From Interview with Complementary Health Education Organization (CHEO) June 2013 Newsletter
Q. Where are you from, your family, how long in Knoxville?
A. I was born into an academic family in Blacksburg, Virginia. My Mom was an Anaerobic Microbiologist and Dad was Director of Guidance and Placement at Virginia Tech. I came to Knoxville in the early 90’s to teach Interior Design at UT, and stayed to be up close and personal with the mountains of Tennessee.
Q. Tell us about yourself.
A. I’m an insatiable learner, with a B.S. in interior design, M.S. in design, D.Arch. in Architectural Research, plus the professional level classes offered by two of the three classically trained Feng Shui masters teaching in the U.S. I love working with my clients, and even more, teaching people about this ancient practice of living in harmony with our precious earth.
Q. What brought you to alternative health and Feng Shui?
A. My mother was a research scientist who saved lives through the microbiology research she did. One time she told me how proud she was of me and of what I was doing with my life. I told her, no, her work was more important because she saved people’s lives. All I did was to get people to spend money on furniture and interior design. She looked at me in shock and said, no, that she might save people’s lives, but what I did was to make their lives more worth living. It made me realize that I wanted to create nurturing environments for my clients, not merely to sell them stuff. When I first read about Feng Shui in Sarah Rossbach’s 1984 book, Interior Design with Feng Shui, my path was clear… creating healing environments through Feng Shui.
Q. What led you to practice Feng Shui?
A. I was living in the faculty-apartment-from-hell in East Lansing, Michigan in 1993. I “Feng Shuied” it using Western/BSTB/life aspirations intuitive methods, but it didn’t help. My graduate assistant asked if she could “Feng Shui” the apartment using classical Feng Shui techniques. What she did helped immediately. I knew I had to learn more about how to do it for myself. Three Feng Shui masters later (Larry Sang, Joey Yap, and Eva Wong) and numerous classes on western and classical Feng Shui, have given me the tools to create nurturing environments for my clients’ homes and places of work.
Q. What services do you offer?
A. I practice classical-style Feng Shui (through numbers and calculations… very potent), landform analysis, space clearing (prayer work, dowsing, Machaelle Small-Wright’s Perelandra processes), and, can’t help myself, interior design.
Q. What advice do you have for people looking to get into Feng Shui?
A. Study, study, study all the basic versions of Feng Shui to see what resonates most in your heart. Read lots of books on the subject, including mine, Feng Shui: Creating Nurturing Environments Step-by-Step. Then practice on anyone who will let you, beginning with your own home and workplace. Take classes from as many masters as you can, and learn as many different forms of Feng Shui as possible. There’s lots of room for trained Feng Shui practitioners in the Knoxville area.
Q. What is the most remarkable thing you’ve seen in your practice?
A. I still love it when clients tell me that they feel a shift in the energy from chaotic to more peaceful almost immediately after adding remedies, especially those on the land. “As outside, so inside” is so true. The remedies work.
Q. What is the one thing you’d like for people to know about you?
A. I love color, and use it whenever and wherever I can as a Feng Shui remedy. It works. Color can be soft and muted, or bold and vivacious. The space decides.
Q. What do you do in your spare time? What do you do for fun?
A. Believe it or not, Feng Shui!