It's me, Hi!
I’m Julie, and I'm over the moon that you've made it to my little corner of the internet
Curious what got me here?
Tap here to read about my education, credentials, and training.
I'm enchanted to meet you.
For over 16 years, I’ve helped Luminaire humans – mostly ambitious women in healthcare — untangle from all the prefabricated stories and roles you’ve been conditioned to play — so you can live, lead, love, and work in alignment with the Story of who you actually are.
In short – I help you match the story your Soul is telling on the inside to the Story of your life on the outside.
If you’re like me and/or most of the women I serve, the prefabricated stories of these roles– have also become a Conformity Corset — stitched together with labels, expectations, conditioning, and cultural scripts –
Scripts that tell you just how much to live, work, parent, breathe, feel, and experience …
And those Conformity Corset scripts definitely try to contain what the world deems your “Terrible Too’s”
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Too sensitive
Too intense
Too smart
Too nerdy
Too nice
Too many interests
Too goody goody​​
Too rigid
Too outspoken
This kind of corset looks good on the outside… but quietly crushes your breath, your voice, your truth, your confidence, and your Soul’s Story.
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I know this because I have lived it time and time again.
In a world that told me to pick a swim lane and stay in it, I’ve always zig-zagged
I was the nerdy, never-met-a-school-subject-I-didn’t-like, straight A student – praised for my work ethic, drive, and emotional and academic intelligence.
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I was the dependable NCAA D1 swim teammate – working hard, standing at the end of the lane cheering on my teammates even when I was tired, or celebrating others’ wins even when I was struggling.
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I was the soft-spoken “good girl” raised in the South with cultural and religious lessons of “if you can’t say anything nice don’t say anything at all” imprinted on my DNA (lessons I’ve spent years deconstructing while reclaiming a meaningful relationship with spirituality)
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I reached the top of my healthcare profession, gained prestige and a reputation as mentor and guide, and collected umpteen letters and credentials after my name in the process.
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I had a deep passion, intense drive, and keenly sensitive and intuitive Soul that loved a good challenge and strived for excellence.
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Sink or swim – I loved to swim. Literally and figuratively.
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Yet I also lived in a story that said that if I could just achieve enough, help enough people, do enough good, I’d feel safe. Whole. Fulfilled.
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As you can probably deduce (and have probably realized yourself) – that’s not how life actually works.
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Sure enough, at 31, I found out I had a grapefruit-sized tumor in my chest.
At age 31, a grapefruit-sized tumor had overtaken part of my lung.
Cancer entered the chat.
Sink or swim – I was literally swimming for my life.
I had surgery and treatment that cracked me wiiiiiide open – not just in my body, but in my heart, mind, and spirit too.
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What poured out were the parts of me I’d unknowingly stuffed into that Conformity Corset for decades:
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My sensitivity
My humor
My creativity
My desire to uncover and live in ALL of my interests
My softness
My savageness ​
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I uncovered how my “just keep swimming” approach to life in the Conformity Corset – was sinking who I really was.
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I’d picked a lane because I was told I should – and almost every time, I outgrew it.
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I had a light inside that was doing all it could to get out and shine. I'd stuffed it down so far so I could just keep swimming in the Conformity Corset.
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I discovered that life wasn't sink OR swim.
No, life was sink AND swim.
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As I sank in to healing from cancer on multiple planes (mind, body, spirit, Soul), I began to claim and construct a completely different way of living, loving, working, (dog) parenting, and experiencing the world.
And as I sank, I discovered my visceral and feral need to fully live from and tell my LUMINAIRE truth – that I was someone who was deeply –
Loyal
You're primarily loyal to the needs of your Soul instead of the needs of everyone else
Untamed
You live wild and free from your deepest desires instead of the roles you’ve been conditioned to play
Multidimensional
You embrace the complexity, layers, and nuance in your life instead of picking one lane, one label, or a rigid identity
Intense
You own that your passion, empathy, and sensitivity are intelligent gifts to be channeled in the right places instead of pathological problems to be fixed
Native
You unapologetically feel fully at home in your Soul Story AND belong to a Soul-designed girl gang who gets, understands, and celebrates all parts of you
Authentic
You take radical self responsibility to live and express yourself unfiltered, unapologetic, and with full integrity of who you truly are and what you value
Intuitive
Your success is rooted in your innate genius and gifts instead of the rules, expectations, and rituals you’ve learned from indoctrination & practice
You know that on the other side of challenge and adversity is joy and aliveness, and you face them with fluidity, hope, trust, and steadfastness
Resilient
Encouraged
Your main motivator is pleasure and joy as a fundamental birthright, not something that you have to earn, prove, or fight for.
