My Story: How I Became Unstuck

I grew up in California and always wanted a life that felt different. As a teenager, I studied abroad and after university I returned overseas, drawn by a desire for an unconventional life.

I have worked for nearly thirty years in the field of international humanitarian and disaster response, consistently focused on supporting people and communities navigating crisis, uncertainty, and recovery. Over the course of my humanitarian career, I rose to senior leadership positions within humanitarian response organizations in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.

In 2001, at the age of 29, I became a single parent and lived with my daughter in Armenia and Sudan, learning first-hand how much strength and adaptability it takes to hold both family and career together. In 2018, when my daughter started university, I transitioned into independent consultancy so I could have more flexibility to travel to the U.S. and spend time with her and my parents.

My life during these years was exciting, unconventional, and demanding, something I did not fully recognize as stressful at the time. In 2021, however, following a vaccination, I became severely ill. What began with numbness and tingling in my hands and feet progressed into profound physical instability, including tremors, tachycardia, insomnia, exercise intolerance, post-exertional malaise, muscle weakness, dizziness, nausea, and cold extremities. Extensive testing by physicians, neurologists, and rheumatologists yielded no diagnosis. My symptoms closely mirrored those of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), and I was advised to rest and wait. For six months, I was largely couch-bound.

This period fundamentally changed my understanding of what it means to feel stuck. Traditional medicine failed to provide me with a road to recovery. Later that year, I was fortunate to come across an online recovery program for people living with ME/CFS, which marked the beginning of a slow and careful return to health. While my physical capacity gradually improved, I remained caught in persistent symptom fixation, constantly monitoring my body and struggling to trust that full recovery was possible. Recognizing this as a major barrier and believing that many of my symptoms reflected a mind–body link, I turned to hypnosis. Within days, the intensity of my symptom fixation eased and my belief in my ability to fully recover returned. From there, my health continued to improve steadily, and by early 2024 I was able to return to short runs, cycling, and swimming.

The effectiveness of hypnosis left a deep impression on me. I often reflect that had I discovered it earlier, it might have spared me years of struggle in my twenties with depression and disordered eating, patterns many women quietly carry for decades. I also found Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) instrumental in shifting long-held limiting beliefs about my own capabilities, allowing me to work with greater confidence in my consultancy practice. In May 2025, I gave an interview on Raelan Agle’s YouTube channel focused on ME/CFS and Long COVID recovery, where I discussed my journey in greater detail. You can watch the video here.

Motivated by my experience, I pursued formal training in the United Kingdom in 2025 and became certified in hypnosis, NLP, and Timeline Therapy®. I now work as a hypnotherapist, an NLP practitioner, and a Timeline Therapy® practitioner, supporting clients online from around the world, many of them women navigating health, identity, and life transitions similar to my own. I am primarily based in Europe.

My work is informed by both professional experience and lived recovery. I bring a calm, compassionate, and grounded approach to supporting people who are rethinking their work, identity, or direction, including professionals, entrepreneurs, and those navigating career change or relaunch after health or life challenges, particularly women in midlife who are feeling stuck and are ready for their next chapter.

In my free time, I enjoy riding motorcycles, hiking, swimming, running, riding horses, and spending time with my family.