The Bigger Why:
My Legacy of Healing
My Story
I didn’t arrive here as a polished coach or CEO.
I arrived here scarred, determined, and alive because I chose to be.
⚠️ Trigger Warning: this story contains references to mental health struggles, self-harm, substance use, and sexual T/trauma. Please take care of yourself as you read.By 16, I was already battling major depression and given antidepressants. I attempted suicide for the first time that year and entered counseling for constant self-harm. On the outside, I was a driven, high-achieving and happy teen. But inside? I was fighting the dark.
Through my late teens and early 20s, the darkness followed me. I worked, had a kid at 21 and went through life with a smile. But deep down, there was a storm of mental suffering, confusion, quiet desperation and addiction suppression.
By the time I reached my mid-20s, that storm broke. In 2005, I had a 6-month downward spiral of complete mental and emotional collapse. It led to a 51/50 hospitalization after my third suicide attempt.
The diagnoses that followed — multiple mental health and personality disorders — felt like labels I didn’t know how to carry. I was prescribed a cocktail of antidepressants and antipsychotics. I numbed out on whatever I could find — alcohol, drugs, distractions — anything to quiet my hyper-agitated soul.
But the numbing only deepened the void. I fell into a world that stripped me of safety and self-worth, including a period of sex work that spiraled into being trafficked. It was the darkest chapter of my life — and it almost became the last.
Then came the moment of clarity that changed everything.
Somewhere inside the chaos, I realized: if I didn’t change, I would die and lose it all — including my son. That realization was as clear and sharp as lightning. And in that moment, I made a choice that forever changed my life: I chose me.
The climb out was excruciating — slow, humbling, and full of setbacks. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was a start.
I quit hardcore drugs on the spot.
My first job during my recovery was as a payroll admin making $12 an hour for a world-renowned corset maker who was also a dominatrix. (It was wild. Ask me about it sometime.)
I enrolled in school again, earned my HR certification, and began volunteering in safe houses teaching job readiness to other survivors.
Even as I was rebuilding, I was giving back — because I knew how it felt to be lost, and I knew how much one person’s belief in you could mean.
I found financial stability for the first time living with my dad, who helped care for my son while I rebuilt my life.
Then, step by step, year by year, I healed my mind and soul. I did everything I thought could help me — therapy, mindfulness, spirituality, books, programs, groups, breath work, plant medicine, you name it.
Each layer shed more shame, more fear, more of who I wasn’t. And what emerged was me — raw, whole, and alive.
But there was still more I was meant to do…
In 2017, I founded be the change HR, a human resources consulting firm that blends high-level HR support with a Job Readiness Program for survivors of trafficking.
That company just celebrated its eighth anniversary in 2025, and my goal remains clear: to help 1,000 survivors per year build healthy, empowered lives.
In 2021, I quit all substances entirely. Alcohol was the last addictive stronghold that I knew needed to go. I traded that for Ironman 70.3 triathlons and ice axes. Just as expensive but way better for me. :-)
I knew I was called to serve women like me — high-performing T/trauma survivors who have already overcome the unthinkable and are now ready to lead from their wholeness.
That’s why I created Wild, Free and Me.
It’s the continuation of my own healing — and an offering for others ready to claim theirs.
Because trauma survivors are not fragile. We are forged.
And when we heal, we don’t just rise — we transform everything around us.
I want you to get to the place where, when your feet hit the floor, the darkside whispers: “Oh no, she’s up.”
You’re going to change yourself, change your world, change THE world.
What This Journey Offers
✓ T/trauma-informed coaching that honors both your strength and your story
✓ Somatic practices to reconnect with your body and regulate your nervous system
✓ Mindset and emotional work that liberates your truth
✓ A community built on safety, compassion, and fierce honesty
You are not broken. You are becoming the beacon of light, hope and POWER you were always meant to be.
If your body exhales and your heart excites reading this, it’s time.
Come with me…let’s go!