mothers are a force of nature

Creative offerings for times of transition & initiation along the motherhood journey

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our hearts are a frontline

As mothers, how do we keep our hearts soft so we can feel aliveness and wonder and steady so we can face a world that will break our hearts open over and over again?

We are living, parenting, and caregiving through ecological loss, threadbare community and violence— an atmosphere that stirs lonliness, fear and uncertainty.

In times of change and grief, we need practices that help ground and fortify ourselves. Words can only take us so far. When we turn to creativity, the earth, community, and our other languages of expression, we reclaim old ways and find new tools for connection and understanding and grow our capacity to face ourselves and the world.

JJ is an educator, artist and mother.

I want to build motherculture worthy of the brilliance and multitudes of mothers.

I believe motherhood is a sacred role. One that demands support and space to honor the grief and beauty of this unfolding path. I want to support mothers in standing upright and supported in this life-giving work. We are a force of nature, capable of birthing a different world into being, for ourselves, our kin and future generations.

My work turns to ancient tools - creative expression through storytelling, myth, movement, music, art, attuning to the natural world through time outside connecting to plants, animals and the rhythms of the seasons, while held within a supportive, intergenerational circle- to help guide us towards motherculture rooted in kinship, mutual support and reciprocity.

I’ve been described as “social mycelium”; I love to create spaces where unexpected connections can happen. For over a decade I have worked as an educator with people of all ages in wildly different places like forest classrooms, migrant farmworker clinics, an urban community health center, youth programs, retreats, mother circles, and a domestic violence shelter. I see the heavy weights faced by parents and caregivers navigating our individualized, often violent, modern life that denies basic dignity and humanity. And yet, over and over again, I see how people hold the medicine for these very times. When we gather, we can reclaim practices to do realtime healing, repair and visioning work. We are and have always been the weavers of a different way.

I collaborate in-person and virtually with individuals, groups and organizations. Get in touch if you’d like to work together

YOU ARE A FORCE OF NATURE
This was a card my sister made for me to prepare for the birth of my daughter.

  • I live and work on the ancestral homelands of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of the Mohican Nation, the Hudson Valley, New York.

    I give thanks for the many mentors and teachers over the years: all the beings and the land where I live, my family, my partner and daughter, every student I have ever had the privilege to work with, the medicine of hawthorn, and many, many more.

  • My ancestral roots are from Calabria, Italy, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, England, and Germany.

  • Training/Mentorship

    Certified SoulCollage® Facilitator trained by Mariabruna Sirabella and Beth Marcil

    Certified MotherCircle facilitator trained by Kimberly Ann Johnson and Jessica Connolly

    Kripalu Lead Assistant for Mother Daughter Workshop

    Graduate certificate in documentary filmmaking from George Washington University's Documentary Center

    B.A. Integrated Community & Global Health

    Child-Led Certified Practitioner through Sally Haughey’s Wunderled Program

    Mentored by the instructors, children and land at Flying Deer Nature Center

“ The circle was a place to quench a thirst I didn’t know I had. It was a container for some deep work I did know was waiting but needed community in order to begin it. It was like remembering a Self I’d long since put away.”

MotherCircle participant, 2025

current offerings

FOUR CLASS COHORT

Thorn Medicine:

A journey with Hawthorn &
SoulCollage® in
times of transition

Autumn 2026

Learn more

Ethos

  • weaving kinship: tending our garden of relationships

    Mixed ages groups that encourage sharing across generations. We spend time outdoors and tell stories that uplift the interconnection between people, plants, animals and the vast web of life. When we partner with the wild, nature, more-than-human world, we begin to meet our many creative collaborators. When we pay attention to these relationships, a whole world of magic and support opens up.

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    What experiences help us feel and deeply remember we are part of not separate from nature? Who can we lean on? What gifts can we share?

  • expressive arts: portals to self-discovery

    Creative process often gets us to the heart of matter quicker than our analytical minds. Expressive practices - storytelling, craft, movement, singing, drawing- are our ancient tools for meaning-making. By tuning us into our bodies and intuition, they create space to explore the full spectrum of our lives, the joys and the sorrows. Here we gain powerful insights that help us do healing and repair work in unexpected ways.

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    What happens when we turn to our bodies and creative practice for guidance?

  • collaborative process: together we make the medicine

    Experiences are amplified when we do them in a supportive, communal setting. We often learn just as much from the group as our personal experience. Group works helps us learn practical skills to hold ourselves and each other. Together we learn old ways to steward what was traditionally held by community. These experiences and skills deepen our capacity to be in the dark, sit with the unknown, and prepare us for life’s many seasons of joy and heartbreak.

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    How would it feel to do this work within a group of people who want to support each other?