PRACTITIONERS FOR APRIL 5TH (2024) SALOON @CIIS
Meghan Hanebutt McDaniel - Offering: Connective Branding Discovery Conversations
Meg McDaniel is a lifetime visual designer with a passion for healing and advocacy work, environmental sustainability and connection, and making the world more beautiful, one design at a time. Dynamic, simple, delicious, functional design is one of her favorite things in the world. She was trained as a visual designer and photographer, and has been a freelance graphic designer for the past twenty years. She designed her first tshirt when she was ten. She is currently a student in the Integral Counseling Psychology program and is extra excited to work with her fellow colleagues on their visions for branding, outreach, and online presence.
Follow: @seame_photography
Please visit for more details: seamevisuals.com
Krysti Keener - Offering: Soul Topophilia
Krysti is a multi-hyphenate, Manifesting Generator (Human Design), a lifelong storyteller and learner. She is an Artist, Spiritual Herbalist, Creative Doula, Coach, and Podcast Host (www.anythingbutlinear.life). These aspects of her life were made possible as a result of a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Her work sits at the intersection of plants-as-medicine, harnessing one’s creative energy as support during times of transition, and their path to balancing, attuning, and thriving. She holds a dual MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, and Columbia University, and is currently in her first semester in the dual degree track of East-West Psychology, M.A. and M.F.A program at CIIS.
Follow: @krystik
Please visit for more details: spiritualherbalismconsultation
Tina Pham - Offering: Persimmon Acupuncture
Tina helps you to feel revitalized in your relationship with yourself, your health, and your life. She holds space for you to be seen and heard and is dedicated to meeting you where you are in your healing journey. She inspires you to take an active role in your well-being by providing reasonable recommendations to help meet your health and wellness goals.
As a second-generation practitioner, Tina brings the expertise and wisdom of traditional medicine to best support you. She uses acupuncture, herbal medicine, along with other therapeutic methods, to promote genuine shifts toward natural healing.
Tina is a California Board-Licensed Acupuncturist and Herbalist. She graduated with a Master’s Degree from the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in San Francisco. She worked in higher education before changing career paths and aligning with her familial roots. She is an avid speaker at AAPI and wellness events in the Bay Area.
Tina lives in San Francisco with her husband, Brian and dog-child, Soba. You can find her perusing her favorite farmers’ markets, strolling Fort Funston, or enjoying a matcha latte at a neighborhood cafe. She is passionate about mental-emotional health, healing intergenerational patterns, uplifting communities, and supporting small businesses.
Follow: @persimmonacupuncturesf
Please visit for more details: persimmonacupuncture.com
Ron Lemos - Offering: Yoga Nidra
Ron Lemos is currently enrolled in the East-West Psychology PhD Program at CIIS. Ron holds an E-RYT 500 certification with Yoga Alliance and is an IAYT certified Yoga Therapist specialized in yoga nidra. With over 500 hours of formal training in five yoga nidra traditions, you’re in good hands! Ron is here to facilitate a safe, pleasant practice, and help you get through your daily crunch.
Follow: @intimate.mantra
Please visit for more details: intimatemantra.com | Youtube
Kelsay Elizabeth Myers - Offering: Transformative Healing
Hello, I’m Kelsay, and I am a multifaceted creator and educator who is here on this life path to embody myself, to truly accept what arises within me and express it, so that I may serve as a healing guide and mirror. I’ve spent my entire life uncovering more, and more, and more layers and facets of who I am. I look at myself, others and the world and try to create something beautiful from the composition, and sometimes, from the wreckage.
Among my many facets: I am a woman, a lesbian, a millennial, a Korean adoptee, a writer, a mixed media artist, a dreamer and an embodied expressive arts practitioner who works along the edges of the mythic self, trauma resolution and compassionate change.
With dual M.F.A degrees in Creative Nonfiction and Poetry from Saint Mary’s College of California and certification as a Tamalpa Institute Life/Art Process® Practitioner and Teacher, I’m now a Ph.D student in Transformative Inquiry at California Institute of Integral Studies where I’m using arts-based research, existentialism and narrative psychology to explore trauma healing and wholeness. Although I am an emerging scholar-practitioner, I have 12+ years experience teaching, researching and collaborating in integrative somatic trauma therapy modalities, ways of understanding the self, what makes a meaningful life and using the arts for transformative healing. I bring that breadth of experience and knowledge into my offerings as a Coach, Expressive Arts Practitioner and Founder of Dialogical Persona Healing Arts.