I thought the cancer was my rock bottom.
But then I found another one.
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Years after my diagnosis, I had pivoted careers– from clinical work to coaching.
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I had grown a 7 figure coaching business, I’d served practitioners and clients around the world, and I’d built something that looked AND felt aligned with my Luminaire Soul.
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But my body continued to whisper that something was off kilter.
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Even though I was on the right track – I was living out my Soul Story – I was disconnected from a key ingredient of my magic.
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As I sank deeper into my Soul’s Story so I could rise, swim, and shine my light brighter – the people who once were in my corner began to push back against this version of me who was no longer living in the Conformity Corset.
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My expansiveness and wild and free attitude was no longer palatable to people who once were my biggest supporters.​
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They questioned me and pushed back not from a place of helping me grow, but trying to keep me conforming.
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I sank into the hard truth: I’d built a new life, but as a "strong independent woman" - I had done it largely alone.
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I was living in my Soul Story, but feeling lonely, isolated, and unseen.
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I craved to be surrounded by people who unconditionally supported me in that Soul Story.
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Instead of paddling to stay afloat in one-sided relationships where I did most of the carrying and nourishing, I sank the relationships.
And sank into myself even more.
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I grieved. I set some really hard boundaries. I redefined who my people were.
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It’s not that I never had people helping or supporting me along the way – indeed I did.
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It just meant I needed to find people out in the wild who were in my own species - people who understood that life isn't sink OR swim. Life is sink AND swim.
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Luminaires like me.
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That was the beginning of an even deeper sinking … and the rise of everything real.​​​​​​
"When I was drowning, that's when I could finally breathe"
-Taylor Swift
What emerged from the Conformity Corset was Soul Story Alchemy
In my own Sink AND Swim process, I discovered that we can’t live a Soul-aligned life if we’re living in the Conformity Corset of someone else’s narrative ...
And we also can't live fully in our Soul Story if we're only surrounding ourselves with people who continue to conform to the narrative of the Conformity Corset:
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The parents who question you when you leave a “stable” profession to follow your heart
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The colleagues who say “you should just be grateful – you have a good paycheck, you have a happy family, you’ve achieved so much” when you look around and say you don’t feel happy or fulfilled in your current job
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The family members who tell you to calm down and stop being so all over the place with your desires and just focus.
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The friends who question your mental health and call you "too sensitive" when you share your big feelings, deep thoughts, or big aspirations
Yet you know there's more for you outside the Conformity Corset
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You have done and have a lot of good things. Yet you don’t feel happy. You can literally feel yourself shapeshifting to fit into the Corset.
You feel like a square peg in a round hole.
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Something tells me you’re so ambitious you might try to make yourself happy in your current life – working on your anxiety or burnout or the sadness or lost feelings you experience in a world where you don't fit
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You might have a dialed in wellness routine to nurture and soothe the nervous energy and dysregulated hormones that seem to be slowly but surely “off” no matter what you try – supplements, gluten/dairy free, hydration, sleep hygiene, yoga, movement, meditation.
But something deep still whispers “Something’s still missing. I think there’s more for me.”
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In fact, you might feel like the very act of trying to find happiness and healing within your current life is actually fencing you in even more – like the more you pour into healing yourself, the more you see that the healed version of you doesn’t fit here.
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That’s because you can’t heal your way into a world that isn’t designed to contain you.
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You know good and well that healing is about more than regulating your nervous system and body, optimizing your mindset, or even finding your purpose.
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It’s about softening into and becoming fluent in the language of your own Soul—and rewriting your story from there.
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And surrounding yourself with people who speak that language too…or finding an authentic way to translate it for the people who don’t speak it – like your grandma or neighbor who has never done the things you do – but still genuinely love and support you no matter what.
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Your Soul Story is the one imprinted on your Soul before you were even born.
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It’s weighed down beneath the conditioning, achievements, healing frameworks, and society’s push for you to do more, be more, create more, post more.
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…yes – the same society that also tells you to curb and curtail your “terrible too much” parts, too.
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Real confusing eh?
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I know that the soft, messy, beautiful, savage, untamed, quirky yet endearing, complex truth of who you are – buried deep beneath the surface – are the very best parts of you.
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And once you can sink in and see them clearly – with compassion and context – you begin to remember what you’re really here to do—and who and what you’re here to become.
