About Melissa |
For more than a decade Melissa has been supporting women to take better care of themselves as a coach, a workshop and retreat facilitator, and a yoga instructor.
She has a degree in journalism, a minor in gender studies, several coaching certifications, as well as a Hatha yoga cerfification from her time spent in India. These diverse experiences cultivated in her a capacity for going deeper than the status quo, naturally thinking outside the box, and standing up for truth and for balance. She is a natural leader and gently assertive. All of this, combined with her keen awareness and sensitivity to what is going on for others, makes her excellent at helping women see their lives in totally new way. For good.
Melissa has worked with women aging from 20-80 years old, from doctors to stay at home mothers, marketing executives to non-profit employees. She has created three different coaching programs for: Vanderbilt Center for Integrative Health, Wellview Health, and her former coaching practice, Thrive Whole Living. She has sat on the panel of experts supporting the coaches in training for the Vanderbilt Health Coaching School, and she conducts ongoing training for the team of coaches at Wellview Health.
She learned how to eat healthy from The Institute for Integrative Nutrition(2007), and the Natural Gourmet Cooking School in NYC(2009). She learned how to be present and teach yoga from the Yoga Vidya Gurukul ashram in India(2008). She learned how to coach others from The Institute for Integrative Nutrition(2008), and Wellcoaches(2010) coaching schools. She is now being certified as a transformational facilitator, and feminine power coach with Claire Zammit of Evolving Wisdom, and she's excited to pass along the principles she has learned about empowerment by coaching individuals, leading retreats, and facilitating The True Hunger Program.
Melissa's roster of speaking includes The Women of AT&T, The National Consortium of Integrative Medicine, The Vanderbilt Cancer Center Survivors Conference, The National Emergency Nurses Association, and The Metro Nashville Library Association. She has led workshops in yoga studios and private homes as well as retreats in beautiful places in and out of the country.
She lives with her family in Nashville, TN.
A Personal Note
One truth I've discovered--Watching what you eat is never about food.
I've been a holistic health coach for 10 years. The conversations I've been in on-- the inside stories from women about what they value, how they love, what they say to themselves and how they take care-- have taught me a lot about nurturing that I wasn't thinking about when I came in to this job. I thought I would be teaching about healthy food and exercise. What I ended up doing was supporting women to integrate all the pieces of their lives- all the different hats they wear, and find ways to tune in to their own needs.
I love women and I love my job. They taught me this: Eating isn’t just about health, it is about much much more. Our relationship to food is evidence of how we take care of ourselves and in this one area, we can see all the categories in life wrapped in together--
our self-esteem, self- belief, self-love, self-care.
I stand for the transformation that happens when food becomes sacred instead of just sustenance or solace. I stand for what happens when women get out of their own way in this area of their lives-- for the confidence, peace, and fullness of life on the other side.
Much Love,
Melissa
Through our work together I discovered one of the most valuable tools of my life-- how to integrate the different parts of myself and find my center. This was the key stone, like getting to the heart of the matter. Now I live more fully and make more empowered choices from that center. The way I eat and how I feel about my body is completely transformed. I show up as me, in all parts of my life, instead of showing up as what I thought I was supposed to be- someone else's idea of a leader, a woman, an executive. This program is grounding and it gives you a strong center to makes choices from.
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