ABOUT

For most of my life, I thought doing was living. Going, going, going. Doing, doing, doing. From the moment my feet hit the floor to the moment I fell into bed at night. I was on the hamster wheel, spinning hard, squeezing the marrow out of every day. I thought that was what a full life looked like.​ But, it took a toll.

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For ten years I ignored what my body was telling me and kept going, even as chronic illness and injuries mounted. Then life hit hard. I lost my dog, my mom, and my sister, all within eighteen months. Then two more years of life-altering stress on top of that.

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For the first time in my life, I couldn't keep going. I cut everything back. I shrunk my world down to the bare minimum. It still wasn't enough.

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My body felt like a broken gas gauge. I knew there wasn't much in the tank. I just never knew how little, or what it would cost me to find out. So I measured everything - every task, every conversation, every effort, against a number I couldn't actually see.

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My body and spirit finally gave out. I couldn't work. I couldn't drive. Getting through an ordinary day felt like climbing a mountain I never made progress on. I lost belief in my body's ability to heal. I lost hope. In life.

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Who was I without the identities I had built my life around? Capable. Credible. Always in motion. Illness and loss had taken them all at once, and underneath them, I didn't know who was left.

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For ten years I had looked outward for answers. The doctors. The protocols. The programs. The next thing that would fix me. But there was a part of me that felt like something was missing in all of it. Me. The me deep inside of me.

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With no answers, no doctor, and no path forward, I chose to look inside for the first time in all those years. I was alone and afraid I would never get my life back. I started with a question: What do I believe about my ability to heal?

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The answer shook me. I didn't believe I would. I believed I would keep getting worse.

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And in that moment I understood something that has changed everything since: it doesn't matter what resources you have, what tools you use, who is in your corner. If you don't believe something is possible for you, you will find a way to prove yourself right whether you are aware of it or not.

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So I committed to belief. I had no idea what that meant or how to do it. But I started. Slowly. Imperfectly. I studied neuroplasticity, nervous system regulation, psychoneuroimmunology, the research on gratitude and intention. I journaled volumes. I uncovered the stories I had been living by without ever questioning them, the ones that had become prisons I wasn't even aware of. I met the parts of myself I had spent decades trying to outrun, and instead of pushing them away, I got curious about them. I found a lifeline. A lifeline I created.

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Slowly, hope returned. Then healing followed.

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I discovered that life was never about doing. It was about being. I could be myself whether I was doing something or not. My worthiness was never something I had to earn. It already belonged to me.

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I never expected to become the person illness turned me into. I'm not going to tell you it was the best thing that ever happened to me. But I am a different person now, and I like her so much better. She's kinder. More present. She has more say over her own life, because she stopped performing the scripts about who she was supposed to be and started choosing for herself.

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I notice things now I used to walk right past. My husband and I walk the same streets most evenings with our dog, and I actually see them: the color of the leaves, the sound of the wind, him. I know where my attention goes because I stopped giving it away without realizing it. I feel here, in my own life, in a way I never did before I got sick.

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Out of that unfolding journey, I found an ally in the deepest part of myself. I call her my UnshakableMe. She grows with every act of self kindness, every act of acceptance, every choice to believe.

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This isn't just my story. You have an ally inside of you too. I'm here to help you find her.

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How I show up for this work:

Twenty-eight years as an occupational therapist, working alongside people rebuilding their lives after illness, injury, and loss. And my own hard-won years inside chronic illness, doing this work myself before I ever taught it to anyone else.

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Professional credentials:

⭐ Master of Occupational Therapy (MOT/L)
⭐ Certified Hand Therapist (CHT)
⭐ Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS)
⭐ Certified Stott Pilates Instructor
⭐ Certified Karen Pryor Professional Dog Training Partner 🐕‍🦺