my approach
DISCOVER THE INGREDIENTS USED IN COACHING TOGETHER
coaching together
i’m your trauma-informed advocate & guide
I know what it’s like to live in a body imprinted with trauma— and one transformed with curiosity and compassion through the intimate, life-giving love of Jesus. What I’ve come to know and understand about trauma and God’s healing-centered love has informed (and continues to form) every aspect of my life!
I struggled for decades carrying invisible weights or wounds I had no idea were there. I carried them into my life, and they bled out into my most precious relationships. I lived stuck in cycles of fear and shame, with no answers because there was no hard “evidence” to point to.
And it was at one of the lowest points of my life that hope came to meet me with a beautiful invitation through the steady presence of an attuned heart: “What does freedom look like for you, Andy?”
I never knew I had a say in that. I had been living my life on autopilot. This question became a catalyst for me to embark on a new path of discovery, growth, and healing—and to return home again to Jesus. I began to think beyond my own limiting beliefs and imagine a different possibility for my life—one that wasn’t necessarily being talked about within church walls and Christian circles.
cultivating self-compassion
Sadness held hands with hope, and I was led on a journey that would bring me home to an invisible and mysterious Love that would shift it all. For the first time, I finally began to feel at home with myself. I learned to cultivate valuable resources within through powerful insights and a whole lot of grace and compassion for myself.
Patient witnesses and helpful helpers pointed me to Jesus to rebuild the scaffolding that was missing due to trauma. They taught me it was okay to take the time for myself, to take up some space, and to offer myself a cup of compassion (serve as needed!) for all I’ve lived through. And beyond that, God began to illuminate the good and precious in me that had been covered up.
Now, as a trauma-informed advocate and guide, I help others identify their invisible weights and wounds from toxic stress, trauma, complex relationships, and adversity. I help them name and live into the good in them.
Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. He is the source of compassionate healing and all goodness. He has truly transformed me from the inside out. It’s an honor to now empower others to learn to compassionately be with all the thoughts, emotions, and sensations that come with their complex, sticky, and often mysterious experiences. I help my clients get unstuck, so they can step into freedom and move towards new possibilities created in rhythm with God’s Spirit and found within a life lived with Jesus.
a spiritual practice: nervous system regulation
I’m passionate about equipping others with powerful and palatable scientific insights to understand the mind-body connection that God, the Author of Science, designed. I focus on nervous system regulation as a spiritual practice of bringing our whole self—body, mind, heart, and spirit under the tender gaze of Jesus, the Healer.
God loves us so much that He gave us a nervous system to survive! There are predictable physiological (read: human) ways we all experience our bodies, minds, and lives when stressed. It’s all a part of a very intentional design to keep us both connected and safe.
The nervous system is like an operating system that, over time, has been programmed in helpful and unhelpful ways. The more we learn about the unique stories our nervous system carries, the more compassion we cultivate for how it has brilliantly helped us survive hard things. We draw from these precious experiences because God does not want to waste a thing! I'm here to support you in unmasking these hidden stories and the ways stress, trauma, or overwhelm currently manifest in your life. You were meant to live into a life of freedom, confidence, and ease.
helpful guides for our work together:
Contemplative Christian spiritual formation - slowing down for deep, reflective, and intentional moment-to-moment awareness of the presence of God’s mysterious love, lived out through spiritual practices
Salutogenesis - what makes people healthy & helps them stay well through challenges
Interpersonal neurobiology - how relationships shape the brain
Neuroscience - how the brain & nervous system shape who you are
Polyvagal theory - how the nervous system responds to safety and threat/danger (an owner’s manual for the human body)
Somatics - the mind-body connection and how we experience ourselves internally
Attachment science - how emotional bonds are formed/developed & shape how we connect with others
Physiology of resilience - the body's ability to withstand and recover from overwhelming experiences
Your PhD in Me - the ongoing process of learning the gift of being yourself (all parts of you are welcome here!)
My unique coaching approach is a blend of Internal Family Systems (IFS), somatic and brain-based coaching, and contemplative spiritual practices, that’s incredibly effective at getting to the heart of your needs—so you can guide your own life from your Spirit-Led center.
what’s strong in you?
