About Karina

About Me

My professional journey is a personal one that stems from my own desire to understand my life of pain, heal, strengthen, and empower myself. In my searching, I became passionate about learning how the body and the mental-emotional-spiritual connection caused some of the reasons for chronic injuries. I am veracious about learning and listening to connections and communication of the tissue and the spirit. Using the knowledge I have gained, it is my mission and purpose to help and guide others on their own personal and individual path to wellness.

 Accessing the Mind

Karina has trained and continues to practice and utilize various modalities that focus on wellness of the mind. Below are some of those therapies and technique:

  • Gestalt therapy is a form of psychotherapy that is centered on increasing a person’s awareness, freedom, and self-direction. The term “gestalt” is derived from a German word that means “whole” or “put together”; Gestalt therapy seeks to help clients focus on the present to understand what is actually happening in their lives at this moment, and how it makes them feel in the moment, rather than what they may assume to be happening based on past experience.

    Karina received training in the application of Gestalt therapy during a personal 3-year independent study group hosted by The Radical Therapy GROUP, with professionals in the field leading training modules and clinical exercises, and has continued to incorporate fundamental principles of Gestalt therapy into her practice.

  • Family Systems is a complex psychotherapy concept whose goal is to increase family functioning through adaptive development and positive change. The eight principles of family system theory are: triangles, differentiation of self, nuclear family emotional process, family projection process, multigenerational transmission process, emotional cutoff, sibling position, and societal emotional process.

    Karina studied this system during a personal 3-year independent study group hosted by The Radical Therapy GROUP, with professionals in the field leading training modules and clinical exercises, and has continued to incorporate fundamental principles of Family System therapy into her practice.

  • Also known as Person Centered Therapy developed by Carl Rogers, believes strongly that theory should come out of practice rather than the other way round, Rogers developed his theory based on his work with emotionally troubled people and claimed that we have a remarkable capacity for self-healing and personal growth leading towards self actualization. He emphasized the person’s current perception and how we live in the here and now. Being person-centered means affording people dignity, respect and compassion, whether service user or provider. Additionally, being person-centered means the person is a partner in their own health care, and the health and wellbeing of the person is the focus of care, not their illness or conditions.

    This system was studied at the Massage School of Santa Monica and during a personal 3-year independent study group hosted by The Radical Therapy Center in Los Angeles, with professionals in the field leading training modules and clinical exercises.

    Karina has continued to incorporate fundamental principles of Person Centered therapy into her practice.

  • Spiritual Psychology as a therapy is a blend of science & spirituality. It is a form of counseling that attempts to treat a person's soul as well as mind and body by accessing individual belief systems and using those beliefs along with exploring areas of conflict in life. It is all about the awareness and the care of the soul; the awareness of who we truly are.The understanding of the Physical- " What do I do", the Mental- "What do I believe" The Emotional-" What do I feel" And the Self-“Who am I?” “Why am I here—what is my purpose?” and “How can I make a more meaningful contribution; how can I somehow experience my life with value and purpose, and that my existence is truly making a difference?”

    Karina studied Spiritual Psychology through a 2 year personal deep dive while her husband was attending school in Spiritual Psychology. Karina continues to use these concepts in her practice today.

 Body-Mind Therapy

A variety of therapies focus on the connection between the body and the mind. Karina has trained and certified in a variety of technique:

  • Foundation Training developed by Dr. Eric Goodman, DC. helps you Decompress your spine and Anchor your hips, which can relieve back pain and improve your posture. The goal is to avoid physical breakdown by setting your body up for conditioned responses that create durability rather than compensation. Prime movement patterns that maximize the utilization of the most efficient muscles with a comprehensive focus on concentric, eccentric, and isometric training of those muscles. By learning to take the burden of supporting your body off your joints and put on your muscles, you can move more easily and gracefully, no matter your age or fitness level. It trains you to use the anatomical correctness to retain the body and how to better stabilize itself during regular - anatomically incorrect use- ie- sitting at the computer, on the cell phone or driving for longer than it is healthy. Core strength and Functional movement, Elevate and Elongate, Breath and Decompression is the main focus. Pain alleviation is often the result.

