My Story
I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. I am the oldest of five kids, with two sisters and two brothers. When I was in high school, my boyfriend introduced to alcohol and I instantly loved the way it wiped out my inhibitions and insecurities and set me free. During my college years, binge drinking was socially accepted, and I never remember drinking for any other reason than to completely check out and escape reality.
My drinking progressed until one day I started drinking in the morning. My body quickly became addicted to alcohol, and without it I was shaky and sick. I had dropped out of school and knew I had a serious problem. I found a boyfriend who drank just as much as I did, and eventually we decided to get married. We enabled each other for years, trying to maintain a fairly normal looking life by buying a house and keeping jobs for the most part.
After we had been drinking daily for over a decade, I noticed that my husband looked pregnant one day. He was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver shortly after that. We managed to quit drinking for a month or two, but eventually we both started again, in denial about his life-threatening condition.
On a rare weekend trip to The Valley Of Fire, we got into a huge fight and I ended up talking to the rocks surrounding our camp site. My conversation with them changed my life that night. I was looking for consolation, but instead, the rocks asked me what I was doing with my life. They said, “you used to belong here and now we don’t recognize you anymore.” I promised them I would come back sober and alone.
About a month after I moved out, my husband called asking for a ride to the hospital. I found out that he only had a few months to live, according to one of the nurses. The hospital called a day and a half later, telling me to come now if I wanted to see my husband alive.
He couldn’t talk by the time I arrived, and his organs were all slowly shutting down. His heart had been beating a marathon runners rate for hours before they told me he had permanent brain damage. I said goodbye to my husband, and only friend for 15 years, around 7:27 that night.
After he died, I spent months cleaning out our house so that I could rent it out, and I also started attending A.A. meetings. A few years into sobriety, my sister introduced me to “thought work” and the teachings of Brooke Castillo. I fell instantly in love with Life Coaching, the LCS podcast, the model and every concept taught by this amazing woman. After listening religiously to the LCS podcast for about a year, I decided to dedicate my life to Life Coaching and get certified through The Life Coach School.
About a month before certification began, I noticed an alien growth in my throat while flossing my teeth one day. Not having insurance, I went to insta-care to get it checked out. The nurse told me to pray for strep throat, which I did as the insta-test was processing. But to no avail, the test came back negative for strep, and I was told a specialist would call me.
Thankfully a good friend of mine knew a throat specialist, and I got an appointment with him right away. He took a biopsy after looking at my CAT scan results and told me that I had throat cancer. He referred me to The Huntsman Cancer Institute, where I received excellent treatment. During the aggressive six weeks of chemo and radiation, I studied life changing concepts in the certification process, and had many opportunities to practice what I was learning.
I certified as a Life Coach six months after my diagnosis, and then went through another six months of applied coach training. The tools and concepts I have learned are beyond priceless, and I want to share them with the world. I am excited to begin this new phase of my life, knowing that my experiences and training are the perfect recipe for helping many people navigate through their own lives. I am a survivor. I am a Life Coach. And I would be honored to guide you towards your goals and dreams.
