{+} C l i e n t - T e s t i m o n i a l s {+}

I'm a Dominican single mother of 3 and it has taken me months to be able to put into words the effect Kartina has had in my life. So here goes nothing. She is fucking wild.

I knew she was talented and skilled when I met her - she literally walked past me at a party in 2013. She had a ring of bright white light around her. It was her energy that I saw very clearly that day. She didn't want anything to do with me. I represent the opposite of what she is in many ways morally, religiously etc. with that being said I have unapologetically low key stalked her work for years. Watching her do so many things from earning that purple belt in BJJ to running meditation classes in her own home and being a hospital chaplain. I was like she is going to be my friend whether she wants to or not.

Her super-power is her compassion and empathy. No one can feel what you feel no one can guide you in the way she does. She is upfront and confident in what she says. When she speaks you need to listen because the wisdom that will follow will be life-changing if you allow it to be.

I first started working for her as an assistant then I became her client. As a client, I was able to peel away at my decades of internalized white supremacy, seeing and beginning to understand the work of my ancestors. The tears that I have shed as a 1st generation American-Dominican who allowed the brain-washing of western culture to consume me is painful to even write about. In one of our sessions, Kartina said the most profound thing to me. "We stopped listening to the wisdom of our ancestors and started following the advice of white businessmen in how to raise our children."

At every step I was encouraged to trust myself, remove my own self doubt and really let go of the mental bondage that dragged me down for years. To let God do his work within myself.

I am forever grateful for the opportunity I was given to be a part of her life and for a love and kindness that I never expected from someone outside the narrow little bubble I once allowed myself to be held hostage in. - once in bondage now fucking free" -LN

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I have known Kartina for over a decade and, through our friendship, have always known that she had power as a healer and guide - most apparently in the ways that she profoundly affected my life. The truest privilege I have had, however, is witnessing her growth and anchoring in this gift of divine purpose in the way she has helped others.

As a first-generation, Nigerian immigrant, heterosexual, cis-male, the innate openness and support of spiritual healing methods familiar to my people was only usurped by a forced skepticism that only generations of ignored trauma and cultural unknowing from living as a Black man in America could provide. It takes skill and a commitment to the nuance needed to get Black men to even enter this space, let alone communicate with them. Kartina has always approached my evolved and beguiling art of resistance with a hand and tone that one could call “firm” (haha)… but only and always in a way that felt “familiar”… because at this point I do see her as family. I value our relationship more than any other I have, because her healing and guidance has been paramount in informing, developing, and transforming the relationships that I was suffering the most with - specifically my parents and my partner, and more specifically with myself and the burdens of Black manhood that I have allowed myself to project and carry for 30+ years. She has (frustratingly at times) exposed me to a power that I chose (…at times still choose) to ignore, and through the truly darkest periods of my life has always been an unwavering light.

Beyond the familial niceties, she is just very, very, very good at what she does. A master. To witness her, and yourself, transform into her work has been one of my most cherished honors and an honor that I pray others have the opportunity to experience. - UU

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There aren’t many people in my life that I think about on an almost daily basis, Kartina is one of them. That’s an interesting thing to think about because I just realized that while writing this. Few people have touched my life in the way Kartina has. I worked with Kartina consistently for 2.5 years and enjoyed every minute of it, sometimes in hindsight because there were definitely hard moments where she pushed me towards my pain- but always gently.

Knowing how to nudge someone spiritually is a very very very difficult skill set to learn as I've found in my own experiences. You want the best for someone, you might even see where they are stuck and you know what could help them, but they will not hear what they are not ready to and you have to accept that. You have to hold that person with compassion and love because that is the only universal language. And sometimes it will look like it isn’t even working in the way you think it might and still you have to be ok with that. You have to listen very closely to your own motives and wounds and karma to make sure you’re not letting yourself and your ego get wrapped up in someone else's suffering. I’m speaking from my own lived experiences here but I imagine it's a taste of what it can look like to do the healing work that Kartina does. Something else I used to think about is the fact that all topics were on the table for discussion during a session. Including race. And I don’t really know how to begin writing about this but I’ll try. You are a Black Malay woman who let white people come into your space and talk about things that must have seemed insane to you. That is a lot of emotional labor right there if I've ever known a way to use that term. So thank you for holding that space as well as the many other spaces you also held.

