My Approach :
Somatic guidance focuses on connecting you deeply to your body, using experiences rather than
thoughts as the pathway to healing. Together, we will gently explore emotions and sensations to
help you better understand your internal process. Touch, when used, is always with your consent,
and you are empowered to stop or modify any part of our work at any time without question.
I draw upon years 20 + of study and training, including my ongoing journey as a Hakomi somatic psychotherapy and ISITTA practitioner and shamanic facilitator. These modalities deepen our ability to support your nervous system and allow for profound transformation.
• Mindfulness: Cultivating present-moment awareness to access emotions, memories, and
imagination, fostering meaningful change.
• Embodied Practices: Integrating movement, touch, and body awareness to activate
healing and embodied wisdom.
• Transformative Rituals: Creating ceremonies to honor transitions, catalyze growth, and
integrate expanded consciousness into your healing journey.
Soma and Soul Integration Guidance Series :
The Soma and Soul Integration 10-session commitment is a structured somatic psychotherapy journey designed to support consistent healing and integration through committed therapeutic sessions. This focused process centers primarily on Hakomi-informed somatic psychotherapy and trauma integration, supporting nervous system regulation, emotional healing, and meaningful life transitions and creativity and purpose.
Across the 10-session container, our work unfolds progressively, creating a steady therapeutic arc
grounded in body-based awareness, experiential somatic practices, movement, and integrative
dialogue. Together, we make sense of what you have lived through while cultivating clarity, resilience, and grounded transformation. Supportive practices such as Qigong, voice work, or gentle movement may be included when helpful, yet the core emphasis remains on body-based therapeutic work within the session space.
10 session Series : creates a container of trust, consistency, and devotion, allowing your inner aspects to surface and receive the support needed to flourish. This dedicated time helps your body relax into trust so the profound work of integration can unfold.
Single Drop In Sessions :
Single sessions are available for those seeking immediate support around a current life theme or integration moment. These sessions focus on Hakomi present moment somatic awareness, nervous system regulation, and compassionate exploration . Single sessions are often offered as an introductory meeting, or as ongoing support after completing an agreed container.
75 or 90 minute integration sessions are offered in person at my Nevada City Temple of Integration sanctuary, or via Zoom. Sessions may be hybrid, in person, or Zoom and are just
as potent in any format.
What Is Hakomi?
Hakomi is a mindfulness centered, body based psychotherapy that invites us to listen inwardly and discover how our unconscious beliefs shape the way we experience ourselves, others, and the world and live in the nervous system. Through present moment awareness, somatic tracking, and compassionate inquiry, Hakomi supports deep healing without force, helping patterns soften and reorganize from the inside out. Rather than analyzing from the mind alone, Hakomi gently turns our attention toward the body as a living archive of experience. Through sensation, posture, breath, emotion, and impulse, the body reveals what words often cannot.
In the Hopi language, Hakomi asks the essential question, “Where do I stand in relation to these many realms?” Developed by Ron Kurtz in the 1970s, Hakomi rests on simple yet radical principles: mindfulness, nonviolence, organicity, unity, and the understanding that we are all fundamentally whole. In this work, nothing is forced and nothing is pathologized. We slow down, cultivate presence, and allow patterns to reveal themselves naturally. From this place of safety and curiosity, core beliefs often formed early in life can be met with compassion, updated, and reorganized from the inside out.
To me, Hakomi is less a technique and more a way of being with another human. It is a relational field where all parts are welcome and where healing unfolds through attunement rather than effort. It honors the intelligence of the nervous system and trusts that when we are met without judgment or pressure, something essential softens. What emerges is not a fixed version of healing, but a deeper alignment with truth, choice, and presence. Hakomi asks us not who we should become, but how we are already organized, and what becomes possible when we meet ourselves with awareness, kindness, and embodied listening.
My work is deeply informed by the teachings of my dear mentors RobFisher—a senior Hakomi trainer, psychotherapist, and pioneer in mindfulness-based somatic psychology—and Manuela Mischke-Reeds, somatic psychotherapist, educator, and founder ofISITTA (Innate Somatic Intelligence Trauma Therapy Approach), whose work bridges somatic therapy, movement therapy, and trauma-informed nervous system healing.
