Meet Shira
My approach is collaborative, wildly creative and full of heart. With sharp insight and intuition, I support and guide people to embody and release their most empowered and aligned selves and live full, well-nourished lives.
My expertise is rooted in over 25 years of practice with individuals and groups of diverse identities, ages and life stories in a wide array of settings. My professional roles have included directing programs in community based organizations, personal and professional coaching, therapy, groupwork and workshop design and facilitation. I’ve engaged in an abundance of other work including coordination for events and projects large and small, board leadership, deep canvassing and community building.
My formal education includes an MSW from Hunter College, a BA in Social Thought and Political Economy from the University of Massachusetts and internship in Nicaragua. I am ever engaging in professional, academic and experiential learning to grow the depth and breadth of my work including social group work, IFS (Internal Family Systems), nature-based healing, somatic healing practices and deep listening and communication.
My informal education has been vast and varied with countless teachers, mentors, and healers of all ages and backgrounds. I have learned as much from those I have taught and counseled as from those who have taught and counseled me. Among the many humans who have inspired and awakened me are Robin Wall Kimmerer, Asia Suler, Resma Menakeem and Gloria Steinem.
My active commitment to ending oppression is interwoven into my practice, as individuals cannot fully heal without healing the systems that are causing harm. I work to undo the effects of oppression, with individuals and systemically, including but not limited to racism, sexism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, colonization and ageism. I help people become even more empowered to make change, inside and out.
I am increasingly passionate about and engaged in work to repair the damage from industries and systems harming humans and the rest of the planet, such as industrial agriculture, the beautification and cleaning industries and institutions around women’s health. I’m heartbroken by the depth of harm from the toxic practices of these industries of individual and collective health, especially for oppressed peoples. And I am equally inspired by the profound repair work that countless individuals and organizations are doing and am honored to work alongside them.
Among my many and ever evolving passions are trees, wildflowers, human beings, sheep, travel, abundant laughter and lots of chocolate.