Follow: @dialogicalpersona
Please visit for more details: dialogicalpersona.com
Ben Grandis - Offering: Beneficent Life Coaching & Tarot Reading
Hi, I’m Ben, a San Francisco-based life coach & tarot reader. Compassion, curiosity, and intuition are my core values as a practitioner. My services are designed to recast you as the hero of your own story, no matter who you are or where you come from. Using the cards as a guide, we will weave a unique narrative that illuminates the path from where you are, to where you know you can be. Together, we can give you actionable ways to manifest the life you want through changes firmly in your control.
I have over 8+ years of professional experience working in HR, Recruiting, and Customer Support roles. Having served non-profits, major corporations, and startups, I bring an array of people-centric experiences that can serve you in your career, work-life balance, and beyond.
My academic qualifications include my current pursuit of a Master's in Integrative Health Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies. I also hold a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from Swarthmore College, a Wellness Counseling Certification from Cornell University, and have completed the Intermediate Coach Training Program with the Co-Active Training Institute.
Follow: @beneficent.coach
Please visit for more details: beneficent.coach
Orlando White - Offering: Living in the Overflow
Orlando White is a certified mindfulness teacher dedicated to the joy and liberation of all people. With nearly ten years experience as a mindfulness practitioner, Orlando stands rooted in mindfulness and radical authenticity as the pathways to our collective healing and wellbeing. Orlando is certified by the globally recognized Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, and he teaches mindfulness and emotional intelligence informed by recent developments in neuroscience.
He is a keynote speaker and the Founder of Overflow, a program that offers a reflective space to rediscover our true selves and embrace our unique purpose. He nurtures a community built on belonging, where we heal together and celebrate our shared journey towards wholeness. Prior to launching Overflow, Orlando was the Head of Community Development for LinkedIn. He led community programs across LinkedIn's largest office sites and worked collaboratively to establish the company as a valued asset in local communities. Originally from the Washington, DC Area, Orlando holds a B.A. in Political Science from Howard University and is currently a board member for MENTOR California and JobTrain.
Please visit for more details: orlandowhite
Carol Richardson - Offering: Highest Harmony Healing & Coaching
Born on the equator in the middle of Africa, Carol Richardson learned to question limited worldviews among an abundance of multicultural experiences from a young age. In 1996, she began a universal spiritual path, practicing Raja Yoga Meditation, and traveled to a spiritual centre in the UK for "esoteric studies," learning Progressive Counselling, animal healing, Natural Spiritual Healing, and more. She later received training and attunement as a Reiki Master, and her healing work has evolved to working with Higher Beings ever since an experience of ascension on May 27, 2010. Her work is interfaith and universal. She now offers "Oracle Healings" in which a higher dimensional view shares insights and blessings while channeling the healing energy for inner healing emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually.
Follow: @revcaroler
Please visit for more details: highestharmony.guru
Courtney Ortanez - Offering: Wellness Coaching
Integrative Health Coach, Meditation Guide, Sacred Space Holder.
Follow: @ascensation
Lorine Estelle Bay - Offering: Tarot Reading
LMFT since 2014, CIIS EXA 2004, Temple Guardian at Burning Man, Merry Prankster.
Follow: @stellaestelle_bay
Natasha Khallouf - Offering: Acupuncture, Bodywork, EFT, Yoga Therapy, Herbal Medicine Products
Dr. Khallouf is committed to helping support people on their path to wellness and strives to provide tools that will empower and equip them to experience feeling good in their bodies throughout life. She practices traditional Eastern medicine, utilizing both tradition and science. Raised in a Nicaraguan & Lebanese household as a first-generation American, she is culturally sensitive and committed to supporting the health of her fellow diverse community members. In addition to acupuncture, nutrition, and herbal medicine, Natasha draws on her over two decades of experience in body-based wisdom to take an approach that addresses trauma. This includes incorporating embodiment tools such as yoga, meditation, breathwork, and visualization, which have scientifically been shown to be effective in releasing trapped emotions and trauma in the body, manifesting as pain and disease.
Consequently, she has a strong commitment to holistic mental health, utilizing nutrition, supplementation, and lifestyle support to address conditions like depression, anxiety, addiction, and compulsive disorders. Her focus extends to children, teens, and young adults, offering alternative or complementary approaches to conventional methods.