What Is ISITTA?
ISITTA (Innate Somatic Intelligence Trauma Therapy Approach) is a body centered, nervous system informed approach to trauma healing that rests on a simple and powerful truth: the body holds an innate intelligence that knows how to heal. Developed by my dear mentor Manuela Mischke-Reeds, rather than reliving trauma, ISITTA emphasizes safety, pacing, and regulation, allowing the system to unwind stored survival responses and restore coherence, resilience, and choice.
This work honors the body’s natural rhythms and protective strategies. Through attuned presence, mindful movement, breath, and felt sense awareness, the nervous system is invited into regulation without force or overwhelm. ISITTA does not ask the body to perform or revisit what it is not ready to touch. Instead, it follows what is already arising, trusting the intelligence within to lead the way. It trusts the body’s innate intelligence to guide healing. Using mindfulness, embodied practices, and transformative ritual, our work together gently unlocks the innate intelligence within, empowering your authentic self to emerge with greater clarity, integration, and presence.
For me, ISITTA is a practice of deep respect. It meets trauma not as something broken, but as a wise adaptation shaped by circumstances that once required protection. In this space, healing unfolds through safety, choice, and embodiment. As the system softens, space is created for vitality, clarity, and connection to return. ISITTA reminds us that resilience is not something we must build from scratch it already lives within us, waiting to be remembered and gently supported back into flow.
QITANYO THERAPY METHOD
QiTanYo is my signature embodied practice—a multidimensional movement and ritual journey that weaves together Daoist Qigong, Classical Tantra Yoga Therapy, somatic awareness, breath, sound, and meditative stillness. QiTanYo is a practice of listening rather than performing, designed to guide you back into relationship with your body, your breath, and the inner currents of life force that move through you. Through slow, intentional movement and deep presence, this practice supports nervous system regulation, digestion, emotional flow, and a grounded yet expansive sense of vitality.
Rooted in elemental wisdom and nourished by modern somatic intelligence, QiTanYo invites the body to lead the way. Rather than pushing or striving, we allow energy to reorganize organically, creating space for release, clarity, creativity, and renewal. Each practice is responsive to the moment and the people present, weaving ritual, intuition, and therapeutic awareness into a safe, held container that honors both ancient lineages and contemporary embodied living.
More than a class, QiTanYo is a living prayer. A sacred space to soften, awaken, and be fully seen. Through devotional movement and deep listening, we attune to the elemental forces within—fire and water in sacred union—awakening inner vitality and emotional intelligence. This practice gently restores the natural rhythm between body, breath, and Earth, allowing long held patterns to unwind and making space for what is most alive to emerge.
QiTanYo cultivates heart, mind, and body coherence, integrating psycho spiritual awareness into a felt and authentic experience. It invites both personal remembrance and communal belonging. As we learn to inhabit ourselves more fully, our lives become offerings—living expressions of the harmony we cultivate within. This is where healing begins: internally, relationally, and together.
More About Tutku
Since then, I have immersed myself in traditional and modern lineages of yoga, meditation, Qigong, nutrition, and plant medicine across India, Nepal, Thailand, Peru, California, and beyond. I lived in monasteries with Tibetan monks, practicing meditation and studying Yogic, Vedic, Buddhist, Daoist, and Sufi traditions all over the globe in varying depths. I completed advanced trainings in Classical Tantric Hatha Yoga and Ayurveda (E-RYT 500), Classical Ashtanga(E-RYT 200) and Hatha Yoga (E-RYT 300) in Rishikesh and Dharamsala, and Tibetan Mahayana Buddhist mindfulness meditation through extended retreats at Tushita Monastery in Dharamsala and Kopan Monastery in Nepal.I completed immersive studies with White Tiger Qigong and other Qigong forms supporting nervous system and digestive health, and I completed and graduated from my professional training in Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychotherapy (Level 2) and ISITTA Trauma Therapy through Embodywise and assist as a teacher assistant.