    Karina trained in Level 1 coaching in Santa Barbara with Dr. Goodman and has seen results from its implementation.

  • FMT Basic introduces functional kinesiology taping methods that can improve the movement and performance of patients and clients. Elastic therapeutic taping is used as a rehabilitation and performance intervention for patient and client conditions ranging from pain mitigation to improving fluid dynamics and sharpening proprioception.

    FMT Advanced expands on the concepts of taping and explores strategies to enhance human movement and performance through evidence-based functional taping methods. The anatomy and physiology of myofascial lines will be covered, the fascial lines are used in conjunction with kinesiology taping techniques to support efficient human movement.

    These hands-on courses were hosted by Rock Tape and have assisted Karina in her personal and professional life immensely.

  • Total Body Modification ™ (TBM), a world leader in providing subtle-influence medicine (SIM) training for more than 40 years. TBM is a time-tested, easy-to-use system that synthesizes a vast array of SIM techniques into one cohesive system utilizing its pioneering work in accessing and programming the human biocomputer. These include soft-tissue manipulation, energy work, meditation, nutritional supplementation, neurosensory testing (“muscle testing”), lifestyle modifications, life coaching, distance healing, medical intuition, and articular adjusting.

    Karina trained directly with the founder, Dr. Victor Frank, D.C., N.M.D, D.O., D.I.B.A.K and utilizes the system strongly in her practice still today.

  • Structural Integration is based off the therapy developed by Ida Rolf and strives to align and balance the body’s components until the entire system is a smoothly functioning coordinated whole.Structural Integration is a type of bodywork that focuses on the connective tissue, or fascia, of the body. Fascia surrounds muscles, groups of muscles, blood vessels, organs, and nerves, binding some structures together while permitting others to slide smoothly over each other.

    The study of this modality was gained at the Massage School of Santa Monica and during a personal 8 year independent study group hosted by The Radical Therapy GROUP, with professionals in the field leading training modules and clinical exercises. Karina also led study groups in this system and has continued to incorporate fundamentals of Structural Integration into her practice. While Karina has expertise in this technique, she now uses this knowledge in her visual and energetic movement of the body's structure.

  • Myofascial release may also be known as Trigger Point Therapy is an alternative medicine therapy useful for treating skeletal muscle immobility and pain by relaxing contracted muscles, improving blood and lymphatic circulation and stimulating the stretch reflex in muscles. Known to be used to treat many different health conditions.

    Karina studied this modality at the Massage School of Santa Monica and during a personal 8 year independent study group hosted by The Radical Therapy Center in Los Angeles led by Dr. Christin Smith, with professionals in the field leading training modules and clinical exercises.

    Karina also led study groups in this system and has continued to incorporate fundamentals of Structural Integration into her practice.

    While Karina has expertise in this technique, she now uses this knowledge in her visual and energetic movement of the body's structure.

  • Craniosacral therapy (CST) is a gentle hands-on technique that uses a light touch to examine membranes and movement of the fluids in and around the central nervous system. Relieving tension in the central nervous system promotes a feeling of well-being by eliminating pain and boosting health and immunity. CST is based on the idea that the body is interrelated at all levels. This system is used to improve efficiency of biological processes through boosting inherent self-regulation, self-correction and self-healing. The therapy can be used successfully with children and adults.

    Karina studied this modality at the Massage School of Santa Monica and during a personal 3 year independent study group hosted by The Radical Therapy Center in Los Angeles led by Dr. Christin Smith, along with other professionals in the field leading training modules and clinical exercises.

    Karina also led workshops in this system and has continued to incorporate fundamentals and sensitivity of Structural Integration into her practice.

