About
El Nido, Philippines
It all started when…
Jeanette has been a practicing Registered Nurse specializing in Acute/Critical Care since 1996. Her lifelong interest in holistic and alternative medicine, first kindled by time spent in the Philippine Islands as a young child, followed by growing up on a horse farm in Northern New Jersey surrounded by animals, led her to explore various Touch Therapy and Energy Techniques including Reiki, which she trained and apprenticed in through the third level. In 2005, Jeanette earned her 900 hour certification in Massage Therapy through the Myotherapy Institute of Massage. She opened a private practice focused on somatic therapies based in both Eastern and Western methodologies. Constantly striving to expand her scope of practice, Jeanette also carries certifications in Health Coaching, Yoga, and Animal Massage.
An avid musician and percussionist, Jeanette has studied and researched the effects of music and drumming on the body as a vehicle for transformation, meditation, and healing as well as Sound Therapy, Yoga and Martial Arts since 1992. She has studied African Drumming, Shekere, and world rhythm with teachers such as Joe Barnes, Baba Olatunji, Yaya Diallo, Madeline "Yayo" Nelson, and Mamady Keita, amongst others. She has been blessed by the opportunity to play and record with various music artists including Dr. John, David Darling, Krishna Das, Charles Wood, Vanessa Lively and Guy Forsyth. In 2006, Jeanette moved to Austin where she ran a successful private practice catering to special needs clientele as well as renewed her martial arts training in a form of Filipino Martial Arts called Pekiti Tirsia Kali. Kali is a highly effective, indigenous fighting art from the Philippines used by law enforcement, elite special forces around the world, and is highly applicable to self defense beyond its deep cultural roots.
After years of study With Tuhon Leslie Buck Jr. of Tactical Arts Academy of Austin Texas, in the fall of 2010, Jeanette moved back to North New Jersey to live a more sustainable lifestyle at Sycamore Grove Farms. Jeanette founded Pekiti Tirsia Kali New Jersey under the guidance of Grand Tuhon Leo T. Gaje and Tuhon Rommel Tortal. Jeanette Currently holds the rank of Mandala within the Pekiti Tirsia Kali System. She is the Director of New Jersey for the Pekiti Tirsia Kali World Federation (PTKWF), as well as Co-Director of the North East for the Pekiti Tirsia Tactical Association (PTTA). She continues to work within the acute and critical care setting at Westchester Medical Center, along side her private wellness practice, and can occasionally be found playing percussion in the collaborative group, Kidimandi, or deep in the forest with her ridgeback.
Mabuhay!