Pam Koppel – Project Director
Ms. Koppel has 23 years experience in the health care field and has been working in the field of Integrative Medicine since 1996. She began her career in 1991 as a hospice social worker and has since worked in health care management, program development and education. She is co-founder of the Integrative Medical Clinic of Santa Rosa and served as their Team Development Director for 11 years. She was the Program Director of Sutter Health’s Integrative Health and Healing Services, a program that offers free complementary therapies to women with cancer. She also created and co-developed the Health Navigator Certificate Program with Dr. Ellen Barnett at Sonoma State University. She is the Program Director and Lead Instructor for that program which is in its 5th year.
Morgan Hewitt, MA – Health Navigator
Morgan is a career educator and counselor with 23 years experience teaching and guiding high school and elementary students. After losing her sister to uterine cancer at 51, and her husband to brain cancer, she became dedicated to making a difference in health care. Through the Health Navigator Certificate Program at Sonoma State University, she learned to help patients with resources and decision making make as they travel an often confusing path in the midst of illness. Patients are heard in a safe, nurturing environment. They are encouraged to trust their own inner wisdom and guided to make a plan of action that is right for them. Morgan volunteered for Providence Hospice in Seattle and helped create a Palliative Care Volunteer organization at Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland, WA. She currently volunteers for the Ceres Project, headquartered in Sebastopol, which provides healthy, nourishing, organic food to people with chronic illness. She finds great joy in helping people live their lives fully as they consider complimentary therapies to enhance their well being and promote healing. She honors and respects each person’s journey.
Karen Cahill, CMT – Oncology Massage, Gentle Scar Manipulation and Manual Lymphatic Drainage
Karen is a certified Oncology Massage Therapist who has extensive training and experience working with people who are medically compromised. She has completed over 400 hours of training focused on oncology, including Gentle Scar Manipulation, Manual Lymphatic Drainage and Pediatric Oncology Massage. Karen’s sessions are a blending of Eastern and Western modalities, using gentle touch, reflexology and acupressure to influence the bodies own healing knowledge. Karen has worked for Sutter Pacific Medical Foundation. In addition to her private studio, Karen has offered services through Parkpoint Health Club, and visits those too ill to travel. Karen volunteered for over 3 years at the Sacramento Oncology Massage Clinic and then, later for the Cancer Support Clinic in Santa Rosa. She is a Charter member of the international organization, Society for Oncology Massage, (s4om.) and started the Northern California Oncology Massage Network.
Annette Huck, CMT – Jin Shin Jyutsu
Gitama is a certified Jin Shin Jyutsu® practitioner and self-help instructor with 26 years of experience. She has studied with Mary Burmeister, the foremost Jin Shin Jyutsu® teacher in North America, as well as other prominent teachers. Annette is also a California State certified massage therapist offering her full range of services in Mill Valley and Berkeley offices. Her experience and wealth of knowledge assists individuals with a wide range of health concerns. She specializes in working with individuals undergoing cancer treatments, recovery from surgery, life transitions, stress-related conditions, fatigue, and more. In addition to her specialized practice with seniors and mothers-to-be, Annette offers Jin Shin Jyutsu® self-help workshops to groups of all ages and backgrounds. She is inspired and energized by her practice of Iyengar Yoga, swimming, meditation, and walking in the Marin Headlands
Margot SchaaL – Feldenkrais Practitioner (cm)
Margot guides people to improve functions relative to their daily life. Through her gentle touch they discover how to release habitual holding that interferes with optimal living. Functional Integration®sessions with Margot employ gentle touch, sequences of movement with directed attention, and the wisdom of natural healing. Margot has practiced Feldenkrais since graduating from the four year training in 2003, teaching all ages and people in all states of health. Her clients have learned to address physical and emotional challenges of neurological and muscular-skeletal difficulties, including stroke, accidents, chronic pain, anxiety, and trauma. Through advanced study Margot is also a Certified Assistant Trainer of the Feldenkrais Method, a Qigong teacher and a Reiki Master. Her specialties include back pain, trauma, recovery from injury or surgery, joint and muscle pain, balance, coordination, and flexibility. In addition to working with patients at Cancer Support Sonoma, she sees clients at her private office on Third Street West, Sonoma. Margot has lived in Africa and Latin America, and speaks Spanish and French.
You can read more about Margot’s services for a Sustainable Body on her website www.MargotSchaal.com
Danielle Schwaderer, ND– Naturopathic Medicine
Dr. Schwaderer is a California licensed naturopathic doctor, practicing natural family medicine in her hometown of Sonoma. After managing a successful practice in San Diego for several years, she has returned to the valley to be closer to family and to be an active member of a strong community. She earned her doctoral degree in naturopathic medicine from National College of Natural Medicine and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from San Diego State University. While attending NCNM, Dr. Danielle completed a clinical rotation in integrative cancer care, and has since incorporated the skills and expertise within her private practice. It is Dr. Danielle’s goal to improve the quality of life of her patients by enhancing vitality and safely balancing organ systems that are compromised during conventional cancer treatments.
