About

Sherika is passionate about helping people re-connect to the most honest versions of themselves by bringing their conditioned beliefs and reactionary ways of being into the light of consciousness. She creates space for this vulnerable – and at times, painful – process using a combination of gentle humor, penetrating discernment, and nonjudgmental witnessing.

She seeks to remind each of her students that *they* are the source of their own power and inner authority, connected to a deep well of their own inner knowing.

In a world that constantly teaches us to trade our connection to ourselves for the approval and validation of external sources, Sherika guides her students back to a reclamation of who they really are, once they’ve shed the skins of who they became to survive in today’s world.

As a member of the Southern Sierra Miwuk First Nations tribe, Ahwahneechee Grizzly Bear Clan, and the 3x great granddaughter of Chief Tenaya – whose name she carries as her surname to honor his powerful legacy of resistance and which means “to dream” in her Native language – she has seen firsthand how systems of oppression enforced by colonizer culture have greatly stolen the sovereignty of not just indigenous people, but now all of us who grow up in the aftermath of that system, built as it is upon undigested and unresolved oppressive energies.

Like her grandfather’s name suggests, she desires to dream into existence a nation of people who remember the importance of tribe and put the work into developing the skills it requires to maintain it, who remember their place in the web of ancestral kinship with not only their human relations, but also their plant and animal relations – and most importantly – their interdependent relation with the Earth and Her sacred waters, air, soils and fires. 

It is this remembering of our connection – first to ourselves through the vehicle of developing our own sexual sovereignty, then to each other by developing the skills for authentic and intentional relating in community, and finally to all living beings – that will liberate us from a world that distracts us, numbs us, and pits us against ourselves and others. 

This is the essence of what it means to decolonize one’s body|mind|spirit.

It is this process of decolonizing (still underway) that has allowed for the greatest spiritual growth in her life, informed and sustained by a deep connection to her indigenous roots, nourished by the wellspring of wisdom taught to her by her elders and tribal community as well as the practice of somatic archeology (remembered and taught by indigenous leader Dr. Ruth Gibson), which is a process of unearthing and remembering the stories of wisdom stored in one’s own body.

Sherika’s unique gift is to share this process, to the best of her ability, with any who wish to learn from her.

Sherika received her certification as Somatic Sex Educator and Sexological Bodyworker from The Institute for Study of Somatic Sex Education, based out of Canada. She chose that program due to the fact that it’s the only program at present that has expanded trainings regarding trauma, the gender galaxy, systemic oppressions, and neurobiology.

Additionally, Somatic Sex Educators & Sexological Bodyworkers adhere to this code of professional conduct and ethics outlined by the Association of Certified Sexological Bodyworkers.

Sherika has been teaching at Boise’s top yoga studios for nearly a decade. She earned her 500-hour Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher (500 ERYT) training through the Nosara Yoga Institute in Costa Rica (through the lineage of Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram) and draws upon her experience as a soccer and track athlete, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Qi Gong, tantra yoga, Sexological Bodywork, Latin Dance and mobility-focused, functional fitness in her movement classes.

To further deepen her understanding of trauma, attachment theory, 4 step processing and R-CS (Recreation of the Self), she participated in the two year program with M.E.T.A (Mindful Experiential Therapeutic Approaches) The Hakomi Institute of Oregon. 

Sherika has been a longtime curious explorer in the realm of sacred sexuality and Tantra, though she does not identify as a Tantrika or Dakini whatsoever. She has been mentored by Halo Seronko of Shakti Temple Arts, has completed the Level 1 training with ISTA (International School of Temple Arts), and has read a selection of books for her self study – from these varied sources, she has learned various practices and concepts in the realm of spiritual sexuality that she has integrated into her life and personal practice.

Sherika became an Ordained Minister with the Universal Life Church in June of 2020 and enjoys crafting unique and soulful rituals for major life events, such as weddings and funerals, that interrupt dominant religious culture oversight of these impactful rites of passage and are rooted in more modern day, non-patriarchal, queer-loving, and indigenous based spirituality.

Sherika became a Somatic Breathwork Facilitator in 2023 and teaches movement and breathwork classes at True North Yoga, Ananda Yoga Space, and Source Meditation Space in Boise, Idaho. She regularly travels to Canada and Seattle to teach week-long somatic sexology intensives and retreats and is BIPOC Faculty Liaison with the Institute for the Study of Somatic Sex Education. 

Sherika’s teaching approach has been lovingly referred to by colleagues as a combination of “sex, science and soul” – and it is this approach that informs all of her offerings, whether they be client sessions, wedding or funeral officiant services, movement classes, breathwork classes or in-person group workshops – all are rooted in soulful, science-backed, trauma-informed education sprinkled with indigenous wisdom, heartfelt authenticity and a deep integrity and reverence for the capacity of each of us to not only heal, but thrive. 

Sherika thrives in a life filled with love and a lust for new experiences. She is married to an amazing woman named Monica, with whom she just celebrated an 11 year anniversary and has the world’s best dog, Arlo. She loves world travel and experiencing new cultures, enjoying the amazing outdoor landscape of Idaho via running, biking, swimming, hiking and whitewater kayaking. She loves poetry and storytelling, reading and writing fantasy fiction, building her cooking skills and making art.