I spent over two decades in high-consequence environment risk consulting — assessing what could go wrong, building systems to prevent it, and learning how to see patterns that other people miss. It turns out those same skills translate beautifully into holding space for women who are navigating the messiest, most beautiful parts of being alive.
Hi. I'm Shannon.
Risk consultant by trade. Artist by soul. Clairvoyant by birthright. Connection worker by calling.
I'm a mom of six — five adopted as teenagers — a veteran, a third-time bride, and a woman who has rebuilt herself enough times to know that the rebuilding is the point. Once Upon a Connection grew out of that knowing and what I know is that LIFE IS GOING TO HAPPEN - DON’T EVER LET ANYONE OR ANYTHING SHAME YOU FOR THAT.
WHAT CHANGED SINCE SPRING
Here is the truth of this season: I stopped whispering.
In 2026, I ventured into the world of Reiki - I say this with total honesty - I decided to add it to my certifications and offerings because it fit under the Somatic Wellness umbrella and if I could do more to help my clients heal, I was up for it. It’s not that I didn’t believe in Reiki’s effects, I just didn’t know much about it.
And then…the day I got my Level 1 certification - my world changed forever and there is truly no going backwards at this point. I am now a Reiki practitioner, Usai lineage and in a Master Teacher and Spiritual Apprenticeship.
HOW. DID. I. GET. HERE? I’m no longer whispering this - I am sharing with the eyes and ears it is meant for. Reiki opened a channel and I hope it never closes.
When I practice Reiki — and sometimes simply when I speak of it — I see things. A figure standing patiently beside a woman. A color moving through her. Wings of glass unfolding from a man’s back and a silver thread wrapping him in safety. And then I…HEAR IT…a message arriving, often through music, in a language somewhere between sound and knowing. I did what a careful woman with a risk-analyst brain does: I observed. I documented. Then I started to draw what I saw, wrote what I heard, and kept it close.
And then something kept happening that even my analyst brain couldn't file away: every single person recognized what I drew. The grandfather, down to his glasses. The mother, down to the way she held her head. The presence a woman had felt beside her for years and never once named out loud. Again and again and again.
You can only witness that so many times before the whispering starts to feel like a disservice to yourself. So — no more. I am clairvoyant and clairaudient. I see, I hear, I draw, I write, and the people I read carry the proof home in their hands. It took me fifty years to say that sentence in public. It will not take me another fifty to say the next one:
This is the studio's second wing now — Fire Creative — where the energy work and the art become one thing, because they always were. Illuminated paintings mapped from real auras. A celebration of women's bodies made of literal light. Couture gowns with stories sewn into their seams. A word-burning class for every woman who was ever called too much. All of it held by a practitioner who is now in a year-long Reiki Master Teacher apprenticeship, and because I don’t have a slow-down bone in my body, a Doctoral Student of Somatic Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies.
The studio didn't change. I just finally told you everything that happens inside it. I work with women every day and ask them to speak their truth - I need to speak mine and with a warm, proud heart.
Inside the studio you'll find my somatic wellness practice — private 1:1 connection work, the 333 Clairvoyant/Clairaudient Energy Session, HER Awakening classes, and small circles with big healing — alongside The Intuitive Studio, where I make art fueled by story and art fueled by spirit: reverse ekphrasis pieces, illuminated celebrations of body and aura, and fantasy gowns for those who were never going to wear what everyone else wears.
INTIMACY BEGINS WHEN YOU ROMANCE YOUR OWN SOUL FIRST — SO, LET'S GET TO IT.
Credentials
Doctoral Student, Somatic Psychology
Trauma-Informed Certified Somatic Healer & Clairvoyant/Clairaudient Reiki Practitioner - advocating for and affirming inclusivity:
Doctoral Student, Somatic Psychology - California Institute of Integral Studies
Integrative Wellness Certifications — Somatic Healing Certification, Foundations of Meditation Certification, Nervous System Regulation & Trauma Literacy
Usui Lineage Reiki Level II Certified Practitioner & Reiki Master Teacher & Spiritual Training Apprenticeship — year-long, in progress
Certified Human Rights Consultant — U.S. Institute of Diplomacy & Human Rights: Helping communities understand and apply human rights principles in real-world settings.
Trauma-Informed Parenting & Attachment Certification — Because They Waited™ (15 hours, Hague-accredited). Training in brain development, sensory processing, nervous system regulation, and attachment — completed as part of Shannon's adoption journey and foundational to all connection work at OUAC.
Certified in Somatic Healing and Meditation Practices • 20+ years in risk assessment and program development • Quality Assurance Lead Auditor • Masters of Arts, Global Security Studies, Johns Hopkins University. • Doctoral Student, Somatic Psychology, California Institute of Integral Studies.