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This is Soul Story Alchemy—where sinking deep meets creative, wild, and intuitive reclamation.
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It’s not a rewriting of the narrative. It’s an uncovering. It’s Illumination. It’s brazenly telling and living the story you were always meant to tell.
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It’s always been the heart and birthplace of everything I do and offer – even when I zig zagged through countless professional identities myself.
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I had the idea of Sink or Swim imprinted on my DNA from the moment I jumped into the pool at age 3 and nearly drowned.
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From there, I literally swam (a thriving NCAA swimming career resulted).
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But along the way, I’ve seen that we all live in a culture that teaches us to either sink OR swim.
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Push through to the top OR give up
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Paddle furiously to show up OR shut down
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Just keep swimming OR don’t even try
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​People want to go from one mountain top to another without sinking into the valley.
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But the truth is, life isn’t sink OR swim. It’s sink AND swim.
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We’re not only allowed to do both – we’re literally designed to sink AND swim –
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To not just tell the story of sinking – but to fully live in the process of it.
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Sinking—into an honest reckoning—is where we discover the golden doorway – the instructions to reclaim our Soul’s Story.
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It doesn’t always look and feel sexy or like a pretty meme on Instagram. In fact – if it does – there might be a bit more letting go to do.
It brings tenderness and tension. It brings grief, rage, and heartache.
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AND it also brings clarity, the dopamine hit of rediscovery, and the tickle in your belly that says “Ahh. I’m here. I’m home.”
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It’s where you reclaim the Story we were born to tell and live in this lifetime – who we are, what our purpose is, and who are our people.
Swimming is where you rise from that place.
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Not with spiritual bypassing, toxic positivity, “just changing your thoughts,” swallowing a million supplements, or other performative BS.
But with truth. Intuition. Integration. Full embodiment of your authentic Soul Story.
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Sink and Swim is the name of my podcast, and it’s the soul of my work:
Helping Luminaire women stop strangling their Soul Stories into a Conformity Corset in the name of impact, and instead untangle the pre-fabricated narratives, let go of the stories they’ve outgrown, sink more deeply into who they really are so they can rise and swim from there—fluid, grounded, and wildly alive.
From Sink or Swim to Sink AND swim
Who I serve
I work with women who are doing big things in the world—especially in the healthcare, healing, and service spaces.
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(And because I get this question a lot I'll just address it here - if you're not in healthcare -- no sweat. I’ve also guided Fortune 500 executives, stay at home moms, teachers, attorneys, and Olympic and professional athletes)
​If you’re like my clients in the healthcare space, you may be leaving (or contemplating leaving) the clinical world to build something deeper. Something that includes all of you.
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Most of my clients are brilliant, ambitious, neurodivergent, highly sensitive, intuitive, and tired of leading from just their heads, medical degrees, stifling insurance regulations, and productivity requirements.
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I call all of these traits a Luminaire.
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You may intuit that you have outgrown your roles and identities – and you hunch there’s a spiritual and letting go process you need to examine and sink into in order to get to the other side.
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You’re doing deep soul-searching. You’re asking: what’s real? What’s mine? What and who am I done performing for?
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You know it’s not a matter of simply quieting and healing the anxious feelings bubbling in your belly.
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You know it’s not just about regulating your nervous system to stay in a role, identity, or relationship that ultimately isn’t right for you.
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You probably have a dialed wellness routine that helps keep you “optimized” – so you can function at the high level you’re used to functioning: supplements, functional med everything, a lifting and strength training routine, sleep hygiene, meditation, maybe even therapy(and don’t forget your part time job of acquiring and eating enough protein to fuel a small army)
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I love how deeply you practice what you preach.
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And – I love how you know deeply that YOU are the leader and author of your story – and you don’t need OR want someone to fix you or tell you all the things that are wrong with you
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You’ve lived a life where you were expected to be the healer and fixer of others – and you know how heavy and pressurizing this can feel. You crave this for yourself.
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You also know firsthand that being in the "healer and fixer" space only keeps you (and your clients) stuck in your own Conformity Corsets.
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You know you need someone who doesn’t have a framework or a guarantee of where you’re going (because if they did, it wouldn't be your story) –
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You want someone who can hold all of the uncertainty WITH you: the grief, the letting go, the ambition, the intensity, the unraveling, the vision, the spiritual reckoning. ​
You want someone who can mirror your own magic back to you while honoring your process as you uncover and find the clarity and courage to live from your deepest Soul Story.
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You want someone who is ready to swim alongside AND sink deeply with you
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That’s me.
