About me
I believe in the power of women to change their lives—and the world—when they belong to themselves, trust their capacity, and are fully alive.
Hi, I’m Nona.
I want you to know that my path here was not theoretical.
In my early twenties, I walked into my first yoga class scared and desperate for relief. I walked out of that class with tears streaming down my face and an astonishing sense of being inside my own body for the first time as an adult.
I felt, for the first time, what James Joyce meant when he wrote about a man who lived a short distance from his body. I was living proof—and in that 90-minute class, I landed in my body.
It was confusing and wonderful.
I spent the next five years trying to find my way back to that state while moving further and further away from it.
By my late twenties, I was a financial reporting manager for a publicly traded company, earning six figures and drowning. I was drunk most nights after work. I was in a relationship that was cruel and dishonest. I was carrying crushing debt that made my gut clench every time I thought about it.
And though my body was doing everything it could to get my attention, I was doing everything I could to stay far away from the conversation.
I knew the life I was living was not truly mine. Really, I had known it since that first tear-soaked savasana.
But knowing something in your body and being willing to act on it are two completely different things.
How I Came To This Work
Twenty-four years ago, I got sober.
Surprisingly, I didn’t discipline or shame myself into it. I felt pulled toward a new way of being in the world.
That distinction shapes everything I do.
I don't believe lasting change comes from waging war against ourselves. I know what it is like to try to force myself to be different, better, more acceptable. The changes that transformed my life came when I began listening for what I loved, what I longed for, what was true, and what life was asking of me—and then learned, imperfectly and over time, to act on what I heard.
Motherhood deepened that commitment.
When I was eight months pregnant with my daughter, I remember standing at the kitchen counter in tears. I knew enough about my own history to know what I did not want to pass on. I wanted the cycles of violence, dysfunction, dismissal, and diminishment to end with me.
I didn't have a blueprint for how to do that, so I committed to paying attention.
To observe my daughter carefully. To stay present and open-hearted enough to know the actual child in front of me instead of assuming I knew who she was or what she needed.
When she was two or three, I noticed she wasn't particularly interested in crayons. I could have decided that toddlers color with crayons and kept handing them to her. Instead, I started showing her other things.
Pens?
No.
Colored pens?
Her whole face lit up.
Paint?
Yes.
I gleefully threw the crayons out.
It's such a small story. And it contains something that has become central to how I understand love and how I work with people:
Pay attention to the person who is actually here.
Not who you think she should be. Not who she used to be. Not who a theory, diagnosis, assessment, or set of best practices says she is.
Who is here?
What is alive?
What is she showing you?
And what becomes possible when you believe her?
How I Hold This Work
I became a CPA—a choice influenced far more by what other people thought I should do than by what made me come alive.
I wouldn't choose that path the same way today, but I don't regret it one bit. I understand business, money, numbers, systems, and practical decision-making. Those things still enter my work all the time because our lives do not divide themselves neatly into categories.
Eventually, my curiosity led me back to my heart.
I became a Martha Beck Master Certified Coach. At 51, I earned a Master's in Psychology from Harvard Extension School, graduating summa cum laude. I trained as a yoga therapist, with more than a thousand hours devoted to learning about the body and its intelligence.
Along the way, I followed the breadcrumbs of my curiosity into IFS for coaching, trauma-sensitive yoga, energy medicine, the Akashic Records, depth psychology, and our relationship with the more-than-human world.
I love learning. I love research. I love finding connections between things that aren't usually put in the same paragraph.
But the education that has mattered most has been my own life.
I live with MS. I have navigated mystery symptoms, chronic pain, and the particular grief of a body that changes despite doing everything “right.”
For much of my adult life, my family relocated every two years while my husband deployed for years at a time. I've built homes and left them. Found communities and said goodbye to them. I've built businesses, changed businesses, and let versions of my work die when they were no longer alive.
I've raised a daughter and watched her become an incredible woman.
I've gotten things wrong.
I've changed my mind.
I've held on too long and left things behind.
I've made choices that led exactly where I hoped and others that took me somewhere I could not have imagined.
And through all of it, I have practiced paying attention.
To my body, yes.
But also to my circumstances. To patterns. To money. To relationships. To desire. To what I am actually doing with my time and attention. To the fox leaping across the garden, the hawk that arrives at an uncanny moment, the idea that won't leave me alone, the thing that doesn't add up, the quiet no in my belly, and the equally quiet yes that blossoms in my heart.
I've learned to listen to what I know and remain curious about what I don't.
I've learned that there may not be a forever-right answer.
I've learned that we can fall apart and take new shape.
And I've learned that life keeps changing, and we are capable of changing with it without abandoning ourselves.
You can read more about what I believe here.
Your Invitation
If something here feels alive for you and you’re curious about working together, I’d love to connect.
We’ll have a complimentary 20-minute conversation about what is happening in your life, what you’re looking for, and whether working together feels like a good fit.
Education & Training
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C-IAYT via Functional Synergy Yoga Therapist 1,000 hour Certification
Integral Anatomy with Gil Headley and Rachel Scott
Restorative Yoga Training with Judith Hanson-LasaterApplied Polyvagal Theory in Yoga with Arielle Schwartz 2023
Yoga for Mobility with YogaBody 2023
Yoga Nidra Facilitator through Daring to Rest 2020
Yoga for Trauma with Lisa Danylchuk 2018
Yin Yoga Level 1 with Kari Kwinn 2016
Breathwork Facilitator Certification with Barrett Breathworks 2016
Whole Birth Prenatal Yoga 2004
RYT 200 through Kripalu 2003
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Gene Keys Guide Program 2023
Somatic IFS Certification through Embody Labs 2023
Internal Family Systems Coaching Practicum 2021
Internal Family Systems for Coaches 2020
Nature-Based Coaching Advanced 2015
Nature-Based Coaching Fundamentals 2014
Martha Beck Certified Master Coach 2012
Martha Beck Certified Life Coach 2009
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Women Rising Flower Essence Practitioner 2018
Akashic Record Consultant Levels 1 & 2 with Soul Journeys 2016
Earth Medicine Practitioner Training with Pixie Lighthorse 2015
Crystalline Consciousness Energy Healing Technique Levels 1 - 4 2013
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Harvard University Extension School: Master of Arts in Psychology 2020
WA State CPA Licensure 2009 (inactive)
Oregon State University: BA in International Business 1996
The work I offer is for women—and I mean all women.
I am committed to creating spaces where women of every race, body, background, identity, and life experience are welcome and treated with dignity and respect. I know that intention alone is not enough. This is ongoing work, and I continue to learn, listen, question my assumptions, and pay attention to the ways my own experience shapes what I see.
I hold that responsibility with humility. If you have questions about whether you or your experience will be welcome in my work, I invite you to reach out.