Lifestyle support is another area where she excels, using nutrition, exercise, and supplementation to help create health stability, as well as further supporting those already healthy and feeling well but wanting to maximize performance. Of course, she also simply supports those wanting to age gracefully, utilizing their biology to the best of their ability.
Follow: @Drtashk
Please visit for more details: drkhallouf.com
Sally Smith - Offering: Psycho-Spiritual Counseling, Yoga Bodywork & Drum Healing
Sally is a teacher, philosopher, community organizer, and earth-based healer offering psycho-spiritual counseling and support for activists, healers, caretakers, changemakers as well as all those dedicated to the healing of our world. Sally is most passionate about helping others heal their way toward the discovery of their soul’s purpose using teachings and practices rooted in shamanism, transpersonal psychology, depth hypnosis, yoga bodywork, and more. She believes that the healing of the Self and the healing of the world are mutually reinforcing processes, and that feeling, grieving, and caring about our world is actually a sign of one’s psycho-spiritual maturation.
Follow: @rootedrisings
Please visit for more details: rootedrisings.com
Nicole Lapuyade - Offering: Interactive Guided Imagery
Nicole Lapuyade, MA, is an NBC-HWC certified Integrative Wellness Coach and Cancer Researcher, with a certification in Guided Imagery from CIIS.
I am fascinated with the ways that Guided Imagery offers a portal to our intuitive side, uncovering our internal wisdom that lies outside our awareness. Using imagery, I create a space for relaxation and healing, integrating imagery into my coaching sessions.
Toffler Niemuth - Offering: Green Money Conversations; Financial Wellness Coaching
Toffler Niemuth is a Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach, and applies the coaching skills that help people make lifestyle changes around their health and fitness to personal finance. She helps women+ better understand their money, and grow their wealth in a way that’s aligned with their core values, such as supporting social or environmental issues. Her clients receive advanced coaching to help them uncover money blocks and limiting beliefs, set goals, develop an action plan, have accountability, and be successful. And, most importantly, realize their own prosperous life.
Please visit for more details: prosperiawellbeing.com
Hsinyi Wang - Offering: Developmental Transformations
I am an Developmental Transformations (DvT) , a queer from Taiwan, an MFT trainee, and a drama therapy student at CIIS. Being a first-generation immigrant who embarked on the journey to the United States as an adult, I navigate language and cultural intricacies and grapple with the delicate dance between loneliness and belonging.
Fluent in Taiwanese, Mandarin, and English, I leverage my trilingual abilities to bridge cultural divides and foster meaningful connections. I have had the privilege of supporting students of color both individually and in group settings. Currently, I serve as a Bilingual Mental Health Specialist in an elementary school, where I work with many young immigrants/students.
Previously, I served as a Peer Counselor at Lavender Phoenix, offering invaluable support to Asian heritage queers and transgender individuals. During my life in Taiwan, I dedicated five years to volunteering at the Taiwan Tongzhi (LGBTQ+) Hotline Association, providing essential phone counseling services, advocating tirelessly for gender and queer equality in various settings, and helping support groups for parents and relatives of LGBTQ+ individuals. I strive to create spaces that foster understanding and acceptance.
My commitment to advocacy and support extends beyond my current role. With a blend of empathy, cultural sensitivity, and advocacy, I am deeply invested in creating inclusive environments where all individuals feel seen, heard, and valued.
Follow: @queerhealingsupport | Facebook
Isabel Santis - Offering: Psychedelic Integration Consultation
I have been learning to navigate expanded states since 1995, initially through dreamwork, and after through shamanic journeying. I started working intentionally with psychedelics in 2005, and did my first official psychedelic training with Zendo in 2012. In 2014, I had a transformative experience holding space for a participant at Burning Man, and realized I had found my calling. In 2018 when I went back to school to pursue my PhD in East-West Psychology at CIIS m, and in 2019, I launched Spiral Journey, my psychedelic preparation and integration practice.
I specialize in helping folks prepare their whole system (mind, psyche, and body) to navigate the psychedelic journey with agency and skill; to support their process of making meaning of their experience beyond the superficial layers; and to create actionable plans for implementing sustainable positive changes in their lives. My favorite way to work is in groups, where we can engage the collective intelligence, tap into peer support, and co-create learning experiences that allow us to deeply integrate knowledge into ways of being in the world, by embodying and practicing skills, and exercising individual agency.
