my story
I was raised in an ultraconservative religious community and, like many women shaped by rigid expectations, carried unhealed trauma into adulthood. At 31, as my marriage was disintegrating, I went on a two-week volunteer trip to Kenya…and stayed 11 years.
Even as I descended into active alcoholism, I found deep purpose in working with disadvantaged women and I became a coach, developing my feminine-strengths program to level the playing field for my clients. Eventually I got sober, returned to the US, and met a sober man I wanted to grow old with—then lost him to a relapse and fatal overdose. His death prompted me to undertake the work of understanding trauma and why even the smartest, strongest people can self-destruct.
In the decade since I became a coach,
Even as I descended into active alcoholism, I found deep purpose in working with disadvantaged women and I became a coach, developing my feminine-strengths program to level the playing field for my clients. Eventually I got sober, returned to the US, and met a sober man I wanted to grow old with—then lost him to a relapse and fatal overdose. His death prompted me to undertake the work of understanding trauma and why even the smartest, strongest people can self-destruct.
In the decade since I became a coach,