My father was a minister and our family's focus was on faith, outreach, justice, caregiving and creativity. My mother nurtured several foster children.
​I am the youngest of 4 daughters, an "HSP" (Highly Sensitive Person") who decided at age 10, that I wanted to be a social worker primarily because of my experiences living with foster children.  

I grew up in Chicago and loved music, poetry, images and photography. I belonged to a choric choir and there connected with the power of the spoken word as art. I listened to and recorded music on my dad's old reel to reel tape player and savored spending time with him as he processed photos in his dark room. I also loved cutting out magazine images and quotes and creating little books.

My mother and sisters served as very powerful mentors around creativity and feminine power.

My love for guided meditation and hypnotherapy began in 1994 and it has inspired and supported me ever since.  All the creative influences in my childhood contributed to my eventual path of writing and recording guided meditations as well as my joy in facilitating SoulCollage® and women's groups.

I attended North Park University in Chicago and In 1980 I graduated with an MSW from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work.  I have lived in North Carolina for most of my adult life; except for 2004-2012 when I worked in an integrative healing practice in Minnesota.

​My own life challenges of dealing with loss and illness have given me great insight into how I support my clients on their path. Opening to creative soul exploration and creating a healing relationship with the inner child has helped me transform my life.  This is the path that inspires both my work with clients and the writing of my meditations.
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My clients continue to bless me and inspire me. They are mentors to me because of their courage, determination and willingness to be vulnerable as they explore the depths of the healing process.
 
These are the settings in which I have worked:

A residential treatment center for children in Cromwell CT
Directing a volunteer organization for older adults
The oncology clinic at Raleigh Internal Medicine
Duke Hospice and Chapel Hill Home Health 
Iatria Wellness Spa in Raleigh.
Two Integrative Holistic Centers- Bridges to Health in Durham, NC &  Partners in Healing of Minnetonka, MN
​Many years of private practice

My advanced training in guided imagery, somatic healing and hypnotherapy is through: The Institute for Health Psychology, National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine, Wellness Institute's Heart Centered Hypnotherapy, and the Academy of Guided Imagery.  

My approach also incorporates the use of mindfulness practices in creating greater clarity and the ability to experience the gift of truly living in the present.
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Some of my teachers have included:
Belleruth Naparstek LICSW, Emmett Miller MD, James Spira PhD, Steve Gilligan PhD,  Peter Levine, PhD and Bessel van der Kolk, MD. 

I have also trained as a life coach with Kathleen Brehony PhD through the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine.

I am a clinical member of:
The Wellness Institute's Heart Centered Hypnotherapy and Imagery International

In addition, I am a trained SoulCollage® facilitator.

My guided meditations are on my own app, my website as well as two meditations apps. I recently reached a milestone on Insight Timer with now over one million listens from meditators across the world. My Healing Surgery CD is sold at the Mayo Clinic Medical Store. My recordings are used in children's hospitals in the US and Canada.
Here are the links to these meditations:
Breethe Meditation App
 www.GlendaCedarleaf.Bandcamp.com 
www.HavenOfRelaxation.com
GuidedMind app
Insight Timer app



I love being a mother, wife and grandmother. I love the ocean and the rivers, riding my bike, swimming, listening to music, SoulCollage®, writing and recording guided meditations. I love living in North Carolina and the beautiful nature that surrounds me. In my "Third Act" of life, I hope to continue bringing the light of awareness into my own life and the life of others.

Here I am at the family cabin wrapped in a 62 year old handmade quilt that comforted our family throughout the years.

This quilt not only symbolizes comfort, warmth and nurturing; but also the patchwork of experiences that we all bring to the beauty and uniqueness of our lives. 

I like to use this phrase in some of my meditation scripts: "feeling comforted like a cozy warm blanket on a cool day".

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So I offer this image to remind you of what makes you unique and what helps you reconnect with nurturing warmth.

​Warm Blessings...Namaste!