As Jesus modeled so beautifully when he walked out human life, I offer you a salutogenic or wellness-based approach that focuses on what’s strong with you, not what’s wrong with you. We bring out the good, good flavors of who you are. As a certified life coach, I provide you with the most valuable coaching tools and research-driven processes to help you move towards the hope you carry for your life.
understanding trauma
The word “trauma” comes from the Greek word wound. Dr. Gabor Mate says that “Trauma is not what happens to you; it’s what happens inside of you, as a result of what happens to you.”
Trauma is an experience that overwhelms us and our capacity to digest it emotionally. Trauma isn’t the big, bad story that happens to us; it’s an invisible wound one carries when overwhelmed and left alone in it. When unattended, we unknowingly carry these wounds into our lives, and they end up bleeding out into all our relationships.
trauma affects all of us in some capacity
While not everyone is or considers themselves traumatized, we all have experienced trauma in some form. We’ve all had some life experiences—whether it’s a single event or a continual one within a complex relationship or in recurring circumstances—in which we’ve been overwhelmed. We were served or force-fed too much; more than we could properly digest.
We often feel the effects of this stress long after, sometimes feeling alone and unsure of what really happened or what to do next. We feel the tension in our bodies, and it also manifests in our busy minds. We especially feel it in our stressed relationships.
It can take some time, but with intention, the right information, and informed support, we can begin to metabolize stress more effectively and recover from toxic stress. We begin to name those invisible wounds and properly tend to them. We can start cultivating more calmness in our minds and ease in our bodies. This inside-out approach is the cornerstone of our collaborative coaching work.
my holistic approach attunes to all parts of you
As humans, each of us has a fundamental need to be truly seen, to be known, and to feel safe. My goal is to learn you. You were beautifully created by God, formed with many different aspects, or parts, of you. And God is continuing to knit those parts of you to Him. He longs to tie more heartstrings from Heaven to your here and now.
I lean into the Holy Spirit to guide and inform our time together. I coach with you in mind, according to your unique wiring, your personal experiences, and your heart of perspectives. Jesus has known me in the most meaningful ways. I hope to offer a similar knowing to you. I share your vision and support you in intentionally moving forward, so you become the me you want to be —and live into your image-bearing identity as God’s Beloved.
Curious about what possibility looks like for you?— let’s begin this sacred work together.
what’s possible with coaching?
“You don't think your way into a new kind of living. You live your way into a new kind of thinking.”
HENRI NOUWEN
gain clarity on who you want to be
We’ll embark on a coaching path to help you figure out where you are on the map of your life and where you want to go next. I share your vision and support you in moving forward at a pace that feels right for you. Coaching together means you pick the focus and set the agenda for each time we meet together. In our coaching conversations, you’ll gain insight on what’s holding you back— in real time!
be seen and be known— be gotten!
I hold a wide open space for you to tell your story, so you can learn to pay attention to yourself and notice your life in new ways. You’ll gain powerful insight, so you can focus on what’s meaningful to you and be truly present to your life. When we are truly heard and seen, something begins to shift within us, allowing for more ease within. I’m here to get you in all the ways that you want to be gotten!
As a certified trauma specialist, I utilize somatic (body) and brain-based coaching strategies to help you intentionally explore and unmask what’s really going on, so you can get to the root of what’s holding you back. As we work together over time, you’ll be strengthening your inner resources, so you’re empowered to take steps towards what’s truly meaningful to you!
get unique & attuned support
Together, we create an open, safe and trusting atmosphere for you to explore possibilities and consider what to feed your mind and heart. You receive attuned support, so you can welcome in more self-compassion and be empowered to tap into that well of wisdom inside of you.You’ll gain insight, get to the root of what’s holding you back, while developing the capacities to truly transform the way you experience yourself, your life and your relationships.
curate your life
Your coaching journey will be a process, one that is rich and incredibly rewarding as you put in the work! This work is sacred in nature, foundational for your life & develops and deepens over time. Working together, you’ll begin to develop daily rhythms and piece together a unique, à la carte approach to your life. You’ll learn to offload what’s not useful and take the portions you may need, when you need it, while satiating the deepest parts of you and moving towards the me you want to be.
begin to satiate your soul.
Mary Poppins poignantly said, “Let enough be as good as a feast!” In our space together, the goal is to experience a sense of leftovers. You’re invited to take one bite at a time, so you can savor the insight you gain.
It’s never too late to move towards the change you long for.