Where I Began
I was the first child to a feisty Californian girl with hair down to her butt from a very Christian family. Dad was a rough but charming 18-year old navy dude from New Jersey.
The whole thing is very “West Side Story.”. Unfortunately, they never got their happily ever after.
I’ll spare you the whole story but let’s just say I had quite a traumatic upbringing, and wound up marrying the only friend I had within our community just to escape.
Our wedding looked like an episode straight out of The Little House on the Prairie, complete with a daisy headband, but a very unhappy bride.
When I got up the courage to divorce him a while later, I was shunned and forbidden from contacting my family ever again.
It’s safe to say, I didn’t learn what a healthy, loving relationship looked like from my parents.
Where I Began
I was the first child to a feisty Californian girl with hair down to her butt from a very Christian family. Dad was a rough but charming 18-year old navy dude from New Jersey.
The whole thing is very “West Side Story.”. Unfortunately, they never got their happily ever after.
I’ll spare you the whole story but let’s just say I had quite a traumatic upbringing, and wound up marrying the only friend I had within our community just to escape.
Our wedding looked like an episode straight out of The Little House on the Prairie, complete with a daisy headband, but a very unhappy bride.
When I got up the courage to divorce him a while later, I was shunned and forbidden from contacting my family ever again.
It’s safe to say, I didn’t learn what a healthy, loving relationship looked like from my parents.
Living On The Edge
After living with fear, violence and the idea that women were only here to serve their husbands and raise children my entire life – I came out completely unprepared for life.
That caused the next phase to be filled with bad decisions, short relationships and lots of rebellion. I’m surprised I made it out alive.
But, I worked my way through beauty school and after years of working at a high-end hair salon, I convinced my boss to let me go to Europe to study the latest hair trends.
I planned to travel to multiple cities over 6 weeks, but things didn’t go as planned…
I fell in love with Amsterdam (my very first stop) and with the father of my two girls – who had my heart the second he rode past me on his bike.
Knight in White
After trying to do the long-distance thing with him I bravely left California and without discussing it, pretty much moved in with him.
I was happy as can be and was certain he would be too. I felt I’d escaped my past and thought I could reinvent myself and start over.
Within a year, my dream came true and we were married. Several years later, we welcomed our first and second daughter. We loved our girls to death, had nice family vacations, were financially secure, and healthy enough.
For all looks and appearances, we had a great life. But, I was still too messed up inside and he threw himself into work wanting to secure our future.
Year later, I realized that our relationship was pretty much doomed from the start. In the end, I hurt him, I hurt myself and I hurt our family. We’d been married for 20 years.
Knight in White
After trying to do the long-distance thing with him I bravely left California and without discussing it, pretty much moved in with him.
I was happy as can be and was certain he would be too. I felt I’d escaped my past and thought I could reinvent myself and start over.
Within a year, my dream came true and we were married. Several years later, we welcomed our first and second daughter. We loved our girls to death, had nice family vacations, were financially secure, and healthy enough.
For all looks and appearances, we had a great life. But, I was still too messed up inside and he threw himself into work wanting to secure our future.
Year later, I realized that our relationship was pretty much doomed from the start. In the end, I hurt him, I hurt myself and I hurt our family. We’d been married for 20 years.
Soul Food
The most challenging period of my life came right after our divorce. Our daughters were 11 and 14, and we knew we had to do everything we could to make this as easy on them as possible.
There were lots of tears, but we went above and beyond, and even spent every birthday, holiday and other special moments together as a family – and, in time, with our new partners.
It was all this hardship that led me down a self-development journey on STEROIDS. I did a lot of trainings, seminars, workshops and years of psychotherapy.
Walking over hot coals, hitting a rag doll for hours (the dark side), meditations for days, and screamed until my throat hurt…
I also began to study yoga, cranial sacral therapy, and from here I specialized in Neuro-Linguistic programming, and family constellations.
This really gave me a clear direction on what I wanted and needed to do with my life, and so I became a holistic therapist and coach.
“When I was younger, I would share some of my life-changing events, adventures, fuck-ups, and challenges in great color and daring details.
I did it to shock, entertain, and sometimes to test people.
Now I share them to inspire, educate, and empower – while helping people laugh through it all.”
Happily Ever After?
For years, I was passionate about coaching people and watching them improve their lives in ways very similar to mine. But, while I was busy helping others my relationship was suffering.
Ronald always supported my business, passions, crazy things I’d do on a whim, and always went above and beyond the call of duty.
But, after the butterflies eased down life got in the way. I started taking him for granted and I lost sight of what he meant to me.
It took a major relationship crisis for us both to realize that we couldn’t live without each other.
It’s what inspired me to deepen my knowledge once more and focus on relationship coaching. It’s the reason why – after lots of training – I developed Happily Ever After Relationship Training.
Happily Ever After?
For years, I was passionate about coaching people and watching them improve their lives in ways very similar to mine. But, while I was busy helping others my relationship was suffering.
Ronald always supported my business, passions, crazy things I’d do on a whim, and always went above and beyond the call of duty.
But, after the butterflies eased down life got in the way. I started taking him for granted and I lost sight of what he meant to me.
It took a major relationship crisis for us both to realize that we couldn’t live without each other.
It’s what inspired me to deepen my knowledge once more and focus on relationship coaching. It’s the reason why – after lots of training – I developed Happily Ever After Relationship Training.