Fall 2025 Presenter Bios

(in order of appearance)

Amanda Meadows

Amanda Meadows, MSW, RSW, is a cis, white settler of Irish and English ancestry, titled Social Worker and Psychotherapist, currently guiding clients in her private practice across Ontario and Alberta, Canada. For the majority of her 25+ year Social Work career, Amanda worked within the Western medical model from a Northern context, operating from a systems perspective. This deep grounding in systems thinking created a natural bridge to incorporating Internal Family Systems (IFS) into her clinical work in 2022. Alongside her professional path, Amanda has walked a parallel journey rooted in Indigenous and energetic knowledge systems, and complementary medicine.

Growing up in Northern Ontario as a suicide survivor, and having lived through poverty and complex trauma, Amanda is deeply committed to a spiritual practice grounded in decolonial work, ancestral connection, and holistic healing. This commitment is not only personal, but foundational to her therapeutic work, and embodies her Social Work ethics and standards of practice of being in right relationship, competence, and integrity.

Amanda’s private practice is grounded in a strengths-based, feminist framework rooted in anti-oppressive practice. She primarily supports healthcare and human service professionals, emergency services professionals, and healers navigating the intersections of trauma, mental health, and relationships, using IFS and somatic modalities.

Mojdeh Mansoori, LMFT (she/her)

Mojdeh is a licensed therapist, supervisor, group facilitator and astrologer who lives in San Francisco. She has been practicing for 11 years and has been in private practice for 3 years. Before beginning her private practice, she worked for many years in community mental health and public education. As a child of immigrant parents, Mojdeh has navigated the complex experience of being a bicultural and bilingual woman. She works with individuals, couples and children who have been historically oppressed. Mojdeh uses a liberation focused approach to support her clients in examining systems of privilege and healing intergenerational trauma.  

Mojdeh began informally studying astrology when she was 14 and has been mentoring with a professional astrologer for the past several years. She began reading her family and friends' birth charts as a teenager and now integrates astrology into her clinical work. Mojdeh utilizes the client's birth chart, the chart of the moment, astrological transits, and ancestral wisdom to guide clients in deepening their knowledge about themselves and how they can create change in their communities. 

Amber Choisella

Amber Choisella is a gifted Spiritual Medium and Mentor dedicated to guiding others on their journeys of healing, empowerment, and self-discovery. She has studied extensively at renowned institutions such as the Morris Pratt Institute, the Arthur Findlay College, and the University of Metaphysics (UOM), where she holds ministry status and earned a Bachelor's degree in Metaphysics.

Committed to her ongoing growth and mastery, Amber is currently pursuing a doctorate in Metaphysics to further deepen her knowledge and service to others. In addition to her spiritual expertise, Amber is a licensed psychotherapist, blending her clinical mental health experience with profound spiritual insights. This unique integration allows her to provide a holistic approach that empowers individuals to heal, grow, and align with their highest potential.

As the founder of Blossom and Rise, Amber embodies her soul's purpose of helping others blossom into their full power and rise to live authentically. Through her deep spiritual connection, practical tools, and compassionate guidance, Amber inspires transformation and supports others in achieving balance, clarity, and self-empowerment.

La’Toya Nicole Edwards, LCSW

Dr. La’Toya Nicole Edwards is affectionately known as “The Afrocentric Therapist” and specializes in blending traditional psychotherapy with holistic and ancestral healing practices. As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), certified Reiki Master, shamanic practitioner, and trained yoga instructor, she passionately guides individuals in healing mind, body, and spirit. Dr. Edwards is the founder of Thriving Well Holistic Wellness Solutions, where she helps clients navigate anxiety, trauma, burnout, and emotional healing through modalities such as EMDR, Brainspotting, Somatic Experiencing, and tarot psychotherapy. Her work is rooted deeply in African and Indigenous traditions, guiding clients on transformative journeys from surviving to thriving.

Julia Corley, LCMHC-A, LMBT (she/her)

Julia Corley has worked in the healing arts since 1998, first as a massage therapist with a passion for the mind/body connection and now as a somatic psychotherapist, international trainer, and facilitator. She is a Certified Trainer and Therapist of Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychotherapy as well as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner.  

