About

  "You've always had the power my dear, you just had to learn it for yourself." Glinda, Wizard of Oz

My Story 

My own journey to finding a healthy lifestyle has provided me insight and perspective as to challenges, barriers, and life circumstances that one might experience. I am able to bring compassion, empathy, respect, and understanding to a health coaching relationship. My personal journey began as a young adult,  reasonably healthy and with "decent" health habits.   I got sidelined when I turned 30 and was unexpectedly diagnosed with an autoimmune condition which turned my entire world upside down.  Someone who went from teaching fitness classes five or six times a week was  a shell of herself, in pain, fatigued, and didn't want to leave the house. Not only was I in pain, I was emotionally and spiritually drained, and my home, work, and social life was impacted. Relationships suffered. I was existing and not really living.   

I sought help from medical providers for more than two years  including a visit to the Mayo Clinic. With proper medical treatment and connecting with a holistic provider who helped me identify lifestyle strategies to help me thrive while dealing with a chronic illness,  I found "me" again  and managed to become pain-free, healthy, and well, through introspection, education, dedicated effort and support. I credit my integrative approach and  holistic provider for much of my success.   I learned that I had the power to make change, I just needed to tap into  that power and create a vision and plan for my future.  Now, I feel great! I have  more energy, greater focus, and am bringing my true self to all aspects of my life. Even with a chronic illness. I am finally living life in full bloom!

The Story Does Not End with Me

As life continued and got busier, I noticed not just with myself, but also with family, friends, and acquaintances,  many were facing challenges that come with getting older as well as balancing taking care of themselves with busy careers and home lives, raising children, caring for loved ones needing care, and sometimes dealing with their own chronic diseases and conditions.  They often put themselves and their own health last, which one even described as being like a house of cards, ready to fall at any time.  Life gets busy and things get in the way. I saw it time after time.  People I cared about continuing  to deal with a house of cards that kept getting stacked higher and higher thanks to the unpredictability of life  - one more assignment at work with no end in sight,  a never-ending  to-do list for the kids and family,  a new responsibility caring for a loved one -and the house of cards starts to get really shaky.  

With a strong foundation, the house is better able to stand.   Don't let your "house" fall apart.  Make yourself a priority.   Those I saw - and myself included - had and have people counting on them.  No one  can afford for their "house" to collapse.  For some people, maybe it's eating and nutrition that they need help with. Or being active. Or life balance.  Or sleep. It can be so many things.  Whatever it is, sometimes we just need help figuring it all out.  There are so many facets of life to manage and don't we all want to fully be  there for those who need and count on us and just show up for life as best we can? Making yourself  a priority  was important for them, and it was important for me.     I hope anyone reading this will make the decision to do the same for themselves.   Working with a trained health coach is one way to get started.

The Later Chapters

In my professional life, I have always been in a health-related field and my work has touched thousands of lives. Over the years, I have coordinated worksite wellness programs for two large Nashville area employers, personally providing one-on-one health education counseling and coaching to thousands of employees. I worked for over a decade with a local YMCA personally  providing personal training, health education and health coaching to hundreds of pregnant women in a special prenatal program.   Currently, after working in my state's public health department for several years, I began my work in a university setting where I have been for almost two decades. I  now manage a public health-focused center that does grant-funded research, projects, and programs that address health issues for large numbers of people as population health interventions.  Through my work at the university, I have overseen projects that focus on diabetes and obesity prevention, tobacco cessation, mental health, and substance use along with other areas and understand how chronic disease impacts lives as well as the power of healthy lifestyles in preventing poor health outcomes.   I recently completed my Ph.D.  in Health and Human Performance and my dissertation research was on caregivers and facilitators, barriers, and challenges to health and wellness coaching.

My first population health project that I managed early in my career reached over 13,000 pregnant smokers in Tennessee WIC clinics with one-on-one individual, evidence-based counseling sessions to help them quit smoking. Part of the process these women participated in was called "motivational interviewing," a technique that is used in health coaching and is very effective. Success rates were above other similar programs and women began to lead healthier and smoke-free lives, with more energy and with interest in taking on other needed areas of change.   A current project I oversee helps college students develop and maintain healthy lifestyles through reduction of sugary beverages, making healthy eating choices, and being physically active, with over 3,000 students participating over the last 3 years, many of them working with a health coach and giving personal testimonies as to how working with a health coach had changed their lives.   

My "Why"

I want to help people put themselves first and live life in full bloom.  While I greatly enjoy my public health work, the “missing piece” to my professional puzzle was being able to again work one-on-one with individuals to balance out the  larger, population health work that I do.  To help people one-by-one change their lives through health coaching and to  be a partner in that process.  A process that works and that changed my life.    I look forward to helping others discover their ideal vision of health and wellness, exploring their individual strengths and values, and partnering with them in their journey to making that vision a reality through long-lasting change.  To helping them find their own path to living life "in full bloom." I've done it, and so can you.