In addition to my PhD work, I have a MA in Transformative Leadership, am a Trauma-Informed Positive Psychology Coach, and Integrated Somatic Trauma Therapy practitioner, Eco-psychologist, and Shamanic practitioner in the Maya Ki'che' tradition. The subject of my PhD dissertation is “The Effect of Psychedelics on People’s Experience of Eco-Anxiety”.
Follow: @spiraljourneyintegration
Please visit for more details: spiraljourneyintegration.com
Marcia Aguilar Kailian - Offering: Body Mind Improv and Drama Therapy
As a drama therapist, Marcia (she/they) uses improv and acting techniques for the therapeutic goals of the client. They offer improvisational theater workshops in the Bay Area, emphasizing the importance of spontaneity, active listening, and emotional expression for effective personal communication and anxiety reduction. Marcia directs self revelatory performances, guiding actors towards healing as they create original theatrical pieces. Marcia is an improvisational artist and writer. A recipient of a SF Arts Commission grant, she’s created her own solo shows: Family Photo, Make Marcia Great Again, and La Mamá Chingona (currently being developed into a full length play).
Follow: @MarciaAguilarPlays
Please visit for more details: bodymindimprov.com
Aiyisha Monique Castillo - Offering: Somatic Therapy
It is my passion to support humans in building a deeper relationship with their body. I’ve spent the last two decades studying psychology, trauma, human development and holistic healing practices. I understand the many reasons why someone might abandon themselves and have nothing but compassion for those struggling to make sense of their unique bodily journey. I’ve devoted my life’s work to educating and offering profound, life changing experiences with a focus on integration and wholeness.
Follow: @aiyishacastillo
Please visit for more details: aiyishacastillo.com
Elaine Santos - Offering: Wellness Coaching & Guided Imagery
I'm Elaine, Certified Wellness Coach and Founder of Wellness as Art! I offer one-on-one Health & Wellness Coaching, workshops and Guided Imagery, and I'm passionate about helping people emerge from overwhelm and feel like themselves again. I approach stress management holistically and compassionately by integrating evidence-based and intuitive practices so that you can find the best path forward for your unique journey to well-being.
Follow: wellness_as_art
Please visit for more details: wellnessasart.com
Melissa Craven - Offering: Expressive Arts Therapy & Supervision
My practice aims to help clients manage anxiety by building self-compassion and creativity. Together we call upon expressive arts practices and skills from DBT, IFS, and ACT. I spent my childhood finding emotional expression, connection, and humor through visual arts and dance. My educational experience includes undergraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, a year abroad at la Universitat de Barcelona, summer program at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fe, Switzerland, and graduate school at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, where I graduated in 2008. I spent 14 years working in the intensive stabilization programs at the University of California, San Francisco- where I organized the arts-based curriculum. Nowadays, I work with adults with anxiety related to stage-of-life stressors, including young adults, parents, and late career issues. I meet for walk-and-talk sessions in San Francisco and online throughout California. I am available for AMFT supervision.
Please visit for more details: melissacraventherapy.com
Chrysalis Hyon - Offering: Integral Professional & Academic Coaching
Chrysalis Hyon (PhD, East-West Psychology & MA, Jurisprudence & Social Policy/ UCB) is a professional coach trained under Wisdom of the Whole Coaching Academy LLC, an ICF-certified program who has a professional and academic consulting practice. Chrysalis also serves as a part-time lecturer at CIIS in both research methods and academic writing pedagogy. Her academic achievements include being a scholarship recipient at both UCB and CIIS and a Distinguished Writing Fellow from 2017-2022 for the Center for Writing and Scholarship at CIIS. Whether supporting clients through professional transitions or academic writing, Chrysalis has a passion for integrating left-brain/right-brain approaches in sessions.
Please visit for more details: chryscoaching.com
Tova Abelman - Offering: Whole Health Card Deck
I am a Holistic Wellness Consultant, Artist/Creator, & Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist. I have an MA in Counseling Psychology with a Concentration in Drama Therapy; an MBA; a BS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; and a certificate in Integrative Nutrition from UCSD. I help people work on inner changes and practical strategies to show up in their lives with greater creativity, curiosity, kindness, and compassion towards themselves and others through one on one coaching and group workshops intended to optimize wellness and wellbeing.
