Welcome. I’m so glad you are here!
My name is Larisa (La-REE-sa) Noonan; my pronouns are she/her/hers. I am an animist, ritualist, and Ancestral Lineage Healing Practitioner living with my husband and son in Oregon’s Willamette Valley on the ancestral homelands of the Kalapuyan peoples. My ancestors are from France, the Netherlands by way of the Ukraine, Germany, and Switzerland, and my work/life is rooted in earth-honoring ritual, embodying ancestral gifts, and reclaiming animist values.
My story:
I’ve been fascinated with the human body and its ability to heal since taking an undergraduate anatomy and physiology class. Jumping at the opportunity to be on the dissection team, I helped to dissect the bodies of five diverse human beings. This experience instilled an profound sense of awe and wonder in relation to what it is to be alive in these human bodies.
Graduating with a BS in Psychology and Pre-Med, I intended to pursue an advanced degree in psychoneuroimmunology.
This isn’t what happened. Instead, I realized I was more interested in doing healing work versus researching it. So, for nearly two decades now, I’ve studied and trained with pioneers in the fields of body-centered trauma resolution work, energetic healing, embodiment practices, and nature connection.
Seeking even deeper healing.
Still, throughout this time, I kept having this nagging feeling that I was missing something. For one, my own headaches and migraines (and chronic anxiety) were unresponsive to the truly exceptional trauma and other healing work I was receiving. While I could help my clients with their pain and anxiety; my own was unrelenting.
Consequently, my search for healing and wholeness took me further and further removed from my fundamentalist evangelical Holdeman Mennonite upbringing… directly into animism, ritual and ceremony, and working with the ancestors to heal the wounds of the (their) past.
My healing journey became our healing journey.
Now, I facilitate ancestral lineage healing around themes of:
- grief and loss with a specific focus on miscarriages (I’ve had two second trimester miscarriages), abortions, and birth trauma in addition to the omnipresent grief of living in cultures disconnected from community, nature, and our other-than-human kin.
- religious fundamentalism — our ancient, wise ancestors guide us back into relationship with the larger web of the other-than-human world. We deepen into true belonging and into a knowing that we are part of, not separate from, all of creation.
- disembodiment and lack of healthy boundaries as evidenced by persistent confusion (with regards to life path/purpose), inability to make decisions, to know what feels right, to feel or access the wisdom of the body; and
- chronic pain/illness — my lifelong pattern of migraines and the healing I’ve experienced as the underlying trauma flowing from my ancestral lines resolved informs my focus on this theme.
Ancestral healing is cultural healing.
I am dedicated to ancestral healing, embodiment, grief-work, and reclaiming animistic values as paths of cultural healing and repair.
The cultural toxins of colonialism, racism, sexism, patriarchy, exploitative capitalism, earth-disconnection, etc originate in the unresolved trauma of past generations, of our ancestors. In other words, the pain, confusion, and crisis’ that we experience in our personal lives, in our communities, and on a cultural and planetary level are not just ours. Seeking to heal these wounds from an individual perspective of “my pain… my healing journey” will not get us far either as an individual or as a culture.
Fortunately, it is possible to heal the wounds of the (theirs and our) past.
As we embody the strengths and gifts of our lineages, we can then face larger cultural issues from a place of deep support, resilience, and inspiration. In short, the embodied gifts of our lineages are the antidote to the toxins named above.
My teachers and travel:
With regards to ancestral healing and ritual, my most influential teachers are Dr. Daniel Foor and Malidoma Somé. My primary trauma and energy work mentors are Uma Malcolm and Richard Valasek, both Ortho-Bionomy® Instructors. Other influences include the grief work of Sobonfu Somé, and the teachings and writings of Jon Young, Pixie Lighthorse, Dr. Gabor Maté, and Martín Prechtel.
I spent a year living on the island of Malta. While there, I traveled through a bit of North Africa (Tunisia) and Europe (Holland, Austria, Germany, England, Norway). Additionally, I spent a summer doing volunteer work in Nepal. These experiences help me appreciate both the beauty and limitations of American culture.
Finally, a little bit about my name:
My parents loved the movie Dr. Zhivago and wanted to name me Larisa (pronounced Lara-sa). My grandma, bless her heart, couldn’t figure that one out and resorted to calling me Lala. So, my parents switched it up to LaREEsa, and called me Lara for short.
My grandma, however, continued to call me Lala.
Now, I mostly go by Larisa.
Hi 🙂 I’m so happy you are here.