Karen Sella, Founder & Proprietress

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 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.

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, 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. As a young adult, her hatha yoga practice was enhanced by hands-on instruction from Mary Lou Weprin in the Iyengar method. She is also grateful to Ganga White and Tracey Rich of White Lotus Yoga Foundation for deepening her skill in contemporary instruction, 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.