Follow: tova_wholehealth
Please visit for more details: tovaabelmancoaching.com
Matt Grundy - Offering: Gestalt Therapy
I am a CIIS alumni, offering trauma-informed gestalt psychotherapy.
Please visit for more details: therapyofthenow.com
Sam Pelczar - Offering: Relational Somatic Healing
Sam is a Relational Somatic Healing practitioner and spiritual care counselor. He is passionate about healing work that invites us into the relational field here-and-now. He has worked as a chaplain serving people with serious illness and end-of-life at UCSF medical center. He also is passionate about supporting others in psychedelic healing work and plant medicine (huachuma) ceremonies. He offers relational somatic counseling, psychedelic journey support, dreamwork, circling events, and huachuma ceremonies.
Please visit for more details: heretoheal.live
Serge Merlin - Offering: Wellness and Natural Healing
Serge Merlin, PhD is an intuitive holistic healer, energy medicine researcher, and former entrepreneur who has been continuously developing a theoretical foundation of his innovative therapeutic modality while mastering his practical healing skills. His professional and educational background is broad and diverse, ranging from computer engineering and business to healing arts and spiritual guidance.
In the early 1990s, in Moscow Russia, Dr. Merlin discovered and began developing his intuitive healing abilities, which set him on a path of personal spiritual advancement and sparked his interest in transpersonal psychology, as well as in mental and energy healing. He pursued studies in these areas and earned a BA in nonconventional psychology from the Academy of Nonconventional Psychology in Moscow, Russia.
Dr. Merlin started developing his original proprietary healing method, other life therapy (OLT), which combined energy medicine with an exclusive form of past life regression therapy to resolve psycho-emotional, somatic, and spiritual issues related to different aspects of peoples' lives. The purpose of OLT was to transform hidden fundamental structures of the mind to help people achieve their optimal well-being. The original method eventually evolved into a novel therapeutic modality, transcognitive psychoreconstructive therapy (TPT). This technique allows for direct extrasensory access to the deep layers of a person's psyche to facilitate unconscious mental processes enabling otherwise inaccessible resources of the mind to be actualized. TPT brings transformative changes in various domains of the mind, leading to the resolution of the underlying problem and the enhancement of a person’s health, wellness, and overall quality of life.
After 20 years of advancing his healing method, Dr. Merlin felt the need for in-depth learning about the mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects that it involves.
For that, he decided to conduct scientific research into its effectiveness, as he enrolled into a PhD program in transpersonal psychology at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, CA. There, Dr. Merlin also completed two academic specializations: a two-year program in spiritual guidance and a three-year program in transpersonal education and research.
Dr. Merlin's considerable experience as a healing practitioner using a nonconventional therapeutic approach has been constantly leading him to explore different areas of anomalous mental phenomena. His extensive research culminated in his doctoral dissertation “Comparative Inquiry into Anomalous Mental Phenomena: The Multiple Sources of Psi (MSoP) Hypothesis as a Comprehensive Solution to the Source-of-Psi Problem,” which he completed at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, CA. This was a significant achievement in his life-long endeavor to continuously acquire and expand scientific knowledge as applied to intuitive healing, transpersonal studies, and spiritual guidance. He also possess certificates of completion in specialized training programs, such as Holistic and Integrative Health, Science of Vitalism, and Studies in Parapsychology and Psychic Phenomena.
For over three decades, Dr. Merlin has been providing holistic intuitive healing to clients in Russia and the US. At present, he serves as the Executive Director and Healing Arts Practitioner at the Center for Wellness and Natural Healing in Danville, CA. He has been practicing intuitive mental healing using TPT to help individuals with enhancing their health and wellness. With spiritual guidance, he has been assisting individuals with personal growth and life-enrichment through the exploration of the spiritual aspects of life experiences that transcend religious, cultural, and ethnic boundaries.
Dr. Merlin has been researching, developing, and advancing his healing method with the vision to teach and offer it as a practical tool that can be successfully used by practitioners working in the fields of holistic healing, transpersonal and traditional psychology and psychotherapy, as well as holistic psychiatry. Dr. Merlin believes that sharing the knowledge about this unique healing modality along with broadening its therapeutic application can help holistic health practitioners be more effective in assisting their clients to achieve wholeness.
Follow: @drsergemerlin
Please visit for more details: cwnh.net