Meet Kate

I’m sharing an accumulation of education and lived wisdom on this site.

My life has been beautifully filled with support and opportunities, and I’ve lived through indescribable physical and emotional pain. I had spinal fusion surgery for scoliosis when I was 17 years old and continue to have repercussions today. It challenges me to love my body and accept its limitations every single day. My other experience of pivotal pain was watching my father die. My journey through grief has brought me closer to what I believe the true essence of Love and meaning are meant to be. I’m continually inspired to help others the more I experience pain because I know many out there suffer just as I do. I have built a personal practice founded in science and spirituality, bridging Spirit, body, and mind to hold myself accountable for my healing continually.

I’m a San Francisco native - New England Boarding School grad - moved to San Diego to study Anthropology - stayed on at USD, and finished my first Master's degree in Leadership Studies focusing on the different processes of self-transformation and group learning - then I moved to Boulder, CO for my second Masters in Psychosomatic Dance/Movement Therapy, but left the program halfway through because the program wasn’t aligned with my values.

I was ready to start my business!

For my astrology/self-assessment enthusiasts, I’m a Cancer Leo Aquarius, Enneagram 8 Wing 7, Manifestor 6/2, ENFJ.

I live by the belief that we go through challenges to learn how to overcome them so that we can help others who are also suffering. The way to happiness is through contributing to others’ happiness. I was a pretty confused and angry human before I was introduced to Buddhism a decade ago. Not only do meditation and Dharma studies change how I respond to life, but it also helps me cut through all the unnecessary suffering of my delusions and false narratives WITH Love instead of berating myself or blaming others. This Work we dedicate ourselves to can be pretty ugly and dark, but the continual process of perspective, trust and surrender, and fierce compassion make the intolerable easier to explore.

For the last decade, I have been on an unrelenting journey to figure out how to serve others best—beginning with leading a meditation group as an undergraduate at the University of San Diego and then continuing during my Master's at the School of Leadership and Education Sciences while working with a non-profit called Compassion It, which educated me in compassion training. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to share these practices with many undergraduate and graduate students, co-instructing a graduate student course (Mindfulness and Leadership) at my school after graduation, leading workshops in corporate settings, and even bringing my creation of Compassionate Leadership to Buddhist nuns in Indonesia, Vietnam, and India.

I’m fascinated by using the psychosomatic experience of developmental rhythms for empathy training. I have created an in-person workshop called Love & Rhythm, an intimate journey through non-verbal expression and the eight types of Love. My online offering, Sensual Self Love, is a program I designed for women to embody non-sexual sensuality using dance, hip isolations, visualizations, and self-touch. Whether in a romantic partnership or not, this program will help connect you physically, emotionally, and spiritually to your feeling of wholeness.

I emphasize the distinction between sensuality and sexuality as it is essential to notice a pleasurable sensorial experience without the attachment of it needing to be sexual in nature. We aren’t all sexually available, and the way I teach sensuality is a potent formula for healing grief!

Our longing for romantic love and external validation goes back to early childhood development with our caretakers; from there, we learn how to love others and ourselves. Many of us struggle with misguided and traumatized attachment systems and desire to feel empowered and autonomous. How good would it feel to be in a place where you no longer need a partner but can choose when there is true alignment because of how complete you feel with yourself?

The therapeutic technique of identity integration that I’ve worked with for years has become the foundation of my offerings. It draws on Buddhist philosophy, Psychosomatic practice, Internal Family Systems, Attachment Theory, and Gestalt therapy. I’ve always experienced myself as someone with contradictory qualities. When I was young, I struggled between feeling affectionate and caring while also overwhelmed by rage and aggression. I swung too often between the hero and the villain to where I didn’t know which one I was. People describe me as having “masculine energy” because I am assertive and disciplined. I also thrive with wildly feminine qualities of being nurturing, deeply emotional, and creative.

I constantly felt misunderstood by others, by myself. Who am I?

I also knew from a young age that someday I would be a Buddhist. I just couldn’t yet because I wasn’t "worthy." I remember, years later, when I found my first teacher, I told him this, and he laughed hysterically. Buddhism welcomed me with open arms, confused parts and all. The teachings changed my life because, interestingly, the joke had been on me: there is no inherently existing self! I get to be all these things because I am none of these things. We won’t go down that rabbit hole here, but what liberated me from confusion and self-loathing was what I like to call, zooming out to see the big picture and seeing how important it is not to take myself so seriously because I get to choose who I am in each moment and what everyone else thinks of me is colored by their own perceptions which, EXHALE, makes none of it actually true. What is true is what I choose to do in each moment.

This is my invitation:

We can be devotional and respectful of ancient traditions while also embracing and loving our bodies and sensuality. We keep doing the Work to notice when we get triggered from an old belief and respond with wisdom. Then we are accepting and integrated. Then we don’t need to take ourselves so seriously.

So, welcome to this Work. I’m Kate, but Rhythm Rose is a name that has been floating around in my mind for a while, waiting to emerge. I’m playing with her and integrating her many requests for more expression, more Love, and more MOVEMENT. Yeshe Dechen (Wisdom Great Happiness) is the Tibetan name my teacher gave me after traveling around India together. I have taken the 5 Buddhist precepts: no killing, stealing, lying, sexual misconduct, or intoxicants, which means karmically, each day I uphold these vows, I accumulate more positive merit (better rebirth yay!), and when I break them, it is a stronger blow to my karma bank. Most people live with these tenants anyway, but making a vow in front of your respected spiritual teacher creates heightened awareness and commitment. I have also taken my Bodhisattva Vows! (the ceremony is on my Instagram)

My wound has been my painful judgment and refusal of self-acceptance, so I’ve made my purpose to create spaces (internally and externally) for fierce compassion and wholeness.