I'm an advanced practice registered nurse (clinical nurse specialist) with a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. Clinical practice and education have been my passion for over four decades. I have tried to integrate spirituality into my practice of holistic caring and teaching---although my traditional training often fell short in providing me with the tools needed to do so.  I experienced many "unexplained" but very real, powerful encounters with the spiritual realm during my years of work as a nurse and psychotherapist in critical care, hospice, mental health, grief, trauma, and behavioral medicine.  However, a powerful near-death experience (NDE) of my own brought spiritual insight and lessons that I could have never learned in all of my years of clinical experience---or in any textbook or degree program. It changed my life, and deeply transformed me both personally and professionally.

On December 15, 2008, while newly grieving the loss of my father, I experienced a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) while at home, just a few hours after visiting his gravesite for the first time since his death.  I did not have a "heart attack," had no interruptions of blood flow to my heart or muscle damage, and had no traditional risk factors for such an event. My heart simply stopped.  An out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) like the one I experienced is fatal about 90% of the time;  survival after treatment to hospital discharge occurs only about 10% of the time, often with resulting neurological and functional impairment. Brokenhearted, grieving, and emotionally and physically exhausted from a life of caregiving and poor self-care, I experienced a complete energetic depletion that almost took my physical life, while, at the same time, renewed my life spiritually in ways I never could have anticipated.

My NDE occurred sometime during my cardiac arrest and resulting coma. During my NDE, I experienced life as pure consciousness, out of my physical body, in the presence of the most all-encompassing love I have ever known.  God, the source energy of all that is, was ever-present, guiding me through a life review, sharing messages about our innate identity as souls, our mission as loving beings of compassion and light---and my own spiritual mission. With "no medical explanation," I awoke from the coma, and miraculously returned to my body and earthly life after surviving what the medical team told my family was not medically possible---with a very clear sense of mission about the work I needed to do.  Intuitive gifts, deep spiritual transformation, and clear insight and vision emerged to fuel me on my journey and provide the tools needed to fulfill my new mission.