The drive which she has to become awakened has become clearer to me over the years. It’s inspiring and beautiful and has changed my life. Something I’ve learned from Buddhism is that the best thing you can do for others and yourself is to heal yourself and act as a model for those around you. I’ve experienced that from being around Kartina. She’s hardcore as f*ck about waking up and sees everything as an opportunity to do so. It’s something I've finally understood after all this time. It’s ALL stuff for us to work with. I didn’t really get that when we would have our sessions so I’d often be hiding or embarrassed about something and Kartina would just be like “What are you hiding? Don’t keep it secret, plus I already know what you’re hiding so just let it out so we can talk about the elephant in the room” In addition to the healing work with clients, she also organized and ran the Magic Mansh Sangha. This was where I really solidified so much of my desire to have a spiritual practice. That was a shit ton of work to keep that thing going Kartina! The instagram posts which kept me coming, scheduling your life and relationship and new baby around sits that happened upwards of 3-5 times a week. Your house became a spiritual center and made me feel like Providence was my home. Many friendships faded and changed over the time I started coming to the Mansh. If I had a free afternoon or evening and there was a sit happening, you know I was coming to that instead of hanging out with friends. We regularly had 5-10 people in the sitting room and only now where I have absolutely no spiritual community do I fully realize how beautiful and rare that was. The world is so spiritually lonely and the Mansh served as a home.

The gift of sitting with someone who doesn’t judge you, who cares enough to listen to you and love you is enormous. I think it’s why I love Kartina so much. She may be the first person in my life to make me feel like I am really loved and seen. Who taught me that her love was not conditional and if I was “bad” then the love would be taken away. (this was why when you texted me you were angry at me i was so triggered, because i thought that one of the only stable sources of love in my life was going away) I live most of my life in a state of non-relaxation, purposeless-ness, depression and a deep lack of self worth and self love. I looked forward to my sessions with Kartina every week more than almost anything else. I finally found someone who was helping show me how to do the work after I’d spent my whole life searching. I found a language and a set of skills found in Buddhism that gave me a sense of purpose. I have a deep desire to wake up and see my suffering as grace and Kartina has repeatedly reminded me of the admiration she has for me in wanting to do so and that makes me feel so seen. I have struggled with the insecurity of feeling like I need Kartina in order to keep learning and to be ok. That without her and her wisdom and teachings I am lost and alone. While I have learned those things to be untrue, and that I am ok on my own and possess all the same wisdom she has I still sit with a sentiment that once brought a smile to her face: Sessions with Kartina are like hitting one of those speed up arrows in Mario Kart. You’re driving along at regular speed, you hit one of those arrows and for a brief time you shoot ahead extra fast.- It’s like getting a boost in wisdom from professor K. - AF

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Kartina has incredible power and precision in her work and her process. This would be amazing just to watch as an observer, but to have it working with you and through you, healing traumas, is an unbelievable experience. In one 3 hour session, Kartina was able to walk me back to my core childhood trauma, moments where I developed lifelong reactivity, and work carefully and precisely through extremely emotional, confusing, and difficult terrain. Her instant intuitive ability to notice when my thoughts or emotions would get pulled away from the core issues is one thing that makes her healing work so powerful. She sees through the storms, things that seem important but are ultimately distractions, to my true heart— she discovers it, reveals it, holds it safely, and allows it to heal. I have never met a healer like her and I have been changed by her forever. - SR

