My parents named me Pernille [pronounced, roughly, “Panella”] —a Scandinavian name that comes from the Greek petra, meaning rock or stone, with a diminutive suffix. Thus, my given name says I am a “little rock” (or “little stone”). People who know me most intimately today say that I am a mystic. I don’t really know what I am.

I am in love with the Earth. With her oceans, seas, mountains, flowers, and trees. Her creatures and birds. With her boulders and stones. With the big rock circling her, travelling with us as we journey around the sun. With the planets and the stars.

I write (mostly poetry)

I dance

I love

—and hold spaces for human beings to rest, embody, remember, and connect.

I’ve decided that I am here to ecstatically enjoy and humbly serve Life.

∞ ∞ ∞

My background includes a PhD in cognitive psychology, practicing as a body-oriented psychotherapist, diverse trainings in somatics, bodywork, yoga, dance, meditation & mindfulness—and teaching about the human heart, body, mind, and soul in a variety of contexts: from academic lecture halls to corporate seminars, dance studios and yoga retreats.

The deepest inspiration for what I write, teach, and am comes from being in, and with, Nature and the more-than-human world. Since early childhood, this is the foundational classroom for me, and the most important training and practice that lay the ground for everything else: to simply sit or lie with my body on the body of the Earth; resting, opening, listening, with my whole being, to her wisdom and love.