My family in December 2022 on one of our grand adventures! ❤️
I am unbelievably fortunate to be living the life I always wanted- but never really knew I could have. Some things aren’t exactly how I pictured them, but boy-oh-boy am I glad things didn’t always go the way I thought I wanted them to! ;)
Having started my business with a Vision Board workshop I led in 2012, I’ve come a long way in the personal growth sector! As a Credentialed School Counselor and a Personal Coach/Resilience Consultant, I’ve been able to work in the mental health, personal growth, and education industries for over a decade. I received my MA in Counseling in 2011 and BA in Psychology in 2009, both from Sonoma State University. I am super grateful for my Community College experience in San Diego at Cuyamaca College where I was named “Speaker of the Year” in 2007, when my passion for public speaking really took off. I now have the honor of teaching the Mindfulness Practices class at Mendocino College, which has been amazing to say the least!
I’m also passionate about “walking my talk,” and have been leading a drug and alcohol free lifestyle since 2016, and battling my demons while healing old trauma so I can be healthy mentally, physically and spiritually for myself and my family. Having lost several loved ones to suicide and addiction, I’m all too familiar with the battle of bouncing back from hardship. Building my own resilience reservoir has been critical, and still needs more work.
I love teaching Stress Management and Mindfulness tools, which to me also includes “Real Talk” Resilience. In our quick-fix society, we are constantly being bombarded with ways to avoid/ignore/push away our stressors- one of those ways being drugs and alcohol. As a culture, we need to focus on building resilience and knowing healthy ways to manage stress more than ever.
For 8 years, I presented Stress Management Tools and Drug Education information to over 5,000 teens in Mendocino County, CA - a county with some of the highest Opioid Overdose Death Rates, Suicide Rates and Childhood Trauma and Abuse Rates of all 58 counties in California. I raised awareness around the urgent issue that the drugs our children are being faced with are a totally different ball game than 10-20 years ago. Much of the inspiration for these presentations came in August of 2017, when I took a job at the local high school to honor the memory of my best friend that had just died in April. At only 30 years old, we lost him after a long battle with addiction and mental health challenges. My deepest wish is to prevent others from experiencing the pain I watched his Mother endure. Now that I’m a Mom, my passion has only amplified and in 2025 my focus shifted to Building Resilience through Prevention Education as the missing link to slowing down these horrible statistics.
My intensity, animation, humor and rawness have helped me appeal to and engage with populations that are often hard to reach. Some of my unique experience includes being a consultant for an inmate-led program in San Quentin State Prison, working with teens on probation, coaching busy CEO Mamas trying to juggle multi-million dollar businesses while raising their precious kiddos, hosting my own radio show where I featured edgy experts on health, wellness and business, and presenting for various non-profits and businesses across California on topics including Resilience, Leadership, Goal Setting and more.
My mission is to help “heal the world” - and hopefully prevent as many families as I can from suffering the painful roads of workaholism, stress-induced illnesses, addiction, and unnecessary loss.
I’m currently seeking speaking engagements focused on Building Resilience and Understanding the Brain, which includes raising awareness about the links between stress, trauma, drug/alcohol use and overall health. My emphasis is always on skill building, so all presentations I do are geared at action steps and solutions - not just talking about problems. Prevention and early intervention are my specialty - it’s way easier to shift behaviors before they’ve become ingrained habits. From schools to non-profits to big corporations, I can adapt to your audience so each person walks away with immediate, useable tools to manage stress and create a more balanced, healthy lifestyle.
Contact me with your ideas and let’s see what we can create!
“Jen's approach is genuine and matter-of-fact, and that makes it that much more wonderful that her advice is solid, aligned to her listeners, and so easy to implement.” - workshop participant