Karen who?
Karen Sella, Founder & Proprietress
PHoto credit: Cameron Griffin
Karen Sella, M.A., C.Y.T., L.M.T., is the founder of Luminanda, an integral coaching practice dedicated to realizing the greater good within, between, and all around us. Her work is grounded in a transdisciplinary background of organization psychology, expressive psychotherapy, and somatic arts, as well as over twenty years of experience engaging people in (trans)personal, relational, and organizational development.
Prior to launching Luminanda, she worked as a management consultant within boutique and Big Five firms, and also served the social sector as a manager, therapist, and fund developer.
She has worked with leaders from companies, such as LinkedIn, the Center for Courage & Renewal, Gap Inc., Intel Corp, the YMCA, as well as numerous private individuals cultivating a world of goodness.
“Karen’s body of work is brilliant. If you want to learn more, contact her. A conversation with this woman will transform the way you live and see the world.”
“I was reluctant to see any therapist, coach, or psychologist before meeting Karen, but when I spoke with her for the first time I could see that she was much more than just another counselor. Her clear insight, awareness, and compassion made me feel instantly comfortable and open; her incisive questions helped me look at my patterns in a fresh light and begin to change them; and, though it sounds cliche, her very presence was healing. Karen helped me refind my center during a very difficult time. Our sessions catalyzed a more successful and stable period of my life.”
“Yesterday was a momentous occasion in the history of our community. It felt like a complete shift in the foundation of how we can live and work together. Karen brings a beautiful grace to the process that creates a safe container, and really supports the experience of being very present with ourselves and each other. I am so excited for the unfolding of new growth in our community.”
ORGANIZATION PSYCHOLOGY & EXPRESSIVE PSYCHOTHERAPY: MA
Karen completed her M.A. in Expressive Therapies from Lesley College, the first graduate program to integrate all of the arts—visual, musical, kinesthetic, psychodramatic, somatic—in psychotherapy. Training with Shaun McNiff, Mariagnese Cattaneo, Paolo Knill, Peter Rowan, Julie Leavitt, and Susan Spaniol in the pioneering field of Expressive Arts Therapy affirmed her belief in integral human development—multiple perspectives, intelligences, states, and modes of being—as a profound way of cultivating life-affirming connections with self, others, and the world.
Karen also earned her bachelor’s degree in Organizational Psychology and Fine Arts from Springfield College, a small liberal arts college committed to educating the whole person—spirit, mind, and body—for service leadership.
She served as a Conscious Business Facilitator for Linkedin. She is also trained in The Art of Hosting, Open Space Technology, Appreciative Inquiry, Integral Relationship Group Facilitation, and other methods.
SOMATIC ARTS: CYT, LMT
In addition to her master's degree training, Karen is a Certified Yoga Teacher (C.Y.T.) with over twenty-five years of yoga and meditation practice. Along the way, she has been gratefully inspired and influenced by the teachings of Sri Aurobindo, Ramana Maharshi, Georg Feuerstein, Sivenanda Saraswati, Hameed Ali, Dennis Waite, Joseph Goldstein, and J. Krishnamurti—to name just a few. Her yoga practice has been enriched by hands-on instruction from Mary Lou Weprin of The Yoga Room, Ganga White and Tracey Rich of White Lotus Yoga Foundation, as well as the many other yoga teachers and peers too numerous to name who have taught her along the way.
A Licensed Massage Therapist (L.M.T.) with over a decade of practice, Karen also studied Western massage therapy (i.e. classic relaxation, deep tissue, clinical treatment, and sports massage) at Port Townsend School of Massage, as well as Eastern bodywork based on Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda (i.e. Acu-Yoga, Shiatsu, Tui Na, Marma, and Thai massage) at the Acupressure Institute.
GLOBAL NOMAD LIFE EXPERIENCE
Although she primarily calls the U.S. home, Karen grew up global as a Third Culture Kid on five different continents, educated in international, public, private, and home schools. This formative experience gave her a deep appreciation for the many different ways of being human in the world, and inspired a lifelong enquiry into how we can have a better experience of human being together that continues to enrich her work with clients locally and abroad.
“Karen helped me identify and develop a career that brings meaning, purpose, and great satisfaction to me and those I work with. Her intuitive, intelligent, and skillful guidance have been such a blessing in my life.”
“Karen entered my life as a coaching goddess of light, navigation, and wisdom. My life simply needed her touch for all the good things to happen.”
“Thank you for helping to inspire and support my book, Reverent Irreverence. Our conversations were invaluable.”
“I am so very grateful to Karen for her extraordinary ability to grasp and artfully communicate what I believe is the way life is meant to work, the way we are meant to interact with one another, and how to align ourselves with abundant integrity - the kind that fills us with confidence in ourselves such that we can meaningfully contribute to all that we do.”
“Thank you for your leadership and the many gifts that you brought to the process. From the invaluable “ringing in with a moment of silence” (now a standard practice) to the conceptual framing of the initiative that gave us valuable guidelines, your leadership was pivotal in the creation of Sound Spirit. The program and communications teams are jamming now.”