioner

If you are looking for more formal information:

  • Social worker for over a decade - Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker Associate (SC60920932)
  • National non-profit work, working with grief and loss in the military/veteran community. (TAPS)
  • Suicide/crisis intervention for 9 counties in WA state
  • Federally Qualified Health Clinic providing maternity support services and infant case management
  • Personal experiences with grief & loss (as young as 8) and burnout (most recently)
  • Professional experience in grief and loss, training, and workshops through:
    -Association of Death Education and Counseling
    -    Center for Life & Loss Transitions
    -Certified Grief Educator through David Kessler and Grief.com
  • Volunteering for a national non-profit for grief and loss since 2011 (The Compassionate Friends)
  • Certified Soma+IQ™ Breathwork practitioner by Soma+IQ™ 


Bereaved sibling, sibling, son, cousin, nephew, grandson, chosen family, friend, social worker, individual, Asian, white, and so much more!


Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors - Good Grief Camp

My SomatIQ™ Mentor
Dr. Samir Mujagic

World War II Memorial
(My favorite in D.C.)

Meet Stephen

2SLGBTQIA+ Advocate

The Compassionate Friends 2011 - Siblings

The Compassionate Friends - 2023
Workshop Presenter

I know firsthand how chronic stress can lead to feeling not good enough and burnout that leads to resigning

You shouldn't fear your thoughts and emotions, it is your body's way of talking to you

You should care about burnout because it is costing you $50,000 per employee turnover

What is the story behind Embrace The Darkness? Well, I guess the story behind me!


          August 25, 2023 marked my sister's 21st deathiversary. She was the first person I had told that I liked boys on the drive up and, unfortunately, we both feel asleep on the drive back where she died and I survived. As a person who was already lost trying to understand if it was safe to be gay, Stacy's death just made things more foggy.

          It wasn't until the age of 29 that I felt a little more comfortable in my skin as a queer person of color because I was around other queer people, and I didn't have to pretend or hide anymore. However, there are still moments to this day when I still feel fear or anger with anti-queer laws or when  anti-queer hate crimes occur, and I am sometimes hypervigilant (being aware of my surroundings and looking for danger even when there is no danger).

          Being able to connect with other people who got it without me needing to tell them all the things, made embracing the darkness a little more easy knowing I was not the only one whether it was with my queerness, my grief, or my struggles at a job. Now that I know what it feels like to be on both sides, the "good" feelings and the "bad" feelings, I want to connect with others who might be wandering in the darkness so we can navigate that darkness one breath at a time.

Why does this company exist?


         After working in different settings from national non-profits, to working with nine counties and a variety of different communities on suicide/crisis intervention, and even working at a federally qualified health center, I still saw people falling through the cracks, and I was tired feeling like I was falling through the cracks, yelling into a void.

          Embrace The Darkness exists because I am my business and my business is me.

          Somatic breathwork is a POWERFUL experience that helped me connect to my grief in a way I did not think was possible. It helped me heal. It helped me connect. It helped me get out of my own way.

I exist because my story is worth telling and so is yours! If you don't know where to start, reach out and let's embrace the darkness together.

My main focus is working with non-profits to help prevent burnout and high turnover rates; as well as, potentially help with funding!

But Stephen, how is that possible?!




What motivated me to start my business?

          After working in different non-profits, I was frustrated and felt stuck in my ability to have a larger impact on the communities I served in. I was always told I had great ideas and I had to figure things out on my own where I had to do the marketing, content creation, outreach, and then run the program.

If I am going to do that, why not start my own business?!

I was also burnt out. I was making the most I have ever made in my life (how do you walk away from that?), I had a supportive supervisor, and team where they encouraged and supported professional development; however, it left me with having negative thoughts of wanting to get into an accident just to be able to take paid leave and get a break from it all.

I was able to recognize that the job was not healthy for me and something needed to change.


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