As a disabled Black woman who has survived life-threatening medical trauma, systemic healthcare bias, and the intersecting weight of racism, sexism, and ableism, I am keenly aware of how it feels to sit across from a provider who cannot comprehend your reality, who looks on horrified instead of offering healing and relevant support. Moments like this have shown me the importance of having more relatable and culturally competent providers in mental health. I have a deep desire to be the provider for others that I struggled to find for myself. I have chosen to build what I never had. As the founder of Moving Mountains Coaching, I have created safe and culturally responsive spaces for NFL athletes, couples, and individuals across diverse backgrounds, helping them process their emotions, strengthen their resilience, and restore their relationships. My work as a Mental Health Coach has yielded measurable results, including exceptional client outcomes. I am committed to blending evidence-based practices with authenticity and cultural humility to provide effective, empathetic mental health care to those who need it. I am a Master of Social Work candidate at Northern Arizona University, holding a 4.0 GPA. I am preparing to expand my role as a licensed clinician. My training in ACT, DBT, CBT, and motivational interviewing, combined with years of coaching and care navigation, equips me to meet clients at their most vulnerable and guide them toward lasting transformation. I intend to be the kind of provider I once needed: someone who sees the whole person, their strengths and pain, without judgment, and offers not only clinical expertise but also lived understanding. If I could make one significant change to today’s mental healthcare system, it would be to eliminate systemic barriers to culturally competent care. Too often, individuals from underrepresented communities, including BIPOC, LGBTQ+, disabled, and first-generation populations, struggle to find therapists who reflect their identities or truly understand their lived experiences. This lack of representation and cultural awareness contributes to mistrust, misdiagnosis, and disengagement from critical mental health care. The change I envision is instituted through policies that invest in the recruitment, education, and long-term support of future mental health providers from these underrepresented communities. This includes expanding scholarships and loan forgiveness programs, increasing reimbursement rates for community-based providers, and removing licensure and internship barriers that disproportionately limit underrepresented students from entering the profession. Additionally, public funding should be directed toward placing diverse providers in underserved areas and supporting organizations that deliver care in culturally specific and community-based models. Teletherapy has been one of the most significant innovations in mental healthcare, particularly in breaking down geographical and logistical barriers. For clients in rural areas, those with disabilities, or individuals balancing demanding schedules, teletherapy offers greater access and flexibility. It also provides a level of privacy and comfort for clients who may be hesitant to seek mental health support in person. However, the greatest challenges of teletherapy often fall along lines of equity. Not everyone has access to reliable internet, private spaces for sessions, or personal environments that support secure communication and vulnerable engagement. Additionally, some aspects of human connection, such as body language, energy, or physical presence, can sometimes be more challenging to replicate virtually, which can impact the building of rapport in therapeutic relationships. Multiple state licensing can sometimes pose barriers to providing care, especially for social workers. With proper reforms and innovations to make access more equitable, I believe the future of mental health care can be not only more accessible, but also more compassionate, equitable, and empowering for the communities who need it most.

As a compulsive dreamer, I envision a life of freedom, joy, and purpose. I aspire to live a life beyond mere survival, creating stability for my daughters, and inspiring others to believe in their own possibilities. My life has been marked by instability, trauma, and illness. Stability is something I long for but rarely experience. My dream life includes a home filled with peace, love, safety, and security. It means my daughters know they are secure and supported as they build their own futures. It also means financial freedom, not only to provide for them but to invest in their passions so they never feel confined by fear or limitation. I imagine myself traveling and spending time at the ocean in La Jolla, where I feel a deep spiritual connection. The ocean is where I find peace, creativity, and a sense of grounding. It is where I will write books that inspire and heal. These will be memoirs and works of personal development that empower women and individuals who have lived with disabilities, chronic illness, and overwhelming obstacles to achieve more of what they want in life. My words will carry hope to women of color who often feel buried under the weight of societal expectations, showing them that their voices and their dreams matter. Through writing, I will remind them that they are not defined by limitations but by their strength to rise. In 2017, I founded Moving Mountains Coaching, where I have provided over 3,000 hours of coaching to individuals, couples, and athletes. I have worked with NFL players and their families, couples on the edge of separation, and people who believed their burdens were too heavy to bear. In my ideal life, my coaching practice evolves into a movement that liberates people from limitations, past traumas, and doubt, empowering them to overcome obstacles and achieve the lives they envision. I know what it means to feel broken, unseen, and hopeless. In my dream life, I continue to be the provider I once searched for, someone who sees people in their full humanity and helps them rebuild with dignity. Coaching allows me to impact lives one at a time, but my current pursuit of my Master’s of Social Work at Northern Arizona University provides me with the tools to shape systems and expand my reach to help others.. My dream includes advocating for policies that protect vulnerable communities and creating programs that serve people who are too often overlooked or dismissed. As a Black woman living with disabilities, I understand how race, gender, class, and health intersect to create barriers that feel impossible to overcome. My dream life includes dismantling those barriers for others. It means standing in spaces where decisions are made and ensuring that the voices of the silenced are brought to the forefront. It also means mentoring other women of color, so they see themselves beyond what society expects of them and are empowered to reclaim the freedom to define their own lives. Ultimately, the life of my dreams is about creating a legacy and empowering others. It is about leaving behind more than scars from trauma. It is about building a legacy of healing and possibility. It is about my daughters seeing a mother who not only survived but thrived, and about women and men across the world realizing that their stories matter. The life of my dreams is one of writing, coaching, traveling, and teaching, all rooted in the belief that “Every Mountain Can Be Moved If You Are Willing to Take the First Step.™