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I started seeing Kartina following a painful and traumatic separation. She helped me forgive and become friends with myself again instead of continuing to instinctively run away, chasing distraction after distraction. She helped me better listen to myself and validated my emotional reactions. Moreover, she helped me understand them in the context of my history/personal narrative. As a result of our relationship and exchanges, I have been better able to identify my fears in relationships and the sense of lack or insecurity that drove me into/to stay in unsatisfying and unhealthy relationships. I have been better able to articulate my needs openly and honestly—without shame—which has made a HUGE impact in my life in many ways. One significant impact is that my ex and I are back together again and flourishing as partners. Kartina actually saw and mentored us both in very meaningful ways. She proposed literature and exercises—including mindfulness meditation and ancestory work—that helped us grow together and see that the obstacles we once thought insurmountable were in fact not. And also that the differences we perceived in one another as a result of growing apart signaled a need to make space for each individual to go deeper within ourselves, rekindling friendship and a sense of self-respect/love/worth that nothing and no one external could provide. Kartina held space for me that felt safe, validating, and deeply nourishing. As a healer in the medical profession, I was astonished and humbled that an hour with her perhaps rivaled any healing I could offer patients with physical ailments. Her work is so important and I know that while she has natural skills in this domain that she also works incredibly hard and with great intention at it. I have referred several friends and colleagues to her—many of whom also echo these praises with great sincerity. Because of Kartina, I have rekindled a meaningful relationship with myself that has impacted my responses to and relationship with intimacy and pleasure and am recultivating a deeper sense of spirituality in a world that drones that out... and have also fallen in love with my best friend again. - CE

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I feel profoundly lucky to have the opportunity to work with Kartina. She has been able to penetrate my most calcified defense mechanisms, and hold space to delve into the psychological, spiritual, creative, emotional, and relational, ruts I am trapped in. Through our work I have new clarity around my traumas, and new insight on my gifts; these coincidental explorations have already been liberatory and transformational. I have been in therapy for years, but there is a directness and honesty to Kartina's approach that has added unprecedented depth to my inquiry. I sometimes find it difficult to yield to authority figures, including teachers and spiritual guides, because of how I have been let down by the limitations and rigidness of those relationships in the past. Kartina's practice is so expansive, mutable, and responsive that it resists conventional frameworks of power with regards to wisdom. Observing her own trust in her intuitive capacity and the manifold vernaculars of embodied and psychic messages, has supported me in accessing the ways in which truth is transmitted to me. The generosity of her practice is humbling even as it corroborates my own essential goodness and the value of trusting myself. Through my work with Kartina, I am operating with new confidence in valuing my intuition, and seeing through the murk of faulty narratives I once depended on. - TBL

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I have been so grateful for the work and time I have spent with Kartina. Her wisdom and grounding has supported me through major life transitions and has given me courage to look at myself in the reality of the present moment. I have seen therapist on and off for over ten years now and I have often left due to a lack of depth and analysis of race, gender, class, sexuality and mortality. At a time when I didn’t have the energy or strength to find a therapist Kartina was able to start just where I was at. She was and continues to be a refuge and a person that generates an environment where deep growth can take place. She has a wonderful balance of humor, honesty and expansiveness that has helped me to see myself more clearly and kindly. She has been a gateway for me in being able to seek clinical therapy and continues to compliment the cognitive behavior tools with spiritual work and talk therapy. I have been able to stick with counseling in a way that I haven’t in the past and I attribute a large part of that to Kartina! I cherish Kartina’s guidance, I don’t know how I would have moved through this past year with out it. She has given me the strength to really work on changing thought patterns and the courage to know that is possible. Beyond the everyday doula support, she has also supported in building a spiritual community that is welcoming and consistent and has informed and deepened my meditation practice. - HS

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Scheduling (+rescheduling) with kartina is a divinatory process in itself. Undermining the capitalist expectation that healing can be planned out bought or sold, we are instead real about the rhythms of our days, and open to a time that spontaneously works for both of us. From this special hour blossoms the healing potential of a mutual yes. A mutual magic moment- LBL

