As a child I was very active and played many sports and physical activities.

In high school, I struggled with making friends and I was bullied often by my peers for my differences.

I listened to metal music, had a pink hair, wore dark makeup and even handmade some of my own clothing - you might say I stood out from the crowd. I wanted to make friends, but the bullying caused me to become more reserved. The repeated bullying in high school caused me a lot of trauma.

The constant anxiety caused me to stop playing group sports and I began to retreat inward. I went from the happy sporty girl to the confused, alone and depressed girl. For many years in my teens and into my 20’s, I struggled with depression and anxiety, never feeling good enough.

I found visual art as an outlet for my heavy emotions. It all started with anatomical drawing, painting, then sculpture, and eventually I found hair and makeup artistry. I fell in love with the process of making people feel beautiful in their own skin, so I stuck with it as a career.

In 2010, I moved to Vancouver to pursue my creative career in the hair industry.

My first year living in Vancouver, I found a job at a high-end salon. I loved my job, and I enjoyed snowboarding on my free time. I was getting better so entered a snowboarding competition in Whistler.

During the competition, I ended up wiping out and giving myself a serious concussion and fracturing my left hip bone and wrist. I stopped extreme sports that year and due to my injuries had to take some time off work. I decided to focus my energy on healing my body instead. This is when I discovered the healing powers of yoga and restorative movement therapies.

On the night of my 21st birthday (2011), after drinking a glass of red wine, my throat swelled up and my whole body broke out into hives. I went to the hospital and was told it was allergies, but I didn’t have any known allergies at that point. From that day on, the rashes never went away and slowly they began to cover my whole body. The hair on my head and eyebrows started to fall out, and my eyes would swell shut any time I did a hair colour service. My job was literally killing me, I just didn’t know it yet.

After months of living in chronic pain, I went to a Naturopath doctor and found out I was not really allergic to food, but I was actually reacting to the heavy metals in the dyes & hair colour products that I worked with. In order to feel better, I would need to stop working with colour or quit my job. I loved my job so much, I was devastated, gutted, heartbroken. Hairstyling was my life, it felt like a shot straight to my heart and I didn't want to believe my job was harming me. So I continued to work for another year. But eventually I caved, I couldn’t take the pain any longer. My body was shutting down, my hair and skin were falling off, my organs were on fire and my mind was unstable. After a very hard decision, I quit my high paying hair job that I loved so dearly and went on long trip to California. I attended Burning Man and I discovered the magic of plant medicine.

When I finally came back to Canada, I decided to join a yoga studio. I continued practicing yoga and volunteered to work at a local studio in exchange for classes. I was in love with this new found passion. Yoga was healing my body and my mind. Later that year, I went to Jamaica for a 200 hour Yin Yoga teacher training retreat. It really opened my eyes to the beauty but also the inequalities of the world. Although it was overall a beautiful experience, I also had some encounters that left me changed forever. I returned to Canada with a fresh perspective and the awareness that my healing journey was only just beginning.

In 2014, still unsure of my direction in life, I travelled to Costa Rica. I volunteered to work on an organic off-grid farm in the middle of the jungle. I had never lived outdoors, or off-grid before and let me tell you, it was life-changing. I ended up staying for 6 months because I loved it so much. The owners of the farm were herbalists, food farmers, & permaculture teachers and I learned all about growing food and making herbal medicine. My mind and heart opened even wider - I started to appreciate and fall in love with the Earth in a new way. I learned how to build soil, grow food, propagate plants, collect & make natural medicines, and cook over fire. I learned about taking care of the land, creating ceremonial experiences and many natural ways of living that I still practice to this day and now teach to others in my programs. I am forever grateful for this experience and what it taught me about being human and what it truly means to thrive, not just survive.

Coming back to Canada, I felt lost for a while, lingering between jobs and unsure of my next steps. All I knew was I wanted to be closer to nature. I wanted to continue feeling what I felt in Costa Rica. First, I went to Salt Spring Island and found an organic farm to live and work at. After the summer ended, and the snow came, it was not where I wanted to be. So I started looking for a more stable place to call my home.

In 2015, after some research, I decided to move to Victoria to attend Pacific Rim College for Traditional Chinese Medicine and Holistic Nutrition. After my first year of classes, I decided to add Phytotherapy (‘Western’ Plant Medicine) to the mix. I felt called to learn more about the plants, since they were such a huge part of what inspired my journey in the first place. After what felt like a decade (6.5 years) I finally graduated from college with 2 diplomas in Holistic Nutrition & Phytotherapy.

At the end of my second last semester I also acquired 2 Personal Training Certificates - ISSA and CanFit Pro (2020).

I’ve been working as a nutritionist and personal trainer ever since, and I absolutely LOVE this career path because, like hairstyling, I love to see people happy, feeling beautiful in their body. I decided to be a wellness coach so I can teach people what I’ve learned works. I want to work with people who, like me, feel ready to take their health into their own hands, heal themselves and truly understand what it means thrive each day.