Welcome to Quiet Room Studio

Hi, I'm Alison, and I am a mentor. I find great joy in working with people to help them live happy lives. The world dearly needs healthy, happy people. Becoming a mentor is something that gradually grew out of my own life and experiences.

I am from Oakland, CA. and I have lived here my whole life. I have been teaching in Oakland's Public Schools for over 25 years. I am also a musician, a mother, a teacher, and a helper. Most of all, I love to laugh.

I have been exploring awareness since I was a teenager. I could always sense that there is more to life than what I experiencing through my senses. I was curious about why I see the world as I do. I needed to understand why I feel things as I do. I wanted to change my behavior. I wanted to pursue the inner life that I could sense but didn't know how to navigate.

Over the years I have gained and shed hundreds of pounds.
I have been addicted to drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and negative energy states.

Here's me playing my violin on the Cliffs of Moher in 1996.
I was in my early 20s.
I weighed over 300 lbs and my soul felt like it weighed even more.

I couldn't bear to feel. I ate, drank, abused drugs and suffered.
I suffered and I made the people around me suffer.

All the while, I was a seeker. My spirit was always beckoning me. I studied, learned, made attempts, achieved goals, endured failures. I began creating my own patchwork quilt of ideas, methods and practices.

The words "take up your bed and walk" became a powerful change agent for me, as well as, inexplicibly, a song by Captain Beefheart called "Blabber and Smoke."

Somehow Captain Beefheart got me sober. I can not express why or how. I imagine it was the combination of the music mixed with my wishes, my aims, and my efforts. But this I know: Healing comes in unique and individual ways.

There is no one-size-fits-all support system or healing modality. We each need to take up our own cause and embark on our Hero's Journey.

I chose this sweet, blurry picture to share here because it shows a moment from my life that really illustrates change. My husband took this picture as I gave my "OUSD Teacher of the Year" acceptance speech in 2014.

I'd come a long way since the Cliffs of Moher.

And I've come a long way since then.

Only now I realize that I'm right here and I've been here all along.

I'm just more here now.

Today finds me doing the things that give my life meaning, purpose and happiness.

I play my violin, make music, teach classes, mentor students and tend my family, friends and gardens.

And I pray in gratitude for the world.

There is so much to be grateful for.

This picture shows me in my happy place. My partner Aaron and I have been together for nearly 20 years. We have four amazing grown sons (he has three and I have one) and they are the loves of our lives. We both teach in the public school system and share a devotion to cultivating people. We create and perform music together, and we love to go on adventures of all kinds.

This picture is from an adventure in Scotland in 2008. We were traveling on a Fund For Teachers Grant and we were gathering myths, stories, folklore and music to bring back to our classrooms.

And we are still gathering.

Everyday.