~ I aim to move people and be moved by life ~

My path

I help people overcome their fears of being seen and unblocking their unique self expression body, heart and mind. Having struggled myself with fears and living in family addictions, I have been witness to how vicious our inner critic can be and all the ways we find to keep ourselves small.

I come from a highly creative, alternative, successful and very artistic family. I’ve lived a life where I’ve learnt from a very young age the importance of gender equality and respect for diverse fluidity, as my mother courageously embraced her own path as a lesbian woman in the 80s in Boston. My father and his incredibly artistic and visionary soul brought into my life architecture, photography, good food and bossa nova guitar in the mornings. And brought me as well a mirror and a need to protect myself as I witnessed the struggles of alcohol addiction and the deep process of self destruction this brings to oneself and their own family. I thank both my parents for their love for life and their own ecstatic encounter as young hippies in the 70s. At some point I was also shown how mothering could assume wider contexts by lovingly welcoming in my life my stepmother, a rock.

My paternal grandfather Armando Barrios was an extremely important Venezuelan painter who together with my grandmother Reyna Rivas a poet and philosopher gave me such an inspiring home library (literally) in which I would loose myself in books during my adolescent years. And of course my maternal grandmother and grandfather who offered me a sweet and holding home filled with Venezuelan traditions and love for our country, where I could just go into and be held by them and be a child. Through all this, I’ve lived in many places (London, Boston, Milan, Caracas) and that has brought a world wide view of what it means to be an Latin American emigrant and inmigrant, and indeed it hasn’t always been fully welcoming.

I’ve worked as a successful Graphic Designer and Creative Director for over 27 years in my own design studio in Milano, the design capital of Italy, and after a very difficult moment in my life 12 years ago, where my vital energy was just slipping away, I was shown by the grace of life the power of embodied and transformation practices like Conscious dance, Tantric Pulse, Family Constellations, Yoga, Humanistic Astrology, Voice work and Singing, Energy work and Plant & Cacao wisdom, as well as reconnecting deeply to my Venezuelan roots and ancestral lineage.

I began to come back home into my body, to reclaim it, un-brand it, empower it and divinely surrender to it, a place I would never leave again. This sparked in me the desire to dance, study and immerse myself in the discipline, liberty, transformation and sacredness that these practices offer. And in 2015 I found my second life path in Movement Medicine™, uniting all of my being in one practice by integrating shamanic, therapeutic, scientific and artistic intelligence, and especially I had found my teachers in beautiful English Devon lands: Ya’Acov and Susannah Darling Khan. Together with the 4 elements, theirs is the map and 21 gateways I use when I invite in our bodies and movement through Cacao, Embodied Branding and dance.

At the moment I am also deepening my love and connection with the Cacao Plant as a way to open, deepen and de-armour the heart. Peeling off layer by layer in trust and joy as I apprentice and follow guidance. We met in 2016 and I have been working commitedly with her and for her since then. Working to heal my feminine lineage, in connection to my womb and cycles with the power of my ancient and indigenous Venezuelan ancestors. To heal my inner child and to hold that part of me that felt lonely and thought she wasn’t good enough.

Another life initiation happened again strongly, as I imagine for many of us during pandemic years, after being discovered by chance an AVM in my brain that thankfully never gave me symptoms but life was clearly showing me the need to protect and (literally) remove the blocks to continue living life fully, without fear. This has been one of my biggest extreme challenges so far, having to prepare for elective brain surgery, going through deep fear and re-learning to use all of my resources and coming out alive and well.

And ultimately this is it. Trust. Going beyond fear. This is what I have been unconsciously working for all my life, and what I want to share with you. You are not alone. You are held by exquisite energies if you take the time, respect and consciousness to open to them. You are loved and supported by seen and unseen forces. Connect deeply with them and move and be moved by them.

What am I grateful for?

Go through life in a mindful and deeply aligned way. With Movement Medicine™ I allow my body to open, soften, express joy, sadness, fury, let it move and transform in me and out of me. This creates such an exquisite radical space that it can now be filled with incantations and new thoughts.

With Cacao I connect deeply with my heart and it knows that it is not alone, I am connected deeply to Divine Love, it always feel like a warm grandmother’s hug. It allows me to cleanse and alchemize energies through the heart with a very personal tantric transformation. From the earth, to the sky and back down and always, always meeting in the heart. Balancing masculine and feminine energies inside and out, and being moved by life in exciting and unique ways.

With my Embodied Brand coaching offerings I feel a mindful connection to elevate my professional essence, a way to align deeply to ethical and sustainable values and how this can be applied to my unique visibility, as I include my body in this process with it’s exquisite somatic mindfulness. Creating fast and powerful unblocking moments as well as deep resources and empowerment for my own professional journey and my soul offering to the world.

Qualifications & Trainings

Master in Visual Design from Scuola Politecnica di Design

Qualified teacher and facilitator of Movement Medicine (also member of the Movement Medicine Association)

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Cacao Ceremony training and Cacao Medicine Woman training ~ with Serap Kara

Pulso Tantrico ~ with Sajeeva Hurtado

Embodied Listening ~ with Susannah Darling Khan

Roots: systemic and family constellations
(theory, practice and formative exploration) ~ with Antonella Fracasso

Humanistic Astrology ~ with Rino Siniscalchi

Cello and Music studies ~ Scuola Musicale di Milano

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Numerous Conscious dance workshops and retreats including Trance Dance, Voice work, Open Floor with Andrea Juhan and Open Floor Libido with Willemijn de Dreu, Soul Motion with Michael Molin Skelton, Azul with Amara Pagano, 5 Rhythms with Willemijn de Dreu, Alex McKay and Olivia Palmer. And of course wonderful events by other Movement Medicine teachers some which I have organised, translated or better yet, simply danced to, my love to Ya’Acov and Susannah Darling Khan, Ben Yeger, David Mooney, Yasia Leiserach, Silvana Rigobon, Caroline Carey, David Rose, Christian de Sousa and Rosie Perks.

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Other retreats and rituals done with Mary Reynolds, Cristobal Jodorowsky, Abuela Margarita, Igor Ezendam, Mama Andrea Herrera, Keith Cacao Shaman, Nana Marina.

Infiinite blessings to all plant, animal and mineral beings.