    She now uses this knowledge in her visual and energetic movement of the biology and psychology.

  • Massage therapy is used to help manage a health condition or enhance wellness. It involves manipulating the soft tissues of the body.

    Karina was trained and certified in Swedish Massage, Deep Tissue Massage, Sports Massage Therapy, and was asked to instruct classes before she even graduated at The Massage School of Santa Monica. Karina subsequently developed and instructed classes in Palpation, Body Reading, and Postural massage.

    Other training include: in-Structural Bodywork, Bodymind Integration, Visceral Manipulation, Lymph Drainage Therapy, Movement Therapy, Tragerwork, Acupressure, Tui Na, Thai Massage and Reflexology.

  • The mission of the Nutritional Therapy Association, Inc is to deliver a science-based education that fosters a community of confident holistic nutrition professionals who harness the power of real food and empower people to reconnect with the innate wisdom and unique needs of their bodies, thereby supporting lasting wellness This nutritional program covers a full range of topics from an exploration of our relationship with food to anatomy and physiology, therapeutic nutrition strategies, and lifestyle support factors like movement, sleep, stress management, and community.

    Karina completed the NTC intense training of the program and still uses and studies ways to enhance her training with every client.

  • Nutrition Response Testing is a non-invasive system, developed by Dr. Freddie Ulan, DC, CCN, of analyzing the body to determine the underlying causes of ill health. When issues are corrected through safe, natural, nutritional means, the body can repair itself to attain and maintain more optimum health.

    Using Kinesiology to gain information derived from the part of the nervous system whose job it is to regulate the functions of each and every organ. Each area that gives a response represents a specific organ, tissue, or function, and indicates the effect that energy, or the lack of energy, is having on the body.

    Karina utilizes this training with her clients.

Energy Medicine

Alternative healing practices Karina has trained in:

  • Karina received One Year training in at YoSan University, Santa Monica , Ca. Energy Medicine course hosted my Master Lu.

  • Eden Energy Medicine, is a holistic approach that is particularly attuned to your energies. The system believes that the health of your body reflects the health of its energies. Over the past 40 years, Donna Eden has been developing a highly effective method that shows you what you can do to keep your energy in a positive flow for healing and health.The truth is we are all born with the ability to heal ourselves. We are instinctive healers, and our intelligent human body is constantly seeking a way back to natural health, balance, alignment, and harmony. the 5,000-year-old Chinese system that affects your energetic pathways and energy flow and how to work with it confidently and accurately.

    Karina combines this knowledge and training in beginning level in her remote sessions to facilitate flow, balance and health in her clients .

  • Natural Healing helps to re-establish neurological function. Evolutionary Quantum Healing Techniques is a cutting-edge technique based on the principals of Dr. Victor L. Frank’s “Functional Physiology”. (Functional Physiology is the act of restoring the function of the body’s systems back to optimal function.) The basic premise of Evolutionary Quantum Healing Techniques is to activate the body’s own inherent healing capacity. This system supports the body’s ability to completely integrate all physiological systems at their intended optimal capacity and function. EQHT works with the Mind, Body, Soul, and Emotion as one living person. If one part is not functioning at optimal levels, then the entire person is malfunctioning. Karina still uses this system as a part of her sessions.

  • ThetaHealing, developed by Vianna Stibal, is a meditation technique and spiritual philosophy that uses focused thought and prayer. This training method offers physical, emotional, and spiritual healing by tapping into the Theta brain wave and connecting with the Creator Of All That Is. When we experience this connection, we can reprogram our minds to clear limiting beliefs and think positively. This brings out the best in ourselves and allows us to live our most enlightened, successful lives.

    Karina trained with Vianna herself and became a Practitioner and Instructor, trained in the Advanced Practitioner, and Intuitive Anatomy curriculum. Additionally , she became the healer to one of the primary instructors of the system.

