hi,
I’m Jessie.
Let me tell you a bit about myself in case you’re interested in more than this checkered sweater all over my site.
The “credential-y” reasons why I’m potentially a good fit to help you:
I’m a certified integrative nutrition health coach with the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, with a focus on looking at your life with you holistically and helping you find a place of balance that works best for you
I’m a 200-hour registered yoga teacher and 50-hour yoga sculpt teacher with 15 years of practice under my belt and a toolbox full of ways to help you relax, strengthen, and find presence in your body and mind
I hold a degree in psychology and am a long-time mental health advocate for various different causes in the space, with a passion for finding ways to incorporate regular mental health practices into your daily life
I am a singer/songwriter and performer; I will encourage working some type of creative expression into daily practice as a form of therapy and release
The TLDR of my personal health journey:
Many years of multiple physical misdiagnoses took a major toll on me physically and mentally.
Most doctors dismissed my symptoms as “anxiety” or “lactose intolerance” (???)
After finally finding doctors who helped me find correct diagnoses, I couldn’t believe how quickly I started feeling better in every way - all aspects of health are so entangled together
My newfound energy let me jump back into my personal wellness routines and finally see and feel the benefits of them as my body was healing
I expanded my personal practices into my passion of connecting with others and helping them find a healthier, holistic approach to their personal journeys through life
Truly, nothing brings me greater joy
than helping you find your joy.
Phew, where to begin. I’m one of those people who has been passed around by doctors for most of my life because one couldn’t find what was “wrong with me”, but the next person they referred me to certainly would be able to. I was diagnosed with Lyme disease when I was in high school with a major case of Lyme arthritis in my knee. I was on crutches and rounds and rounds of powerful antibiotics for months at a time. Over the course of the next decade of my life, anytime I experienced my Lyme symptoms of arthritis and a tired, flu-like body, I was put on a couple more months of antibiotics and told it was just the chronic Lyme acting up.
Even before that started, for the first two decades of my life, I had terrible stomach problems, indigestion daily (truly every good memory I have is linked to a nauseous one), intense bouts of anxiety and depression, and slow and steady weight gain. Over the course of the years, I was told that I had IBD, IBS, lactose intolerance, “anxious stomach”, and a couple other fun ones. I think I spent more money on tums than on anything else, tossed them back like candy, and frequented ginger ale and other anti-acid medications. I tried every diet out there; jumping from vegan to keto to paleo and back in a desperate attempt to feel better. Regardless of frequent exercise, yoga, and clean eating, I continued to lose energy and gain weight.
curious to hear a bit more? buckle up, baby.
I love people. I love learning about people, understanding people; connecting.
In my 26th year, a naturopath who I went to begging for answers finally figured out that I had been suffering from undiagnosed celiac disease. Two weeks into cutting gluten out of my life entirely, the nausea curtain lifted, my energy increased, my mind cleared, and I could not believe the idea of “well” that I had gotten used to. Around the same time as we found my celiac disease, I got another opinion on my Lyme arthritis (I think this was my fourth or fifth opinion), and this doctor, who is the doctor who discovered Lyme disease, reviewed a decade of my labs and noted that I did not have chronic Lyme disease.
He instead diagnosed me with psoriatic arthritis, which likely developed out of an initial bout of Lyme disease (that went away with the first round of antibiotics). The undiagnosed celiac disease had my immune system in constant fight or flight, which caused other autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and Hashimoto’s hypothyroid to emerge. We finally stopped the antibiotics and treated my body with holistic anti-inflammatory therapies.
While my body slowly healed from years of undiagnosed celiac and so many years of strong antibiotics for my non-Lyme-disease, I started to see and feel the benefits of the things that I was doing B.C. (before celiac), that were not coming through then due to the root problem getting in the way. I began to feel stronger from my strength training, more powerful in my body and mind through my yoga practice, and I picked up running for the first time in my life with the newfound energy to finally do so.
so then what happened?
In tandem with my physical health moving in waves throughout my life, my mental health went with it; sometimes sinking into deep anxiety and depression, and through hard work and support of my friends and families, lifting up into brighter days. The physical, mental, and emotional aspects of my health often moved together in tandem; they are all interconnected.
Since finding clarity and feeling strong in my body, I have been able to invest more time into my mental health through practicing and teaching yoga, connecting with others and building relationships, and feeling energized and driven to pursue my passion of helping others find a healthier, holistic approach to life. I am not perfect by any means, but the progress I have experienced along my path makes me excited to continue growing into the fullest expression of myself each day and seeing where that takes me.
It takes work to get to a place where you feel proud of the life you have built, but whether we get there alone or with the help of others, it is within reach for all of us.
Let’s do this, baby.
it all brought me here to you
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We will go over your health history for about 45 minutes, to get a better understanding of where you’re coming from, where you are in your health journey right now, and where you’re hoping to go moving forward. This will include things like sleep, diet, exercise, interpersonal relationships, work, etc. You are not required to share anything with me that you’re not comfortable sharing; all question are optional. We will discuss goals, timeline, and what it will look like to work together.
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No, absolutely not! The last thing I want to do is make you feel obligated to work together. We will chat and see if we’re a good fit and if you feel like I can add value to where you currently are in your life. If it doesn’t feel right to move forward right now - no hard feelings! We are all such different people, we can’t all expect to match up.
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I’m always happy to be flexible and work with you to find a program that fits your lifestyle and that may mean creating something together that doesn’t fit within the description of any of my current offerings. Don’t feel like we are stuck within these categories, though there is typically an option for everyone; we can always chat about going outside the box!