Today, I curate communal and private practices that harmonize the physical, emotional, and psycho-spiritual dimensions of being.My path is rooted in a deep relationship with Amazonian plant medicine traditions, where I have traveled extensively and learned to hold space in trauma-informed and integrative ways. My ceremonial and plant-medicine work is deeply informed by the Amazonian Shipibo vegetalismo tradition, cultivated through years of study, apprenticeship, and pilgrimage at Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual under my beloved teacher, Ricardo Amaringo, a respected Shipibo curandero and founder of the center. Within this lineage, healing is guided through traditional plant diets, ceremonial icaros, and the relational intelligence between human beings and the living plant world, forming part of the broader Western Amazonian vegetalismo tradition of plant-teacher medicine.
Alongside my Amazonian training, I have been honored to learn elements of Andean cosmology and earth-honoring traditions from Quechua teachers, including Christina Mendoza, whose teachings emphasize reciprocity with the land, ancestral remembrance, and relational harmony with the natural world—wisdom rooted in the living traditions of the Quechua peoples of the Andes.
I also carry the influence of my beloved partner, Chonie Vargas, a Native American Chiricahua Apache whose work moves beyond formal lineage structures into the immediacy of present-moment wisdom, intuitive channeling, sound doctoring, and direct relational guidance with spirit. Her teachings remind me that lineage is not only inherited, but continually alive, revealed through the listening heart and the intelligence of the moment itself.In collaboration with my colleague and beloved partner, Chonie Vargas, we birthed the Aho Şifa Collective Altar in 2020 and continue to serve our community through ceremonial offerings and dedicated integration work. We now offer a year-long apprenticeship program through the SHAMA SOMA Collective with the Aho Şifa Collective Altar for individuals who feel called to deeper study, ceremonial practice, and devoted integration.Anchored in my Anatolian lineage and shaped by decades of global study and inner pilgrimage, my work bridges the sacred and the practical, the ancestral and the emergent. These experiences inform a grounded and ethical approach to healing that honors both mystery and nervous system safety, serving those walking the path of integration and embodiment with grace, grit, and devotion.
I create spaces where the body becomes temple and movement becomes medicine. With a heart led and trauma informed presence, I guide students into the intelligence of their own nervous systems, supporting regulation, digestive balance, creativity, and soul remembrance. My sessions are attuned to seasonal rhythms and elemental wisdom, inviting deep listening and embodied coherence.I create spaces where the body becomes temple and movement becomes medicine.
Currently residing in Nevada City, on the ancestral homelands of the Nisenan, in Northern California with my beloved partner and kitty Sufi, I offer in-person, group, and online practices within my cherished local and global community.Through all of my work,
I continue to embody and share my living devotion: guiding others into presence, integration, and the remembrance of their sacred belonging. All of my offerings now emerge from this integration and about weaving them into one coherent way of living and serving where psyche and soma, ritual and relationship, science and mystery meet.
I walk this earth wearing many hats. I am an artist, a singer, a chef, and a nourisher of life. I am a community gatherer and cultural bridge, curating intimate pilgrimages to my ancestral homelands of Anatolia. I carry Balkan roots, with Turkic, Greek, Bulgarian, and Mesopotamian ancestry woven through my lineage. Rooted in my Anatolian heritage and shaped by decades of global study and inner pilgrimage, my work bridges ancestral and modern healing, integrating soulful embodiment, somatic intelligence, and ritual into everything I offer. At heart, my role is simple: to walk alongside you, helping you remember balance, presence, and the innate wisdom already living within you.
My own healing journey began almost 3 decades ago in Turkey, when a herniated disc left me paralyzed at 18 yrs old and I had to learn to walk all over again. Through years of deep surrender to dark night of the soul in suicidal depression, a profound and unshakable calling awakened in me, guiding me toward practices that stirred my body’s innate intelligence and ignited deeper healing in body, heart, and spirit. Born into a rich culture, I never fully felt I belonged to one way of seeing life and I sensed that truth was vast and multifaceted, something no single path could contain. That knowing became my compass.
This is the path I walk. This is the path I offer.From this knowing, Temple of Integration was born.In these wild and wondrous times to me, this is the heart of our work and for that I am endlessly grateful.