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I’d be so honored to be your teammate and sink and swim through these liminal, excruciating, and life-giving spaces with you.
My approach
If you're wondering what kind of modalities and methods we'll be using in our work together - I get it. I usually wonder the same thing when I'm looking for a mentor, guide, therapist, or coach. Especially after I've personally had some doozie experiences in the past.
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​As a perpetual student, my resume, training, and credentials are quite endless. Because of that it's virtually impossible to sum up my approach in a neat and tidy one-liner. It also varies from client to client. So if you're looking for a strict framework or an approach where I'm taking you through a set of pre-determinded steps, I'm probably not the person for you.​
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In 20 years of clinical, Pilates, and coaching work I've acquired all kinds of approaches to this work -- from Internal Family Systems-informed coaching to somatic parts work, energy and and nervous system regulation tools, intuitive guidance, breath work, spirituality, but also sometimes we just need to talk out your thoughts, beliefs, and mindset. You can count on gentle and honest "come to Jesus" love (I won't lie to you, but I'll also dole it out only when it seems safe and co-regulatory). You can expect lots of storytelling, metaphors, and humorous examples.
Sometimes you'll get really wacky challenges and homework that make sense only to you and me.
And of course - I firmly believe that you are the captain of your own ship. There is no unsolicited or condescending advice here. I will not firehose you with information or teaching. You know what is best for you WAY better than I ever could. Less is more - and sometimes the most potent change and growth comes with the tiniest pivots. Pinky swear, cross my heart - I strive to honor this always.
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The left brained part of me also loves to bring in brass tacks, business and marketing strategy, copywriting coaching -- but only if you desire that or it's appropriate.
And of course -- with my background as a PT and women's health coach - you better believe I'll be on the lookout to make sure your body feels resourced and supported in ways that are nourishing and life-giving.
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But I will also fully disclose that in 20 years of client work, the best and most potent "techniques" I've learned come from the unexpected "aha" moments that happen between my clients and me.
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Most of the time the very best guidance cannot be learned in a book, course, or certification. It can only be learned through sinking in and swimming together.
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Most of my clients love that I don't have a regimented approach, but instead a safe space to keep it real and create their own healing and transformative container. In fact most of them want exactly that - because rules and frameworks only keep them in the Conformity Corset.
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Lastly - almost all of my work is virtual, though in-person options are possible for local clients or people willing/able to travel. I have clients from time zones all over the globe. On any given day I may talk to one client who is going to bed when the next client is just waking up.
Also, for funsies...
If you must know…
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I have a huge Wordle streak, love immersing myself in a good salt bath and skin care “spa” routine, and love the feeling of sinking my toes into the grass and my bare fingers into the soil in my ever expanding garden (it has taken over our entire front yard).
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I live in the mountains of Western NC with my husband and my sassy and extremely spoiled rescue pups, Aspen and Chipper. ​​​
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I love to hurkle durkle (stay in bed as long as possible) and cuddle with Aspen while making up "good morning" songs to sing to her.
You can spot me flying down a trail on my mountain bike (and pausing to sniff wildflowers) several days per week.
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You can find me dressed in anything from sparkly purple Valentinos to sweaty (jewel-toned) gym clothes.​
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I am a foodie and love cooking and baking anything with intriguing flavor and I swoon at restaurants that do the same. I drool and take notes during the British Bake Off.
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I’m teaching myself piano for the first time (mostly so I can jam out to Taylor Swift and classic rock songs) and love drawing, painting, and doodling.
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You will find me looking at maps with awe and wonder for hours.
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I think in metaphor and story. I feel in art, poems, and music – anything from Taylor Swift to bluegrass, punk rock to indie folk.
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I’m deeply sensitive and see the meaning and bigger, more spiritual story in just about everything. This is mostly my superpower, but it’s also my kryptonite. (This is why I have my own helpers, coaches, and healers).
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I also love some good science and evidence-based anything, have published research papers – but I have also learned – there’s wayyy more to life than that can be measured in a science experiment.
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I’ve been called intense, too sensitive, too serious, too all over the place, and too much.
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And I’ve learned that all those “too much” parts are sacred clues. They were never the problem. They’re the path.
Sink the Conformity Corset and swim home to the Luminaire League
If you’re ready to uncover the deepest Soul stories of who you are, what you’re meant to do, and who you’re here to love – and start fully embodying all of that –
If you want to fully and freely create and live and lead from that place—I’d be honored to walk with you.
