Where do you come from? What’s your story?
I grew up homeschooled in a Christian community in California. I entered Willamette University as a biology major, but switched to Religious Studies in an attempt to chase God through the collapse of my fundamentalism. I then worked for a CSA and studied screenwriting in San Francisco for a year; spent two years in Korea teaching English to kids and organizing a regional Burning Man; and spent a year backpacking through Asia and living in the jungle in Nepal.
I moved to Colorado in 2014, where I got involved in contact improvisation, intersubjective meditation, eco-somatic trauma healing modalities, nature-based ritual, foraging, and permaculture. After a period of training, I started a somatic lay counseling practice and began hosting events themed around nature-based healing.
Starting in 2019, I went through a big shift and began sorting through some of my bulls**t. I became an active mindfulness meditator and stopped working as a counselor. I started Restorative Landscape Design (formerly Roots To Deep Waters) in early 2021.
I live in Denver (traditionally Arapahoe/Ute/Cheyenne land) with my partner John, where I spend my free time gardening, renovating our old home, backpacking, writing, meditating, and repeatedly trying to make a better home-made pizza.
Almost all of my ancestors came from England, Ireland, Scotland, and thereabouts.
I have worn many hats:
Nature Connection background:
I have run hundreds of small groups, workshops, retreats, rituals, and other events focused on approaching nature in a healing and integrated way. I was a core teacher and ritual leader at the ~300-person festival Surrender: The Ecosex Convergence, and I organized a large community retreat at 11,000ft in Colorado called Eco Eros. One of the weekly groups I led in Boulder sat around a fire in a kiva and just practiced listening to the Earth. Over time, I realized I was engaging with this work in a way that was avoidant, so I took a break from 2019-2020. Restorative Landscape Design was birthed from me wanting to re-engage with this type of work while staying grounded.
Permaculture and Landscape Design background:
I am a Certified Permaculture Designer through the Denver Permaculture Guild, and in Boulder I worked for Lusciously Local, a permaculture company that designs breathtaking urban landscapes. I’ve studied native plants and edible/medicinal plants with various teachers, including a curandero in New Mexico. Now I run a restorative landscaping company in Denver.
Children’s Education background:
In my teens and twenties I worked as a tutor, nanny, Sunday School teacher, and finally as an English teacher for two years. In my thirties, I’ve led nature connection and holistic education workshops for kids and teens in Colorado. My sister and I are currently working on the launch of a website to support holistic homeschoolers.
Somatic Counseling background:
My mentors and training grounds include Buddist mindfulness meditation (especially the Goenka Vipassana tradition), Contact Improvisation, the Internal Family Systems Institute, Circling at the Integral Center, the Boulder Psychotherapy Institute, Dancing Willow Tree Mystery School, Family Constellations, Tri-City Aikido, intuitive coach Life Hughes, Reverend Teri Chiachi, curandero Doug Simmons, and my brilliant partner John Shapiro.
My best teachers have been simple practices like sitting in the heat of meditation, connecting with my gut and with the big picture, braving scouring intimacy, listening to nature, and taking responsibility for my own bull***t.
Note: My counseling practice is closed indefinitely as of 2021. I may work with individuals one-on-one at some point in the future, but that’ll be on the other side of a personal growing-up process that I am engaged in.
I know you by a different name / I know you’re queer, what do I call you?
She or they is fine; I don’t really care.
I prefer to be called Eryn, which is my birth name. If you know me by a different name, or a few different names, I apologize. I changed my name often in the second half of my twenties.
What does Gaia Surya mean?
Gaia Surya LLC is my umbrella company. Gaia is an ancient Greek name for the Earth. Surya is the Sanskrit word for Sun. My name, Eryn, is close in meaning to Gaia Surya; Eryn is an ancient Irish name for the land, and Aaru was the Egyptian name for the heavens.
Between the Earth and Sun are me and you, the humans – navigating through spirit and matter, soul and soil.