Thank you for being part of this journey with me.
All the Love,
Tutku 🪷
ABOUT AHO ŞIFA COLLECTIVE ALTAR
Chonie Vargas & Tutku TezverenAho Şifa Collective is our shared home a sanctuary of sound, medicine, and healing. The name itself carries the prayer of our work. Aho is a word of acknowledgment, gratitude, and reverence rooted in Chonie’s Native American lineage. Şifa means healing in Tutku’s Anatolian Turkic roots.
Together, the name speaks to devotion, service, and remembrance.We are the visionary creators of the Aho Şifa Altar, a sacred ceremonial space woven from the many Amazonian and earth and cosmos and cosmology based lineages we have walked over the past 2 decades. United in purpose, we lead trauma informed, somatic, and shamanic healing containers that bridge body and soul, science and spirit. Our work blends ancient healing traditions with present moment learning, creating environments that are safe, deeply intuitive, and integrative for personal and collective transformation.
MORE ABOUT RETREATS & PILGRIMAGES & CEREMONIES
Nearly every month, we gather. Sometimes here at home in Nevada City for intimate immersions. Sometimes in powerful landscapes across America—desert spaces in Utah, the crystalline presence of Mount Shasta or retreats that extend into Canada.
These destination retreats blend plant medicine ceremonional work, somatic psychotherapy, QiTanYo, voice activation, ritual arts, in a trauma-informed ceremonial space. Movement and stillness. Fire and deep rest. Collective ritual balanced with personal integration.
Our pilgrimages carry us into my ancestral lands. of Türkiye, Mystical Anatolia journeys walk through Cappadocia’s caves, along the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts, and into ancient sanctuaries such as Göbekli Tepe. These are walks of remembrance, woven with meditation, tea ceremony, somatic ritual, sound journeys, and offerings to the land.
In Peru, initiatory retreats bridge Amazonian vegetalismo and Andean mountain wisdom. With humility and reverence, we enter traditional plant dietas, earth-honoring teachings, and careful integration practices rooted in years of apprenticeship and relationship.
These spaces are trauma-informed, culturally respectful, and guided with nervous system awareness.Across all these offerings, one principle remains steady: togetherness and solitude held at once. Group ceremony paired with individualized support. Visionary expansion grounded in embodied integration.Artists, therapists, parents, doctors, musicians, leaders people from all walks of life gather in these spaces. Small groups ensure depth, safety, and true integration. Willingness to feel. To listen. To remember.If something in you feels the quiet pull, trust it. The altar is already prepared.
MORE ABOUT Mystical Anatolia Pilgrimages
2027 COMING SOON>>>
From the depths of Anatolia, we encounter our own depths. We travel the Silk Roads through culinary rituals, traditional music, mysticism, vibrant cultures, and bustling bazaars rich with spices, copper, and handmade goods. We make offerings to ancient sites, indigenous lands, ancestral cultures, and celestial histories. Our days are woven with meditation, QiTanYo practices, integrative somatic rituals, sacred tea and coffee ceremonies, sound journeys, and time in nature’s most powerful sanctuaries.
We journey from West to East, touching the many faces of Türkiye—hiking through the lunar landscapes of Cappadocia’s ancient caves, wandering the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts along the Turquoise Riviera, and walking in the footsteps of Roman emperors and Ottoman sultans. We stand in awe at Pamukkale’s heart-opening thermal terraces and arrive at Göbeklitepe, a sanctuary over eleven thousand years old, often called Zero Point in time, where human history continues to be rewritten.
These pilgrimages are held in intimate groups, allowing for deep connection, safety, and integration. They are spaces where you are seen—individually and collectively—and where healing unfolds gently through presence, ritual, and shared remembrance.
In these tender times on our planet, each journey also carries a commitment to service. A portion of our offerings supports humanitarian efforts through trusted partners, honoring our responsibility to care for the wider human family.
Mystical Anatolia Pilgrimages are an invitation to remember who you are, where you come from, and how deeply you belong—to the land, to lineage, and to the living future we are shaping together.