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Kartina is an exceptionally empathetic and intuitive guide. She gently leads you where you need to be but never forces you to be anywhere. She's strong, compassionate and highly intelligent and skilled in her work. I've trusted her at my most vulnerable! I always recommend her services to others who are struggling or looking for guidance through troubling times. - DA

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I was referred to Kartina by a friend who called her a wise and enlightened soul. She has been amazing to work with. Every session brings forth new ideas, realizations and ways of viewing things. I appreciate her perspectives and her experience. I also get to pet her fiesty cat during the sessions. She is very generous, shares resources, lends and gives books. Love working with her. -SY

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Meeting with Kartina has consistently been a highlight to my week. I always look forward to our appointments, knowing that each and every one will take a different shape in terms of the work we will be doing. One of the things that is so great about working with Kartina is how incredibly flexible she is in terms of what you are interested in focusing on within yourself. She will talk to you about love life, family life, unexpected emotional responses to things, spiritual practice, diet, exercise, you name it. She also will talk about herself at times, which makes her so much more of a real person to work with compared to my previous experiences of meeting with more traditional therapists where its' like talking to a sounding board. Always greets you with a smile, and even a hug if you need one that day. A+ lady - AF

<><><> If you've worked with me and would like to write a testimonial let me know! <3

 

 

 

( $ ) A b o u t - M y - R a t e s ( $ )

Sliding scale $77 - $144

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As a Black, Malay, and Indigenous femme cis-woman of mixed economic class, it is important for me to make my sessions as accessible as possible for everyone, especially those in historically marginalized communities. I aim to serve in a way that feels compassionate, respectful, spacious, and values the work we do together. Dana (the Pali word for generosity) is an important concept in the Buddhist tradition. The concept of dana informs all aspects of my practice. Learn more about Dana here. I ask all potential clients to determine where they fall on my scale, keeping in mind its purpose to make healing affordable to you, and to a broader community of people. Be compassionate with yourself and honest!

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Before determining an appropriate rate, it can be helpful to take some time to acknowledge the toxic and painful culture of capitalism that we exist under, and to investigate any feelings that arise when you think about or deal with money. It’s normal to feel awkward about this as money is a hard topic for many of us! It can make us feel panic, shame, scarcity, fear, vulnerability, excitement, anxiety, fulfillment, pride etc. While many of these feelings are undoubtedly rooted in a reality of not having enough money, some can also be unprocessed trauma reactions to capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy.

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While none of us will likely have a wholly healthy relationship with money in this culture, taking the time to acknowledge and be aware of the pain, fear, joy, and power of money can be an important and liberating practice.

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Some more concrete guidance that you can use to determine an appropriate rate is as follows:

● If you travel recreationally, own the home you live in, can afford to buy plane tickets or have a partner, parent(s), or other family members who can or do contribute to your financial or material support, or have access to family resources, have consider paying on the higher end of the scale.

● If you are a part of a historically oppressed group of people (Black, Indigenous, API, Latinx, gay, trans, differently abled, etc.) and cannot comfortably cover basic expenses, consider paying on the lower end of the scale.

● If you have difficulty covering rent, food, and health insurance costs, consider paying on the lower end of the scale or contact me to discuss other payment or work trade options. I offer several pay what you can slots per month on a priority basis. Please email me before booking if you are interested in this. If the slots are full your name will be added to a wait list.

I offer several pay what you can slots per month on a priority basis. Please email me before booking if you are interested in this. If the slots are full your name will be added to a wait list.

If you are part of a historically dominant group of people (white, cis-male or -female, and heterosexual), I invite you to carefully consider the rate that you are able to pay, knowing that by offering what you are able, you are contributing to a community of healing for us all. If you have ideas on how I can improve this system please let me know! Here are two images I like that can help you determine where you fall on the scale:

From Ride Free Fearless Money

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