Hi!

I seem to have this adorable obsession with our divine feminine essence and how she (yep, she) puts the kibosh on some ridiculous amounts of suffering in our world. She’s quite effective.

A little background:

In 2006, I had a full psychotherapy practice, a thriving Nia career and my daughter. Though all my loved ones would attest that I was (and am) an amazing mother, I felt brutally ill-equipped for the job. I was completely taken down by all of my emotions and spent 18 months swimming in a sea of self-doubt. As you might imagine, being a psychotherapist made this seemingly unresolvable experience all the more disturbing. You can read more about the evolution of this fun time here.

In March of 2008, I followed a call to experience Regena Thomashauer, aka Mama Gena, the self-crowned “Queen of Pleasure.” For anyone who has done her Mastery program, you know that Regena brings her course participants into a radical and mind-blowing experience of woman. She woke something up in me and since, my mind seems to download, magnetize and synthesize the juiciest slices of the divine feminine, like, non-friggin’-stop.

More fun (and some sad, but never bad) facts about me:

I have two littles, a four year old girl and a one year old boy, and an incredibly loving husband whom I adore. My man sees me so good. When I am not contemplating the divine feminine, I am with my family and doing my best to gracefully surf the wild waves of motherhood.

I earned a Master’s degree in Contemplative Psychology (Buddhist psychology) from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Prior to my daughter’s arrival I studied Buddhism and had a full Buddhist inspired psychotherapy practice. Today, I practice neither and now have some interesting opinions (positive and negative) about them, which will probably appear in my blog one day. Though I no longer identify as a “contemplative psychotherapist,” I love that my degree reflects my big-mind thinking, emotional and spiritual depth, and my desire to help relieve the world of unnecessary suffering.

In 2003 my father died of esophageal cancer. I helped him cross over and this experience profoundly ignited my interest in emotions and physical health.

I am a Nia teacher. I am developing a Nia page for this site. In the meantime, please know I can not lie: I teach an amazing Nia class.

I am from New York City and I now live in Seattle, WA via an eight year stint in Boulder, CO.

I am allergic to dogma.

I am madly in love with desire.

I love chakras.

Though I rock my message, I suck at grammar. I am a true diva of the right brain and grammatical details go often unseen.

If you feel inspired to pass along my content, I would LOVE that – thank you. And please credit yours truly. A link back to my site = beautiful Karma.

Contacting Me

The best way to reach me is via email: dara AT volvernow DOT com (replace the “AT” and the “Dot” with the actual symbols.) It will take me a few days to get back to you (it just works like that with moms), so please know I appreciate your email and I am on it.

OR you can find me on Twitter @daramckinley which I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. 140 characters is a super fun way to fly.

I am still figuring out the facebook thing…