About Erika

I am a Certified Integral Life Coach through New Ventures West, one of the top accredited coaching schools in the world. What I love about their program is that it focuses not just on techniques and modalities but on the development of the person becoming a coach. I live and practice what I offer to others every day.

My approach to coaching is deeply informed by my work as a neurofeedback technician and my training in HeartMath from the HeartMath Institute. My experience has given me a unique window into the brain and heart’s energy patterns and how the flow of energy and communication within our bodies influence the way we perceive and behave in the world.

These modalities have affirmed for me what wisdom traditions have long known: awareness changes everything. When we bring attention to the subtle patters of our inner world like we do in coaching, we create the possibility for coherence, transformation and healing. I love to use somatic techniques in my coaching because when we allow for the body’s intelligence to come online, we slow reactive feedback loops to the limbic system and invite the prefrontal cortex to be integrated into our responses. We learn to respond, not just react.

My professional resume includes degrees in philosophy and political science. I have studied nutrition, farming and public health. I am a certified paralegal who worked for a solo-practice doing personal injury law for cyclists and spent years in D.C. doing non-profit advocacy work. My diverse background was always centered around advocacy for the individual, helping people navigate complex systems and fight against structures that sought to dehumanize their experience.

The heart of my work as a coach is grounded is my lived experience. My personal journey has included recovery from addiction, psychosis, traumatic brain injury, chronic illness, deep shame and crippling anxiety. These challenges have been my greatest teachers. They have taught me how to create a loving relationship with my nervous system and how to embody resilience and rediscover joy. The valleys I traversed carved deep wells of compassion in my heart.

I currently steward a small piece of land called Terra Prana, where I tend my garden and learn to live in relationship with the rhythms of the earth. The lessons I learn from nature mirror the lessons of the soul. Whether I am coaching or gardening, I am always planting seeds and being delighted by what emerges.

I am a devoted student of yoga, meditation, spirituality, psychology, philosophy, and nature. I seek to embody and explore the practices I offer to others and like you, I am constantly growing, changing and becoming.