Born and raised in New Orleans, LA. Vanessa relocated to Texas after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005. She lost everything in the storm. We all have our “Hurricane Katrinas.” It is what we choose to do with them that makes the difference.​​ As a result, Vanessa is a meditation teacher and mindset advisor who has both formal instruction and real-life application.

 

Her formal training included three years of living, practicing, and teaching in a residential meditation community in Texas, completing three 10-day silent Vipassana trainings, along with Zen studies having begun in 2000. ​She is certified in meditation, yoga, and in the conscious communication work of

Mr. Azim Khamisa, founder of the Tariq Khamisa Foundation (TKF).

 

TKF peace and advocacy programs have received recognition by H.H. the Dalai Lama and the United Nations. Vanessa worked alongside Mr. Khamisa in the U.S. in high schools and CEO offices and within a maximum-security prison in Sydney, Australia. (See Testimonials).

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Vanessa studied Corporate Communications & Public Affairs and Religious Studies at SMU. Further studies included Indigenous traditions in the Sonoran Desert, Mexico to the Amazon in Brazil, and Native American cultures in the U.S., broadening meditation styles and techniques.

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Personally, Vanessa has maintained an alcohol-free lifestyle for over 25 years and has a vast working knowledge of the family dynamics of alcoholism and addiction, particularly the effects of loving someone with alcoholism and being an adult child of an alcoholic or addict and how to recover.​​

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Vanessa is available for speaking engagements, workshops, and private one-to-one sessions.