About Me

I’m a transformational, healing-centered coach who will guide you to lead a compassion-filled life.

I’m a human, solo parent to a gentle and nerdy 10-year-old boy, a writer, a spiritual journeyer, an academic, an explorer of the world and humanity, an ambivert, a highly sensitive person, and an empath.

I love coaching women to reconnect with their inner wisdom and to learn to trust themselves.

I focus on coaching spiritually-oriented women in a trauma-informed context.

I base my approach on my decades of experience being immersed in and teaching about the world’s religions and wisdom traditions.

I am especially interested in a gentle and holistic approach to religion and spirituality that considers each person’s unique background, needs, and goals.

In my path to success, I often sought validation from others and became stuck in the grind.

I often found myself motivated by my inner fears and anxiety and a scarcity mindset rather than my inner wisdom and realizing that there was abundance in the world.

I found myself in toxic relationships, including a marriage that drained me of my spirit and identity.

I went through years of struggles since childhood.

It was only after going through a divorce when I made the intention to enter on a path of healing.

I came out on the other side thriving.

I awoke from my slumber and developed deeper self-realization when I started to set clear boundaries in my life.

I learned to trust my intuition and inner wisdom.

My relationship with religion had been damaged along the way, despite being a professor of religion.

I had a profound spiritual yearning that constantly gnawed at me, a desire to connect with my Creator.

I was not willing to desert my chosen religion. But I could not continue following it as I had before.

This time it had to be on my terms:

I worked to remove the fear-based motivations that were embedded inside my subconscious and intentionally turned towards love-based approaches to religion and spirituality.

My Journey

For many years, I “played the game” in the field of academia and life, collecting what I perceived to be social capital along the way.

I was motivated by my love of learning and teaching, as well as reading and writing.

I pursued my undergraduate and graduate studies, traveled the world seeking knowledge, applied for grants, jobs, leadership programs, and more.

I got a fair number of acceptances and lots of rejections along the way.

I failed miserably at times, but I also managed to sustain myself in a stable academic career, working my way up the ranks of academia to become a tenured professor of religious studies.

Who Am I ?

  • Born and raised in California, was a bookworm and seeker of knowledge and the Divine from a young age
  • I left the U.S. to pursue undergraduate studies in Canada and then to Egypt for five years for intensive Arabic studies
  • Entered into an intense spiritual journey within the context of Islam and spirituality
  • Pursue my master’s degree in Arabic and Islamic studies. I also attended traditional circles of Islamic learning.
  • Returned to the U.S. for even more graduate studies in religious studies
  • Went through numerous existential crises, identity shifts, and intellectual growth along the way
  • Moved back to California to work as a professor of religious studies at California Lutheran University
  • Volunteered my services in Muslim and interreligious communities, gave talks, organized events, connected people from diverse backgrounds,
  • Along the way, I began coaching other women through their limiting beliefs and challenges, relationship issues, as well as religious identity and approach to religion
  • Realized I was in an abusive relationship, learned to set boundaries, ended my marriage, and adjusted to living as a single mama
  • Sought out numerous healing modalities, revisited and processed past trauma and struggles
  • Connected with myself, learned to love who I am, helped friends do the same along the way. I’m still a work-in-progress
  • Moved to Istanbul, Turkey for my post-tenure sabbatical, recovered from burn-out and found time to explore interests and identity outside of my professional life.
  • Along the way, I realized that there was no comparison with my life in Istanbul vs. my life in Southern California and I then submitted my resignation and decided to exit academia entirely.
  • I continue to reside in Istanbul and choose to live a full, but not busy, life that is nourishing. I'm carefully finding ways I can be of service while maintaining integrity and compassion for myself.