Christiana is a healing artist and songwriter raised between Portugal and New York by an Irish American mother and a German father. She lived firstly in the wild, windswept Algarve, and then in the lush Long Island suburbs. Communion with nature and self-expression through song, dance, art and theater were her basis for self-regulation and expansion. Immersion into various cultures through childhood has inspired her way of life and understandings of the world.

At 18, conservatory training in the theatre arts initiated her into new ways of expression and exploration. Soon after, a call for healing brought her to the study and practice of classical yoga/tantra. In traveling to the origins of global spiritual traditions and connecting with her ancestry she was awakened to the world of plant medicines and ceremony. This led her down a path of inquiry into the healing potential of the descension process, devotion to the body, earth and mother. This has been amplified by studying matriarchal ways, women’s health and herbalism. Today, through the support of her community, she shares the experience of soul expression, healing and facilitation.

Christiana carries the embodied experience of recovering from mental and physical illness, including dependency on medications. Because of this she offers practical solutions, having gathered her learnings from lived experience. Over a decade of student-ship and work experience in holistic healing and curation support the vision of Animate Healing

In 2018, After five years of community based offerings, she spent four years creating and then leading the yoga and retreat programs at Shou Sugi Ban House, a multifaceted retreat center in New York. With 30+ retreats worth of experience in facilitation and organization. Christiana tends to these tender and powerful spaces of transformation with care and devotion.

Her work has been featured in:

Marie Claire, Hemispheres, The Telegraph, Haute Living and Departures.