Meet Our Team

 

Sarah Jane

(She/Her)

M.Ed., M.A.,

Ph.D. Candidate

Hello new friend,

I am the Founder and Executive Director of The Healing Collective Foundation and Madly in Love podcast. The Healing Collective Foundation is a Mad forward organization, that prioritizes critical compassion and holistic healing.

I am a Mad coach, educator, theorist, community activist, writer, and ethnographer. I study trauma, affect theory, critical compassion, and community building.

As a disabled, queer, Crip, Mad person, it has been my life’s work to understand the human experience of madness, center: love, acceptance, and inclusivity in the Mad movement, end stigmatization of mental illness and madness, as well as decolonize and revolutionize mental health care. I work toward expanding the way we talk, think, and feel about madness, illness, disability, and mental health.

I hold a

  • B.A. in sociology

  • B.S. in psychology

  • Master’s in the education of minoritized populations

  • Master’s in cultural studies with a focus on trauma studies, affect theory, disability studies, and mad studies

  • Ph.D. candidate in cultural studies with a focus on affect theory, mad studies, and love (critical compassion) studies.

I offer Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training with a focus on critical compassion, empathy building, and the Mad community, as well as small group and 1:1 mad coaching sessions.

My work with healers, community originations, social justice movements, and people dedicated to critical love has allowed me to collaborate with people to create an amazing synergy of social change and empowerment.

sarah.jane@thehealingcollective.love

801.252.3718

 

Veronica Naimova Bastian

(she/her)

For years I dreamt to create a Healing Center/Spa…. I love love love helping people to feel amazing with my wild-harvested herbs, fascia massage, reiki, acupuncture/acupressure point massage, aroma touch, sound healing, and more. I spend so many years training and practicing, but what kept me from putting it all together is my perfectionism of having a perfect place, a healing center.

I work differently on each client and intuitively decide which healing modality works the best on each person, at the end of the session I teach my clients how to use muscle testing and together we create a custom-made herbal remedy for them to take home.

vernonica@thehealingcollective.love

Liz is a down-to-earth, trauma-informed mental health therapist providing strengths-based, solutions-focused, eclectic, feminist, and anti-racist counseling. She has particular experience working with people suffering from PTSD, BIPOC & LGBTQ+ communities, and those who have been otherwise systemically oppressed. She employs Psychodynamic and Dialectical Behavioral therapies through a systems/ecological perspective, alongside complementary modalities such as yoga, bodywork, and writing in her practice.

elizabeth@thehealingcollective.love

310.818.3718

Elizabeth Coleman

(She/Her)

LMSW

Nej is a kind and thoughtful asset to our team. She is active within the community and body-positive movement.

Nej’s modalities include:

  • Reiki

nej@thehealingcollective.love

310.692.4507

Nej Garza

(She/Her)

Operations director

Steering Cabinet

An Incredible Team of Community Representatives and Activists to help guide the Foundation