    This training was the catalyst to the development of a system Karina intuitively downloaded and interpreted called KORE Modification; adding missing elements that were crucial and required in her own experience of this training. The knowledge and exposure to all she learned is a critical aspect of her practice today.

  • Medical Intuitive Certificate Program trains practitioners to view each chakra (Emotional Center) through its multi layered facets; emotional, biological, and the medical issues that can be caused by disruptions to these energy centers.

    Karina trained with Dr. Mona Lisa Schulz directly in groups and personal intensive training. With 3 years certified ( one year of private intense study), She takes what she has learned, moving beyond it and uses what she learned with every session.

  • This system was downloaded to Karina in 1998 when it seemed necessary to not only utilize what she already knew but bring in elements that were missing from her years of training. Kinesthetic Observation of Real Energy trains people to become aware of there own intuitive nature and what that looks like. Creating confidence is vital when one is wanting to be energetically strong and healthy. With experiences and exercises you gain the ability to modify incoming information through your energy receptors and nervous system. Clearing, testing, and strengthening in a safe way is VITAL for over all wellness.

  • This is a modern version of a dowsing rod. The origins of dowsing trace back as far as the Greeks in the mid-fifth century. Herodotus reported the use of wooden Y-shaped forks for finding water.

    Dowsing’s success can be attributed to something called the ideomotor effect. The ideomotor effect refers to actions that are unconscious and involuntary movements that occur because of prior experience, suggestions or expectations. Priming or thinking of a motion can cause muscle movements that can be used to explain how dowsing rods will move without any perceived action by the user.

    The wand also combines attributes of a Pendulum. The pendulum helps in promoting spiritual and physical healing by locating any blocks in a person's chi (energy) It is a simple tool which helps in the balancing, healing and clearing our mind and body. They help us seek answers to certain questions (yes/ no mechanics) by picking up subtle vibrations.

    Karina was introduced to this tool back in the mid 90’s and gravitated to it again in the 2000’s. At this point the wand was no longer being reproduced and so began the journey to make her own version; and she did! “The WAND” is a great way to learn energy subtleties and disconnect from the answer so truth as access to answer the questions being asked. The training for the use of the “The WAND” is will be re-released soon.

Additional Experience

Extensive time as a gymnast & athlete provided unique self awareness that continues to influence her practice today:

  • Karina started dancing at 5 and trained until she was in her mid- thirties. She began teaching at the same Academy when she was 13 yrs old and until she was 35. All instructors volunteered their time at this school.

    Being a part of this Academy not only was the catalyst for earning to “see” inside the body and figure out what corrections with facilitate optimum progress. Besides her love of dance instruction, which helped her through college, she became Gene Kelly’s personal assistant and personal masseuse.

  • Karina was trained and ASFA certified as an aerobics instructor for 4 years at Mid Valley Athletic Club, Reseda, Ca.

    While that industry ended up being her physical kryptonite, Karina’s utilizes all the training and experiences even still. And her past experience left her with a passion for assisting athletes and the body’s ability to perform.

Karina’s Journey

Biography of a Medical Intuitive, Bio-Hacking Energy Interpreter

Karina’s background is as unique as her gifts. Having been born in the Bohemian Forest region of the Czech Republic she was initiated from birth to have a heightened neurological and energetic system; having been born in a terrifying time in Europe 1966. This was enhanced as her family prepared and defected from their homeland through the border post in search of expansion and safety.  This amount of tension and fear created constant muscle and soft tissue tension which exacerbated the ligament laxity issue that was handed down genetically- now referred to as her “first life crisis” at the age of 2.5. (A “Life Crisis”  is simply referring to a time of great soul trauma where the “Crisis of Self” is impacted. A Crisis of Self can in later years include a “Crisis of Purpose”. )  

Training as a gymnast and dancer helped to strengthen Karina’s skeletal-muscular system and kept the underlying issues at bay.  At 10 years of age, she had an accident in her gymnastics class that landed her body head down (feet and body above her) on the floor with a concussion and severe whiplash and soft tissue damage (then undetected) to the neck and brain stem – deemed the “second life crisis”. 

