Hi dear friend

Maybe you and I have known each other for years. Maybe this is the first time you’ve heard from me (welcome!). Or somewhere in between.

So here’s a little about me and how I came to my life’s work, which is

Moving you through the dark night

and into a lit-up life.

I was raised in an intentional community in the mountains of northern New Mexico, eating garden veggies and running barefoot with my friends, the juniper trees — and the other wild-haired hippie kids.

Although I would later spend a decade in a tortured relationship with food and my body, my roots in simple, real food and a sweet friendship with nature would guide me back to a healthy, trusting, sane relationship with food and my body.

For the first 16 years of my life I grew up in a round house that my parents built by hand, adobe brick by adobe brick, a few miles down the road from one of the first interspiritual communities in the United States. Along with The Joy of Cooking, books by Indian gurus and Buddhist meditation teachers sat beatifically on our family’s bookshelf.

Although I would spend three decades feeling inherently flawed and rather wretched, my foundation of finding the gems at the heart of the different mystical branches of the world’s main religious and spiritual traditions — and assembling those gems into my own spiritual path — eventually allowed me to create a loving relationship with the divine.

My mother was a dancer.

Following in her dancing footsteps, I spent two decades training and then performing as a contemporary dancer in Europe, Israel, and in New York City, most notably with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet.

During my first performance with my dream company at a beautiful theatre near the Mediterranean Sea, I tried to remind myself I was living my dream. I did feel lucky and grateful. I was aware of my relentless hustle that had gotten me there. But mostly I didn’t feel successful or deserving. I was scared that at any moment, they would discover I wasn’t good enough and send me packing.

I recognized my hunger for happiness

and my inability to take it in.

I was striving to create good things in my life

but I couldn’t see the goodness

already dwelling inside me and all around me.

And so.

I dove into courses and trainings on women’s empowerment, sensuality, spiritual awakening. I voraciously took transformational workshops in large stadiums; found small, hidden-gem trainings in northern California; sat for six weeks with an enlightened master in Pune, India; spent nearly a decade mastering the art of Transformational NLP.

I found that with the right kind of presence

and precise technique, anything

— anything —

is changeable.

In my 1:1 coaching, groups, and retreats, I started out working with people around food and lifestyle. That morphed into helping couples and individuals to get unmired from painful patterns and create right-fitting relationships.

Then I re-focused again on supporting women

to get unfettered, wake up, and light up.

I wrote my first book, Feminine Genius, to help women love their bodies, trust themselves, honor their desires, stoke into their inner fire and lead their lives from there.

In my 22 years in practice, I estimate I’ve done over 11,000 transformational coaching sessions, worked with over 2,000 private clients, and connected via the page with over 15,000 book readers.

And then.

When I was about 40

and my kiddo was about 4,

I entered my first Dark Night of the Soul.

At that time, things were pretty peachy. Great relationship of over a decade, good health, lovely new baby, expansion in my multi-decade coaching practice, my first six-figure year in biz (remember when ‘six-figures’ was a big deal? 🙂 ), beautiful community and friends.

And yet, one day in the middle of a long winter, I got plunged into The Dark Night.

All my life-long techniques for joy and positivity and motivation, stopped working. I had panic attacks by day and insomnia by night. I would get caught for days at a time in storms of rage, grief, depression. In between caring for my toddler and writing my book, I would shake uncontrollably, afraid of what might be wrong with me.

Months turned into years as I worked — and paid insane sums of money — to heal and recover.

To a degree I had never done before in my life,

I began to listen to myself,

trust myself, care for myself,

and even cherish myself.

I learned to re-find myself in an emotional storm.

I found that each of my inner demons had a startling message for me. I listened. Learned.

I looked lucidly at the places I had betrayed myself, muted myself, and let myself run dry.

I did not emerge from that dark time (or any other Dark Night in my life, there have been multiple) at some ideal weight, health, or income.

But I emerged whole.

I know how to find equilibrium in my mind, heart, body, and nervous system.

I have calm in my soul.

I know how to fill my days, my minutes, my life with pleasure. Even when life is difficult and dispiriting.

I know how to stop focusing on my flaws and shortcomings, and take in goodness. I can acknowledge my accomplishments. Take a compliment. See myself like the rest of the world sees me. Ask for help. Abide in contentment.

I trust, like, respect, and enjoy the heck out of my body. Even as I age, change, lose beauty privilege, am humbled by health challenges.

I am in a deep, loving partnership with life, co-conspiring about what to create and do and be and change into, next.

My life is defined by healthy, gorgeous (albeit non-traditional) relationships, collaborations, and friendships.

I developed an astonishing appreciation for — and an uncanny ability to guide a fellow human through — the brutal, loving process that is a Dark Night of the Soul. (No surprise, then, that I am currently working on a second book, Finding Yourself in a Dark Night of the Soul).

Striding into my fifth decade of life,

I am brightly-burning.

Lit up.

Luminous.

And, my life — and work — is just beginning.

Whenever someone is called to have their version of all or any of that and they reach out to work together, it is my honor, my joy, and the culmination of my life’s work.

To all I don’t yet know about you, dear one,

PS: If you’d like to consider working together, I currently have two open spots for coaching. I suggest setting up a brief time to connect. 

Please, for the love of all that’s good and holy, rest assured that you are NOT getting yourself into some weird, high-pressure sales situation; we’ll just get to know each other a bit and see if we are a great fit.

If we’re not a fit, I’ll have great resources to refer you to.

If we are, however, we’ll get to work awakening, unfettering, and lighting you UP, First name / dear one.

PPS: If exploring working 1:1 isn’t your thing, check out the following no-cost resources to support, sweeten, and deepen you:

1. Fresh From The Fire newsletter: Inspiring stories, useful tips, provocative articles, upcoming events, and glimpses from my own life. Because what we knew yesterday is not what we need to know today.
2. Know Your Own Voice: Guided practice to help you discover what is (and isn’t) right for you so you can make those (small & huge) decisions that shape the rest of your life.
3. Stop Talking Sh!t to Yourself: Quick n easy practice to help your inner champion get louder than your inner tyrant.
4. Turn Your Doubts into Assets: Guided exercise to help you flip imposter syndrome on its head & reveal your unique resources and irreplaceable gifts.
5. Conjuring: Short video/audio class for bringing one of your desires into being, using the power of somatization, feeling, and body-based envisioning.

PPS: If no one has told you lately, dear one, you are a shooting star freaking marvel of a miracle. I’m glad you’re here with me.