Julia is a firm believer in the transformative power of ritual, pleasure, beauty, mindful awareness, silence, rest, space, connection, earth, air, water, fire, kindness, time in nature, letting go of what’s no longer needed, belly laughs, and a good cry. She finds great delight in the reverent and the irreverent. She views her work not only as a profession but also as a path of discovery and whole-heartedness.

Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP (she/her)

Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP, is a trainer, author, consultant and founder of the Lancaster School of Psychodrama and Experiential Psychotherapies in Lancaster, Pa. She teaches psychotherapists, coaches, educators and other helping and healing professionals how to create sessions and presentations that are enlivened with authentic human connection, spontaneity, creativity and sensitivity. Karen is the author of “Show and Tell Psychodrama: Skills for Therapists, Coaches, Teachers, Leaders” and co-author of “Integrating Psychodrama and Systemic Constellations: New Directions with Action Methods, Mind-Body Therapies and Energy Healing” with Ronald Anderson and “Healing Eating Disorders with Psychodrama and Other Action Methods: Beyond the Silence and the Fury” with Linda Ciotola.

Most recently, Karen assisted in the writing of “Words of the Daughter: A Memoir” by Regina Moreno, the daughter of J.L. Moreno, the originator of psychodrama, and Florence Bridge Moreno. Her next book focuses on the use of the Tarot in psychotherapy, particularly with experiential methods. Karen has particular interest in expanding creativity and spontaneity, the use of embodiment as a way of deep learning and understanding, and social change.

Learn more about Karen at www.realtruekaren.com and subscribe to her e-letter for professionals.

Mel Gunshon (she/her)

Hi! My name is Mel.

Leo Sun / Capricorn Moon / Leo Rising

I'm a future ancestor, an educator, a mentor, a fiber artist, mother, caregiver and community builder. I'm excited to share my perspective on non-traditional methods of healing and reconnection that can be used in traditional settings. My approach centers on decolonizing the way we perceive and interact with ourselves in a way that leads us back to ourselves and our ancestral wisdom. I am a recent graduate from a bachelor's program in Behavioral Health Science. Whilst I took away a lot of useful tools, I found there were aspects that did not align with my values and belief systems. Though, I am not formally a therapist, the practices of decolonization, honoring grief and engaging in ancestral exploration inform all of my work.

Alex Runolfson

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Jessika

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Vanessa Holliman, LCSW

Vanessa Holliman is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Certified Holistic Health Practitioner, founder of BEing Wholistic and practices Integrative Mind-Body-Spirit Social Work. Her work is rooted in the belief that healing trauma, especially the niche of adult sexual trauma, requires addressing the whole person—mind, body, and spirit. With training in psychotherapy, holistic nutrition, functional movement, astrology, and energy modalities like Usui & Holy Fire Reiki, she’s developed an integrated approach to help beings reconnect with their true self. She blends clinical trauma theories with holistic and spiritual practices, using tools like therapeutic Astrology, crystal amplification, Reiki, chakra-based wisdom and symbolic rituals to create a personalized healing journey. Her passion lies in guiding survivors of trauma toward wholeness by merging evidence-based practices with the profound wisdom of holistic and spiritual living. Her mission is to help beings navigate life’s transitions, break free from limiting beliefs, and align with the life they’re meant to live

Quinn Whiting, LAC (they/them)

Quinn is a Licensed Associate Counselor (LAC) in Arkansas. Their work is informed by previous paths as a geologist and teacher, their life as the partner of a person with a visual disability, and their experiences with deep nature connection, fitness and natural movement, Druidry, ritual, Tarot, and Zen Buddhism. Quinn weaves these different elements together in sessions with ACT, IFS, mindfulness, and a dash of trickster spirit to create a space that is supportive, compassionate, curious, and sometimes playful while also tugging at clients’ comfort zones in ways that challenge them to grow and create lasting change.

Tova Abelman, registered AMFT, MBA (she/her)

Tova is dedicated to helping adults cultivate wellness, wellbeing, and a sense of enchantment in everyday life. As a Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist working under supervision in private practice, she approaches mental health from a holistic perspective—integrating lifestyle habits, relationships, social connection, and the cultivation of meaning and purpose. Trained in drama therapy and with a strong background in improv, she skillfully integrates the power of story, metaphor, symbol, and imagery with evidence-based approaches including ACT, DBT, and CBT to support personal growth, self exploration, and profound transformation. Tova additionally holds a BS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, an MBA, and a Certificate in Integrative Nutrition.