Katherine Pearce – Chinese Medicine
Katherine is a licensed Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner. She graduated summa cum laude from Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in 1998 and has been in full time practice ever since. Having worked in many settings using acupuncture for addiction recovery and for aiding end of life transition at hospice, she also worked in Sonoma county for 12 years with a medical doctor practicing integrative medicine with an emphasis on chronic illness and cancer. She has studied mindfulness and jungian theory with dream-work and likes to explore the relationship between the emotions and the body. Chinese Medicine never separated body and mind in the way that occurred in the west and is she finds a perfect modality to work with both psyche and soma to free longstanding “patterns of disharmony” , bodily symptoms and emotional disquiet. She seeks to explore with each individual their unique story and any relationship that may exist between their physical and emotional symptoms and patterns, and to free the body and mind from the stress of these and their associated physiological and emotional effects restoring a peaceful and invigorated balance that allows for growth and healing. Katherine grew up in Wales in the UK and recently spent four years working in London and Wales. She has now returned to Sonoma County and has a private practice in Santa Rosa and Forestville.
Regina Powers, FNP – Brennan Healing Practitioner- Energy Medicine Therapist-Cranial Sacral Therapist, Touch for Health Practitioner
Regina graduated as a Registered Nurse in 1983, with a minor in Psychology. She then continued in the traditional medical model receiving her degree as a Family Nurse Practitioner in 1997. Her practice has been primarily Family Practice/Integrative Health and Energy Medicine. She started out as a Reiki Master then went on to discover many other complementary healing modalities. She also studied Cranial Sacral Therapy through the Upledger Institute, Touch for Health with Dr John Thie who utilizes Applied Kinesiology working with the 5 Elements of Chinese medicine, and then she completed a 4 year training at the Barbra Brennan School of Healing in Energy healing.
Through her education and experience in western medicine, Regina has built a solid foundation to fully understand and safely integrate the best of traditional and integrative practices. She has a vast skill set and is able to uncover many aspects of the individual in order to help bring her clients back into balance. Each individual is unique and many times she utilizes a blend of various modalities. http://powersenergymedicine.com
Natalie Compagni Portis, MFT, PsyD. – Psychotherapy
Natalie is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the state of California and also has a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. She has worked in the Health Care field for almost 30 years specializing in the working with individuals and their families and caregivers around living with illness, loss and chronic pain. She also works with caregivers to support them in their unique needs in dealing with a loved one with cancer and other illness. She utilizes an eclectic treatment approach tailored to individual’s needs. She also works with children, couples and families and has done research in many areas, including the issues of parenting through cancer.
Michael Volk, L.Ac. – Acupuncture
Michael began his study of Chinese medicine and philosophy in the mid 1980’s while living as an exchange student in Taipei, Taiwan. After graduating with a degree in Chinese Language and Literature from Oberlin College in 1989, Michael attended the University of Washington, the Beijing Language Institute, and the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. In 1991, Michael began working with Peter Stern N.D., L.Ac. at the Redwoods Rural Health Center in Redway, CA. After assisting with the acupuncture and herbal care of thousands of patients, Michael began seeing his own clients as a clinical intern in 1996. Over the next three years he worked collaboratively with M.D.’s and other professionals to provide holistic “team approach” care for HIV, Cancer, Hepatitis C and other serious and chronic conditions. In 1998 Michael helped to found the Acupuncture Department at the Gerald Phelps Community Hospital in Garberville California, and became especially interested in the care of the aged and seriously ill while providing acupuncture care in the hospital Skilled Nursing Facility. Michael completed his California Acupuncture Board Exams in 1999, and has been practicing since 2000. In 2011 Michael completed his training and exams to become Certified in Sports Medicine Acupuncture (C.SMA). While these techniques were developed to treat elite athletes, Michael has found the sports medicine approach helpful for patients wishing to regain muscular strength and function after surgery.
Tashe A. Kurland, CMT – Oncology massage, reiki, crania-sacral therapy
Tashe is a certified massage therapist practicing since 1994, with extensive training and experience working with a broad spectrum of people, including oncology patients and medically fragile individuals recovering from surgeries, illness, injuries and stress. Trained in oncology massage in Davis and Berkeley, California in 2013 and 2014, she combines massage techniques designed to safely work with complications of cancer and cancer treatment, with the gentle touch of CranioSacral Therapy and Reiki. Having acquired over 700 hours of massage schooling originally in Santa Fe, NM, Tashe moved to Northern California in 1997. Here she continues to expand her knowledge of bodywork, while also raising her 2 daughters, and maintains a private practice in Ukiah, CA. She is a provider with Society for Oncology Massage (S4OM) and a member of The International Association of Healthcare Practitioners (IAHP).