Honestly, I should be here but I almost wasn’t.

I’m currently living life as it should be lived— I have a warm, cozy, and lived-in home on the westside of Los Angeles, I have my 10 year old cat companion by my side at all times, I have an incredible close knit circle of loving and supportive friends who have been with me for over a decade, I have no trouble attracting in a romantic partner when I want a relationship, and I absolutely love the work I do.

Yet for most of my life, I looked forward more to dying than to keep living.

I was being force-fed the narrative that I was going to go to an Ivy League school, study something impressive, get a prestigious 6-figure job, marry a rich and respectable man, and have kids of my own one day. Naturally, I hated everything. I hated the world, other people, and myself. Everything felt like it sucked and that life was completely meaningless. The idea that all my life was about was getting perfect grades, being first place in any and every competition, and being likeable to others was killing me— literally.

Everyone knows the Buddhist truth that says, “life is suffering,” and I truly believed it with every fiber of my being.

So much so, that starting at the age of 10, I decided that life wasn’t worth living anymore.

Somehow, I made it through high-school. Despite the disordered eating. Despite the depression and anxiety. Despite being sick most of the time. Despite being sexually assaulted. Despite the continued web of complex trauma that brought me further and further from my soul and closer and closer to death’s doorway.

The one redeeming light, was the fact that I was moving away from dreary Michigan winters— moving away from every single person I knew and grew up with— to start completely fresh in sunny California.

But the optimism didn’t last long.

Turns out, you really can’t run away from your problems.

During my first semester of college, I hit a breaking point and ended up in the hospital because I’d suppressed my pain and neglected my mental health for so long. While I was there, I witnessed someone attempt to take their own life and it woke me up to the truth.

There was still a part of me that wanted to live.

Over the next few days in the hospital, I saw how terrible the mental health system truly is. How impossible it felt to get better in a facility that treated people like diseases, how scary it felt to be judged, and how enraging it was to actually receive quality care.

That sacred rage was the catalyst for everything that happened after. It was my purpose waking up and I knew that I was going to dedicate myself to make a change— I didn’t know how, but I knew that I was going to help people heal. Really, heal.

But I had to start with myself.

It wasn’t easy, but little by little, I started healing. I began eating better, talking to myself more kindly, and facing my past. I ended co-dependent relationships, stopped asking everyone for their opinion of what I should do, and started trusting my own judgement. Over time, I went from just getting by to actually experiencing joy in life. I went from cringing when I spoke affirmations out loud to actually liking myself, celebrating myself, and eventually loving myself.

Then, one sunny day during my study abroad in Australia, I was walking down the street as I felt myself smile and this light completely engulfed me.

I felt completely at peace, completely loved, and completely in harmony with life.

That was my spiritual awakening— a moment of enlightenment that showed me the purpose of life and connected me to my purpose: to simply be yourself and to help others do the same

You see, my healing wasn’t an accident. It was by design.

The Buddhist truth that everyone knows is that, “life is suffering.”

And while that’s accurate, it’s not the end.

The 4 noble truths are actually, “life is suffering, there is a cause for the suffering, there is an end to suffering, and a way through to get to the end the suffering”

While I still am very much a human that gets frustrated, stressed, and insecure at times— the sad, depressed, hopeless, stress ball I was over a decade ago feels like multiple lifetimes ago. 

I’m so grateful for her. She is the bravest soul I know. She is the reason why I’m here and doing what I do now.

At this point, I’ve helped over 1,700 clients ages 12-71 and from all backgrounds, identities, and industries globally. I’ve helped them through their physical health, their mental wellbeing, as well as their spiritual development. 

Every single person reminds me that no matter what, we all struggle with the human condition and we all want the same things:

• To stop letting fear and doubt control our lives so we can be at peace.
• To heal from past hurts and change our stories so we can love and be loved.
• To reconnect with who we really are on a soul level so we can remember our purpose.
• To remember our power and use it to create meaningful relationships and fulfilling careers.
• To simply be ourselves, and be free.

The greatest privilege in the world is to be your true self and I want you to have it.