About Me
People often ask what led me to this work. The short answer is curiosity.
The longer answer is that life introduced me to questions most people don't begin asking until much later.
By the age of thirteen, I had run away from home. Shortly after, I entered the foster care system following years of abuse, addiction, mental illness, and family instability. At fourteen, I chose life and adoption, one of the most difficult and pivotal decisions of my life.
Those experiences could have become the story I lived by. They didn't.
I've spent decades trying to understand people, not just through books and formal education, but through lived experience, thousands of conversations, and an unwavering curiosity about why we think, feel, and behave the way we do.
For years, I searched for my own self-definition. I questioned my worth and wondered if I was enough in all the ways we so often measure ourselves. I looked for answers through experiences, books, mentors, and new ways of thinking, constantly learning, unlearning, and redefining who I wanted to be.
Looking back, I realize I wasn't searching for a different life.
I was learning how to become myself.
Being a mother gives me purpose. Running my own business for twenty-five years has taught me personal responsibility, resilience, confidence, and self-belief. Together, those experiences have reinforced what I've come to believe: our lives are shaped less by what happens to us and more by the decisions we make in response.
I believe one of the hardest things in life is knowing yourself and having the courage to intentionally live from that place in every area of your life. It means questioning old beliefs, embracing uncertainty, making mistakes, disappointing people at times, and continuing to grow anyway.
To me, that's the work.
That belief eventually led me to study psychology at the university level before discovering life coaching, where I found an approach that resonated far more deeply with how I already understood myself and others. It shifted my focus away from diagnosis and toward awareness, personal responsibility, agency, and taking action.
Our lives are rarely changed by finding the perfect answer.
They're changed by believing in and understanding ourselves well enough to create a life that truly feels like our own.
On a personal note…
Give me a stack of nonfiction books on relationships and personal development, a good cup of coffee, long walks, and something interesting to think about, and I'm happy. Every so often, I'll disappear into a beautifully written novel to give my mind a different place to wander. I genuinely enjoy quiet and solitude, but every now and then you'll also find me on a dance floor enjoying a little Latin music and salsa.
The Foundation of My Work
I have never been interested in collecting certifications simply to say I have them. I've always been more interested in understanding people.
My education has been intentional. I've chosen courses, certifications, and areas of study based on what I've witnessed in my own life, what I've observed in others, and, most importantly, what I believe genuinely helps people create meaningful change.
For more than 27 years as a business owner, I've also had the privilege of working personally with people through many seasons of life. Those conversations taught me just as much as any classroom. They reinforced that lasting change doesn't come from having more information. It comes from living what we know. The training I continue to invest in reflects that belief.
I'm certified in coaching tools through The Life Coach School, where I continue my education through its ongoing curriculum. More than any other formal training, it has had the greatest influence on how I understand people and the process of change.
I'm also a Certified Trauma-Informed Coach through the Centre for Healing. Alongside my formal training, I'm committed to ongoing self-directed learning through books, research, real-life experience, working with my own coach, and the conversations that continue to refine my thinking.