I grew up in a home with two alcoholic parents. I knew this on some level and I didn’t on so many others.
Over the years, I’ve read all the books you are supposed to read. I first bought them all when I was 16 and desperate. They were helpful in the moment and offered some “I’m not alone” relief.
But invariably, I’d be in a moment of crisis (my step-father throwing a pumpkin through our sliding glass door, my mother drunk and passed out again just in time to miss my graduation, 16th birthday, soccer game, homecoming speech and on and on) and I’d forget what I’d read in the very 70’s looking books so long ago. I went to awful Alateen meetings. Nothing stuck.
My mother died of cirrhosis of the liver my freshman year in college. I bought all the books again.
In my 20’s, I bought the books all over again. Went to the same not-amazing meetings again.
In my 30’s, I bought all the books and re-read them again. I started seeing a therapist regularly. None of this ever came up.
At the age of 40, life events cracked me all the way open and I finally (finally! finally!) came to fully acknowledge that growing up with alcoholic parents has affected every aspect of my life. Every relationship, every go-to behavior, every choice I’ve made. It was finally time to really understand that, face it, learn how to shift my behaviors and find a way forward that was no longer living in the shadow of the alcoholics in my life. Through meditation, breath work, yoga, mindful movement, an enormous amount of reading, a phenomenal therapist and a brilliant life coach, I am on the other side of so much understanding and healing.
If I had access to this kind of knowledge and care when I was younger, my life would have been radically different. It is not ok that I needed a lot of time, money and access to incredible therapists to get better. I don’t wish that for you either.
So – I have taken all I’ve learned over these many years to create something I wish I had when I first bought those books all those years ago:
A community of people at all ages who are sifting through the same painful material.
A place where I can learn what it means to be a child of an alcoholic and all the behaviors that might be present in my life because of it.
A place where I can learn how to heal – how pain and trauma live in our bodies and how vital it is to engage in regular self-care and mindful practices to move that pain out of our bodies and into the world.
A place where we can heal together through shared activities that are proven to promote health (nature, movement, laughter and storytelling) and guest speakers who’ve been there themselves.
A safe community where we can simply be and be inspired to create something that is truly ours, free from the painful memories of our past.
I am a business coach with thirty years of working with Fortune 500 companies, serial entrepreneurs and small business owners to help them get unstuck in building the businesses and organizations of their dreams. In my career, I’ve had many wellness clients - from online yoga companies, top meditation and breathwork teachers, leading activewear and fitness brands, and major health-focused media companies. I’ve helped them develop their offerings, trainings and courses with a focus on the small habits that lead to powerful transformation and change. I have also seen how childhood trauma has impacted how these entrepreneurs show up in their work and their lives and my dual experience — in business and as an ACoA - has been profoundly helpful to them as they step further into leadership roles and the healing required for them to do so.
I am formally trained in the Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM) to ensure that I can safely hold space for you if any of our work together or any element of Change of Air brings up old patterns and responses. Choosing ourselves and saying yes to what we really want can feel scary, unfamiliar and overwhelming. You can be confident that I have the training to provide safe guidance. I have also trained under master coach Tara Mohr through her Coaching Way program and under master coach Alyssa Nobriga through her Mastery Method Coaching Program so you can trust I have been trained in safe, powerful and effective coaching modalities and approaches, along with all the ethical and legal guidelines required for safe coaching and healing containers.
This is only the beginning and there are so many of us. In the coming weeks and months I’ll be hosting events and inviting amazing speakers and healers to join us. Stay tuned and please join the email list to be notified of all the goodness ahead. Our stories matter and telling them is the key to our healing.