About You
As you’re reading this, you’re probably also thinking about the 10 things you should be doing… while simultaneously wondering when you’ll get to enjoy this life you’re so busy building.
Which tells me you’re in the right place.
I’m Cecelia and every day, I work with high achievers like you to make their brain a calmer, happier place to be… without burning their lives down to get there.
It’s time to:
- Stop feeling like you’re always about to drop the ball
- Finally read more than one page of a novel without falling asleep
- And learn how to switch off the noise in your head… without sacrificing what makes you YOU.
And if you’re curious? Here’s a bit more of my story…
Like you, I’m a high achiever -- and a cognitive being living in a physical body.
That means I spent most of my life with a very loud, very chatty inner critic monologuing at all times.
First as a straight-A student, and later in life as a corporate geologist in the oil and gas industry, I ran myself ragged trying to finally secure the achievements and accolades I thought would “fix” that constant voice in my head that always said: “DO MORE.’
After spending every Sunday for 8 years making perfect plans to finally become happy that week only to fail and drink / exercise / eat / shop away my disappointment. I needed change.
Really, I thought “If can’t be happy, despite a great career, amazing colleagues, and interesting technical work… I probably need to burn it all down and start over.”
So burn is what I did.
I quit and moved to India, to dive deeply into yoga and mindfulness. Eventually I moved to Europe, taught yoga and breathwork classes and lived in an actual closet.
While I certainly learned how to live in the now and process emotions physically...
... What I didn’t learn how to do was slow down my always-on-overdrive brain
Turns out: burning down your entire life doesn’t actually solve the problems that made you want to burn it all down in the first place. Go figure…
That's probably why, one day in the midst of teaching yoga, I realized I was only half serving people.
Because they probably had the same problem I was experiencing: they were working with their body… but not their brain.
Which meant their brain was still as noisy and chatty as ever.
This time though, instead of burning it all down, I decided to go back to school to learn the science of addressing that problem.
Which kicked off another (less sweaty) period of lots of studying for a master's in mental health counseling and a coaching certificate.
Which brings us to the late days of 2020, a few months newly into motherhood, facing licensing as a counselor…
When another realization hit me like a freight train:
I actually didn’t want to sit in a chair across from people in a cold room and help them talk through their problems as a therapist.
I wanted to get in the mud with them, to help them do the hard work of reprogramming their brain, and grow to love themselves and their lives deeply in the process.
Because it turns out, at my core? I’m a coach.
This long road led me to who I truly am: a coach who incorporates the most approachable mindfulness techniques with the simplest mindset techniques to (ding ding!) help people live great lives.
This begins our third and final stage of the journey -- starting a business during the pandemic with a little baby by my side.
And, finally, to the here and now.
Because the truth I spent so many years seeking is this: to feel calmer in life -- to actually enjoy life – you need to work with your brain and your body.
It’s a both-and. And the most sustainable approach is to start where you are.
Which is why, more than anything, I want to help you bring awareness to your current patterns.
To offer yourself acceptance instead of judgment.
And intentionally move forward.
That’s what I do every day and what I help my clients do.
What it means for me is that I rarely lose it when my two kids (with another on the way) are having an afternoon, and my house is a mess, and I’m ‘behind’ on replying to emails and messages.
I no longer spend an hour listing what I didn’t do that day before falling asleep and wake up with the dread of the ‘not-yet-finished’ list.
I feel proud of myself and my work – and I do more because of it.
I’m no longer looking to a boss or social media likes for validation.
I have freedom, confidence, and joy- along with those very human emotions of occasional worry, frustration, and overwhelm.
I love my (very imperfect) life. I love my (very imperfect) self. And you can too.
When you work with me you’ll implement mindfulness AND mindset skills into your life.
This creates a toolkit that works to process the overwhelm you feel in the moment, AND change the lines of code running through your brain so that your inner critic and never-ending sense of overwhelm starts to become a thing of the past.
The real value for you here is that you’ll no longer be ‘just an anxious person’ or ‘just the woman with a temper’.
You’ll be the chill, happy, rich-in-life-and-joy person others look at and think, “What’s their secret?”
An 85-year-long Harvard study showed that the no. 1 factor in determining happiness is the quality of your relationships -- both with yourself and others.
And that’s exactly where you and I start when we work together.
I live for transformation. I love being on a team with you. I am a sucker for the moment when you get it and get it again and finally feel like you (and calm and happy) for the first time in decades.
Let’s begin.
Curious about my credentials? I get it. 😉
Here’s the list:
- Prep School-ed with the best at Phillips Exeter Academy (after a stint at public school and another Virginia-based prep school that I left because they ‘weren’t challenging me enough’…)
- Got the Ivy League Undergrad degree at Columbia doing work with very famous geology types at Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory
- Worked in Oil and Gas in the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East. I even spent a winter working night shifts on rigs in the North Sea
- Studied Ashtanga Yoga and Transcendental Meditation in Denmark, India, and the US
- Certified as a breathwork teacher through Breath-Body-Mind
- Studied more yoga and yoga therapy at Kripalu (hello 200-hour training and 800-hour Yoga Therapy Certificate)
- Earned a Masters Degree in Mental Health Counseling at William and Mary
- Honed my life coaching chops at the Life Coach School
- Currently have a front row seat to brain and nervous system development of a 4 and 1.5 year old
- I’ve also dabbled in other somatic therapies, Ayurveda, and EFT, with more to come I’m sure -- I’m a life long learner 🙂
