MEET the team

Ana do Valle

Founder, OTR, SEP

Ana is the clinical director and supervisor for the Soma Healing Center in Boulder, CO. She has developed her studies in the areas of Anthroposophical Counseling, Sensory Processing and Somatic Experiencing. Ana specializes in working with the social nervous system.  Her focus is on addressing the art of integrating sensory information in order to create embodiment, … Ana do Valle Read More »

Keri Shee

MA, OTR, TCTSY-F

Keri is an occupational therapist and yoga instructor focused on guiding individuals and families to integrate and process transition or traumatic experiences, increase self-awareness, promote nervous system regulation, identify and apply resources, and design custom rituals for initiation and culmination of a journey.  Using the philosophy and practice of yoga asana, chanting, and pranayama and … Keri Shee Read More »

Katharine Sawyer

Katharine is a professional ontological life coach & multi-modality healer. Internationally, she has worked with individuals and communities through transformational change, healing, and growth. As a co-founder and executive director of a 501c3, international speaker, and private practice owner, she is dedicated to igniting great hearts and minds to envision and actualize new potential and … Katharine Sawyer Read More »

Korrie Sparks

OTD, OTR/L

As a doctor of occupational therapy, Korrie supports children to feel confident, grounded, and at home in their bodies through the lens of Ayres Sensory Integration® and mindfulness-based techniques. She provides intensive sensory integration treatment to support nervous system organization for higher level skills including attention, emotional regulation, and motor planning/praxis. Korrie brings in movement … Korrie Sparks Read More »

Ana do Valle

Position: Founder, OTR, SEP
Email: anamdovalle@gmail.com

Ana is the clinical director and supervisor for the Soma Healing Center in Boulder, CO. She has developed her studies in the areas of Anthroposophical Counseling, Sensory Processing and Somatic Experiencing. Ana specializes in working with the social nervous system.  Her focus is on addressing the art of integrating sensory information in order to create embodiment, empowerment and coherence in our capacity to “experience” the other and ourselves.  Ana works with families and individuals by facilitating attunement and promoting deeper awareness in regards to the power of healing through relationships. She works with birth and medical trauma, emotional regulation and trauma resultant from cultural fragmentation. She teaches and provides supervision to clinicians on the subject of trauma and healing nationally and outside the US.

Ana has always enjoyed the art of empowering and helping others in their healing journey. As a child she had thoughts of becoming a doctor. As she grew up the options were so many she no longer knew what to study. Luckily, her teacher and mentor, Fernando, was able to help her see the “light” behind the occupational therapy field. He said: “ You will be able to find yourself in it.”
As a teenager she worked with terminal clients, infectious diseases and children and adults with other significant physical and mental health needs. Her passion for music and art led her to bring the guitar and recorder to hospitals and orphanages. Often times she ended her days serenading to children and adults for a night of rest, while they were hospitalized.

Shortly after her graduation, she moved to Denver Colorado for an internship that changed the course of her life. In CO she continued to advance her studies in the areas of Sensor Processing and Somatic Experiencing. She has studied several manual therapy modalities and often combines them in workings directly with the body.

During her career Ana has traveled and learned important cross-cultural principles, reinforcing the basic concept that recovering and repairing of humanity’s suffering resides on our capacity to connect to each other as a way to kindle our own transformation.

Ana, mostly during her training in Somatic Experiencing, has spent time with forest rangers in order to understanding animal resilience (fight/flight/freeze). She has visited universities conducting researches regarding the functioning of the autonomic nervous system. She has spent time with indigenous tribes learning their concept of disconnection/dissociation and healing trauma and disease.

Ana travels to Brasil, Mexico and Europe facilitating meditation and wellness retreats. These retreats happen twice to four times a year.

Ana has in the past couple of years, completed her studies in Anthroposophical Counseling (the psychology that studies the wisdom of Human kind). This last step in Ana’s career has brought more knowledge and wisdom to her personal and professional practice. As of a result of it, she has deepened her knowledge on the 15 Senses and its relationship to our capacity to stay healthy in our body. Sensory processing has emerged in her practice as a trajectory to help process our life experiences, broadening our capacity to evolve, transform and heal our essence. She has edited and co-created a short documentary on “What is Anthroposophy” also found in this website.

In the past three years Ana has been working with sound and music. She has adopted classical music (Focus system and dream pad) and the Safe and Sound f Protocol (SSP) into her practice. Ana has, with the collaboration of her staff, developed the SEGAN, a listening and art-based model (multi-sensory) for treating children, couples and adults who present with difficulties in the areas of affect and behavioral regulation. The SEGAN model has embraced various academic tools Ana has learned in her professional experience. Together, they bring wisdom and magic in a short-term intervention approach. You can learn more about the SEGAN and it’s relationship to Somatic Experiencing, Anthroposophy, SSP and Focus throughout our website.

Ana has a very special daughter named Juliana, who has created the logo for Soma Healing Center. Juliana has many of her drawings illustrating Peter Levine’s children’s books on the subject of healing trauma. She is the main character in the movie “The Mosaic of Healing; The Portal into Transformation”, an educational movie created to illustrate one’s healing path when they participate the SEGAN Model.