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All those things you’ve knowingly or unknowingly hidden in the Conformity Corset?
They aren’t problems that need fixing.
You just need to find the story that’s already alive inside you – that shows that even though they feel and sometimes act like like kryptonite, they’re also your greatest gift and superpower.
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And together, through Soul Story Alchemy, we’ll alchemize those gifts into your greatest chapter yet.
It is my wish that every Luminaire woman finds her people who have let go of the Conformity Corset, sank deeply into themselves and are swimming and living fully in their Soul’s Story
Just sink in and imagine for a minute...what it would feel like for your outside life to match the story your Soul is telling on the inside?
What if you no longer have to lock your Story away from people due to familial conditioning, religious beliefs, gender beliefs, professional expectations, or simply so you don’t get cancelled?
What if instead of editing, filtering, or censoring your Story, you could unapologetically and authentically Live in it — while maintaining deep connection with people who LOVE you and see you as "just right" instead of "too much?"
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What if by living fully in the light of your Soul's Story, it gives other people -- your friends, family, kids, colleagues, and spouse -- permission to do the same?
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This Is All Available to You!
I know deeply that your filtered and edited and hidden away parts are the BEST parts of you.
I know you were born to live in the light of your Soul's Story, surrounded by people who adore you for your light.
I know there are people out there who are already hand-picked by your Soul to love and support you as you live fully and freely in the light of that Story.
Which is why I’ve created a beautiful masterpiece – Soul Story Alchemy, a program which allows you to sink AND swim — letting go of the Conformity Corset, and living from your Soul Story amidst other members of the Luminaire League.
I’d love to help you discover the freedom to set yourself free and illuminate your gifts into the world.
I've not only shared this method with clients for 20+ years
But I’ve also been invited to share my Story and expertise with thousands of others in leading outlets like...
My clients illuminate what is possible for you
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Dawn Allen
This program is a life changer not only for my work but also – most importantly – for my family. I was working 60 hours a week – my purpose was to work as hard as I could to make my boss happy. In the program realized I was living my life based on conformity sandbags that weighed me down. For the first time in my life, I chose me over my job. I chose my family. I realized I am not defined by what I do. I have spent so much more on courses in my life and this program was by far more valuable that anything I have ever taken so far.
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Kayla Fujimoto Epperson
My journey was made for so much more. I remember in my first conversation with Julie she asked what I valued most in life and what my hobbies and interests were. ​There was a long silence. <and...it was REAL awkward feeling for me> I couldn’t answer her. I clearly remember staring blankly realizing I had become so caught up and lost in my career that I had lost myself. Flash forward through a lot of tears and triumphs and let me tell you, it was seriously life changing. The program laid the groundwork for the life and career I really deserved and dreamed about. It looked like starting my own business in the height of COVID with no current clients, no gigantic start up loan, no business cards, and no sign on my door. Now I ​​spend more time at home with my family, walk the dogs at lunch time and watch Netflix with my husband at night instead of doing 2 hours of work. I wake up excited and energized by the work I do rather than dreading another double booked day and working through lunch. I am making real life, genuine human interactions with so many other professionals who support me. WHOA! Now more than ever I am so excited and ready to take a stand for others in what they value most in life and turn that into a life and career that creates their legacy. If I can do it, you can too.
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These clients are not magical unicorns. You can achieve what they've achieved, too.
I remember what it was like to be in your shoes right now -- swimming furiously to stay afloat, knowing deep down that I was made for SO MUCH MORE.
If someone would have told me that instead of swimming, I actually needed to just sink -- I would have gotten there a lot sooner. Live and learn, I suppose.
If you’re anything like me, you know that when you finally let go and get the right kind of support and guidance for you, you can stop trying so hard to figure it all out yourself
And finally break out of the Conformity Corset that's held you back for so long.
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Sink AND swim into Soul Story Alchemy, and illuminate the freedom to
Harness your intuitive capacity for empathy to serve and support others while receiving support for your own needs and desires
Discover purposeful work with people who ADORE your keen intellect, intensity, intuition, sensitivity, and accomplishments all while challenging you to grow
Unleash your passions, crazed fan antics, and mad scientist interests with people who are just as passionate, nerdy, and supportive
Uncage your sense of adventure to explore the corners of the globe, cultures, events, and natural wonders that fill you with awe and wonder
Experience and embrace your tender and vulnerable parts in all their glory, uncovering the gifts contained within each one
Show up and shine authentically as yourself, unfiltered, unapologetic, and in full integrity to the story your Soul came here to tell