My story & lineages

I’m a Chinese-French-American living on the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary lands of the Goshutes, Paiute, Shoshone, and Ute people, colonially known as Salt Lake City, UT.

I was born and raised in Shanghai, China, where my family still live. When I turned 18, I left my hometown to study journalism in the U.S. and landed in upstate New York and have been living and working in this country since. I studied photography, writing and rhetoric, and graphic design as an undergraduate, and worked in journalism (dream came true!) and later in tech as a digital product designer, manager, and startup founder. 

I began practicing meditation in 2012, and graduated from Buddhist Geeks’ two-year dharma teacher training in 2022. My primary training and study have been in Theravāda Insight Meditation, and I am grateful to be mentored by Emily Horn, Susie Harrington, Tempel Smith, Beth Upton and Win Thu Wun.

I’ve spent a significant amount of time practicing in the outdoors, observing and learning from Nature, and aspire to share nature-based practices more broadly. One of my favorite places to roam and practice is the High Desert in Southern Utah. I’m a Wilderness First Responder, and an apprentice at Boulder Outdoor Survival School in Boulder, UT.

I’m passionate about bridging meditation, nature and human developmental frameworks because I believe spiritual awakening and psychological maturity need each other to fully support transformation in a time of unprecedented change. In this, I am deeply inspired by and grateful for the work of Diane Musho Hamilton.

My name “Kuan” in Chinese means “broadening,” and I aspire to continuously broaden my knowledge and training to include somatic consent, critical theory, feminist studies, queer theory, integral theory, non-violent communications, internal family systems, attachment theory, and many other healing modalities into my practice and teaching.

I’m trained as a Somatic Consent Educator with Consent Wizardry, and a Buddhist Eco-Chaplain with The Sati Center for Buddhist Studies. 

I’m honored that you’re here.