Keri Shee

Position: MA, OTR, TCTSY-F
Email: kerishee@gmail.com

Keri is an occupational therapist and yoga instructor focused on guiding individuals and families to integrate and process transition or traumatic experiences, increase self-awareness, promote nervous system regulation, identify and apply resources, and design custom rituals for initiation and culmination of a journey.  Using the philosophy and practice of yoga asana, chanting, and pranayama and applying a sensory processing lens to her practice, Keri believes in relationship-driven therapy and values customizing therapeutic approaches based on clients’ physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual intentions or goals.  Keri uses movement, sound, breath, and meditation as a path to embodiment and connection with higher self.

 

Keri began her journey as an occupational therapist in 2003 in Baltimore, MD at Johns Hopkins Hospital and later worked in Baltimore public schools.  In 2009, Keri earned a Master’s degree in Secondary Education and shifted into the role of a classroom teacher.  She went on to be the founder of two local organizations, Bolder Writers, LLC and Spark Youth Yoga, LLC.  In 2017, Keri underwent a 6-month fellowship with Ana do Valle, OTR, SEP, Anthroposophical Counselor and received training in Stephen Porges’s Safe and Sound Protocol, iLs Focus Program and HeartMath. In addition, Keri has studied yoga across the world with Janet Stone Yoga.  In 2020, Keri earned a Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga Facilitator (TCTSY-F) certification from The Center for Trauma and Embodiment at JRI.

 

Keri’s prior experience as a middle school teacher and creative writing instructor influence her therapeutic approach enabling her to build a natural rapport with her clients.  Her warm, open presence creates a sense of safety for clients as she holds space for their unique journey.

 

Keri’s practice is rooted in the belief that challenge and trauma offer the most potent opportunities for growth.  As a member of the Soma Healing Center therapeutic team, she is a teaching assistant for the Mosaic of Healing workshop, provides online and group supervision to SSP practitioners and mentors professionals integrating the SEGAN model into their practice.  Keri also offers school and home visits, family yoga sessions, and facilitates a therapeutic summer camp for children focused on resourcing through art, music, movement and nature.  Both tender- and wild-hearted, Keri is a mama of two, a lover of nature and travel, an LGBTQIA+ activist, and a writer.

Katharine Sawyer

Katharine is a professional ontological life coach & multi-modality healer. Internationally, she has worked with individuals and communities through transformational change, healing, and growth.

As a co-founder and executive director of a 501c3, international speaker, and private practice owner, she is dedicated to igniting great hearts and minds to envision and actualize new potential and pathways forward.

She draws upon her background in ontological coaching (similar to consciousness or mindfulness-based approach to coaching), Usui/Holy Fire Reiki energy healing, spiritual healing, creative expression & journey work, healing interiors, ceremonial spaces, PRATI KAP ketamine therapy integration, the safe and sound protocol and all the peoples and cultures she has been blessed to work with.

Katharine specializes in facilitating experiences that support deep grounding and alignment within oneself so that greater awareness, insight, and guidance can be realized. In a constant evolution of change and growth, learning to self/co-regulate is key to successfully navigating whatever arises.

Korrie Sparks

Position: OTD, OTR/L
Email: korrie@sparksot.com

As a doctor of occupational therapy, Korrie supports children to feel confident, grounded, and at home in their bodies through the lens of Ayres Sensory Integration® and mindfulness-based techniques. She provides intensive sensory integration treatment to support nervous system organization for higher level skills including attention, emotional regulation, and motor planning/praxis. Korrie brings in movement and breathwork as a registered yoga teacher (RYT-200), elements of DIRFloortime® play therapy, social-emotional awareness through the Zones of Regulation, the Alert Program®, and Social Thinking curriculum, and environmental modification to support each child’s unique needs. She is also a student of CranialSacral Therapy (Upledger CST1) to further support a thriving nervous system. Korrie honors the impact of nature on well being and vitality, and has completed Forest School Teacher Training in Scotland, UK to understand how to incorporate nature into the healing process.

Korrie specializes in the assessment and intervention of children with varying diagnoses, including but not limited to autism, sensory processing disorders, ADD/ADHD, genetic differences, social-emotional vulnerabilities, and visual impairments. She has extensive experience collaborating and consulting with families, school staff, and multidisciplinary teams including speech, physical therapists, and psychologists. She received her masters and doctorate degree from the University of Southern California (USC) in 2013. Her doctoral work included intensive training in Ayres Sensory Integration® and the development, implementation and evaluation of a school-based mindfulness program with over 100 kindergarteners and 1st graders. She is certified in Sensory Integration through USC/WPS and has volunteered as a normative data collector for the Evaluation of Ayres Sensory Integration (EASI), a new standardized test designed to measure sensory integration abilities. Korrie has also worked with the Collaborative for Leadership in Ayres Sensory Integration (CLASI) to co-facilitate treatment courses. She is fortunate to call Dr. Susanne Smith Roley her close mentor as a first-generation student of Dr. A. Jean Ayres.

Before moving to Boulder from Southern California in 2020, Korrie worked in private practice as a clinic and community based OT. She also worked as a school-based therapist with school districts across Southern California and provided Independent Educational Evaluations (IEEs) as second opinions. She is well-versed in IDEA special education law and has supported countless families in advocating for school-based services. In 2022, Korrie worked as an OT for Boulder Community Health within the pediatric rehabilitation department. After the department’s closure in December 2022, she opened her private practice in South Boulder. Korrie is currently in fellowship with Ana Do Valle OTR, SEP to further her studies in nervous system regulation, childhood trauma, and outdoor therapies. During her free time, Korrie loves taking adventures in nature, reading, creating “cozy” spaces, dancing, cooking, and taking walks through Boulder with her miniature dachshund Darcy.

 
Scroll to Top