In 2015, after 12 years of a rocky marriage I pursued my master’s degree in marriage and family therapy with the ultimate goal of “fixing” my marriage. It obviously didn’t work! I learned you can’t control other people no matter how hard you work.

In 2019 I left him and got divorced. It was quite a bit of drama; as tough as I thought the marriage was, the divorce was even tougher. I felt like an end to the pain was nowhere in sight. Sometimes the best option felt like moving to the other side of the country and getting a new phone number.

In 2020 I stepped back from all the drama and decided something needed to change. I was tired of feeling like a victim of my life and working hard to defend myself or being believed....Frankly this was creating the opposite result of what I wanted.

I thought back to all the things I had wanted in my life up to that point and began working towards those. I knew I wanted to get married again...but that seemed terrifying. I knew I wanted to move away, but that meant leaving people. I knew I wanted to be in business for myself...but that meant my paycheck was up to me.

Once I learned how to command my emotions and decide the rules of my life (not everyone else's) doing the big scary things didn't feel scary at all. Exciting? yes. Risky? Absolutely! Worth it...1000%. And should the day come that I fail miserably...I still trust myself to figure it out, because that's what I've been doing my whole life.

So, I moved away to a rural area because I wanted horses. I bought horses and learned to ride. I started a private practice and served my small community. I got remarried (he's wonderful) and had another daughter (3 eek!!). We travel often and spend lots time together as a family. My big kids are all a part of the family, and while my daughters were in high school, they both ended up living with me full time.

This works because I did the same things I teach my clients. I know there is risk involved in starting a new version of your life. There's also risk involved in staying where you are...the only difference is there you know the result. I decided it was the worth the risk to go for it, live big, and trust myself along the way to create something that is aligned with who I am and what I want. This is my specialty.