Karina continued as a dancer using her ligament laxity to her benefit.  She began to teach at the age of 13 years old; being guided and learning her lessons of instruction and looking into and through the body structure.   The special rotations and compensations the body created and required. Through dance instruction, Karina made big strides in the ability to see what the body needed in order for the athlete to better their outcome.  By 19, she began to simultaneously train kinesthetic awareness to other athletes to assist them in their performance. In her early 20s, Karina was trained as an aerobics instructor. The external strength then came crashing in.  In what she calls her “third life crisis”, during one of her regular aerobic warm-ups, the sacroiliac joint or SI joint (SIJ) gave way and lead to a life-altering trauma which lead to going on workers compensation, debilitating pain, and a migraine accompanied by depression that lasted over 5 years.   Throughout this time no system of physical therapy was working, it actually made the condition worse. All conventional tests- neurological, CT, MRIs, strength tests, etc. came up “normal” or “stronger than most women” which made the situation complicated.   Karina sought the help of a chiropractic team, one of which was a trained martial artist as well being a chiropractor, said something to her that she will forever be grateful for.  He asked, “Did you ever think some of your pain could have an emotional component?” 

WHAT!? After being infuriated, Karina let that gem go to the side, though not too far to the side.   After regaining some ease in the body, while still suffering horrible constant headaches and body pain, Karina was retrained via worker’s comp to become a professional massage therapist and structural therapist; another life-changing gem.  Not only did she reconnect to the body in a way that was more comforting, but her introduction to the “mind” part of the body patterns of pain and dysfunction also became a LIFE long focus of study.  Learning to communicate with the tissue and its memories while at the same time listening to the mind’s recollections was glorious for her and her natural skills.   Before even graduating with the basics of Massage, Karina was invited to instruct at the school with which she graduated; developing unique classes in body reading, postural massage, palpation, body mechanics, etc. While continuing her study of all levels of massage-  Deep tissue, Sports, Myo-Facial, Rolfing, Structural therapy, Cranio-Sacral, Prenatal Massage, Energy Medicine, Chinese Medicine, Tui Na, Body Mind therapy, Emotional Therapeutic systems, Nutritional therapy (and MANY more): including Birth Doula training, she found some more relief within the knowledge of all that she learned to incorporate into her own healing. All the while, Karina was teaching and aiding her clients with each and every benefit that she gained through her own experience, observations and personal need to persevere even through her own trials.  

In her late 20s, Karina happily married and had 3 beautiful children.  Her interest in Natural Healing and Energy Work continued to grow to not only aid her family but to continue her passion for self-growth, learning and helping others with different tools. Gaining strength and healing along the way, Karina’s private practice was thriving for some time, until her “fourth life crisis” a T-Bone car accident that lead her to years of regression, depression, and re-healing; sadly needing to give up her practice and work she loved- Though she could not stay away for long.   Karina has NEVER given up her personal fight or struggles to gain strength and understanding of her brain/ body limitations or possibilities.  Having a constant thirst for this, she was led to Foundation Training and is a Level 1 Certified Instructor.   For ALL these reasons (and many more) Karina is passionate about helping others get to a better place in their lives as quickly as possible.  While she is grateful that she was given a very strong constitution, Karina also understands, all too well, that connecting with something and someone who understands and can navigate the unique qualities of pain and discomfort people experience is VITAL- Emotional + Physical+ Spiritual -. Working with someone who understands that “normal range” does not mean “OPTIMAL”, “well”, “pain-free” or “strong”; while also being considerate to any needs of the body/ mind relationship within the healing process. More importantly, Karina knows what it takes to live life with, through, and beyond the current state of being even with life’s challenges.