I was raised in Tucson, Arizona. My childhood was marked by instability and the absence of love and empathy. My father served in the military, and during our years overseas in the Philippines, we endured earthquakes and later evacuation after Mount Pinatubo erupted, forcing us to leave everything behind. When we returned to the United States, I moved in with my grandparents. My grandmother became my safe place, but even then, I felt responsible for my younger siblings who remained with my parents, who struggled with trauma, substance abuse, and cycles of violence. From early on, I understood what it meant to feel unsafe and unseen, but I also learned how to survive against overwhelming odds. By the time I was in second grade, I had undergone eight brain surgeries. Chronic health conditions and the constant fear of recurrence overshadowed my childhood. In 2007, those fears became reality when a drunk driver struck me at 65 miles per hour while I was stopped at a red light with my daughter in the car. It took two years before I found a neurosurgeon willing to attempt the repairs, and in that time, my life became defined by fear, pain, and uncertainty. In 2014, the arteriovenous malformations in my brain returned. These tangled blood vessels can rupture or bleed without warning, causing life-threatening complications. Between 2014 and 2020, I endured five more brain surgeries, septic shock, and the loss of both breasts to infection. I lived with depression, complex PTSD, and countless days when I wondered if life was worth continuing. There were nights of unbearable pain and days when guilt consumed me for being too sick to be the mother I wanted to be. For a long time, joy and peace felt impossible. I knew the emptiness of searching for care that never came and what it felt like to have my humanity reduced to symptoms. That realization gave me my life’s calling: to become the provider I never had. In 2017, I founded Moving Mountains Coaching to transform my pain into purpose. With my master’s degree in psychology, I have built a practice that has provided over 3,000 hours of coaching. I work with NFL athletes, couples, and individuals carrying burdens they believed were too heavy to bear. My work focuses on mental wellness, growth, and healing. What makes it meaningful is not just my training but my lived experience. I know what it means to fall apart and rebuild, and I walk alongside my clients from that place of truth. My work focuses on helping athletes navigate the expectations of performing at superhuman levels while carrying the trauma and burdens of their own. Couples and families often suffer under the weight of unaddressed struggles. I provide safe spaces where people can be genuine, fall apart, and still be supported as they rebuild with dignity. I am pursuing my Master of Social Work at Northern Arizona University to expand my impact. Coaching allows me to change lives, but social work will provide me with the framework to address systems, advocate for justice, and ensure that mental health is recognized as an essential part of healthcare. As a Black woman living with disabilities, I understand how race, gender, class, and health intersect to create barriers that feel impossible to overcome. My goal is to dismantle those barriers for others. Looking back, every painful chapter of my life has given me something I now use in my work. My journey has taught me that “Every Mountain Can Be Moved If You Are Willing to Take the First Step. ™”

My experiences with mental health started at a young age, before I knew anything about what it meant to live with depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or Anxiety. I faced health challenges early in life that changed how I saw myself and the world. My experiences made it hard for me to ever feel safe at home or school. By the time I was a teenager, my life had already been defined by chronic pain, family trauma, and challenging situations. From elementary school into adulthood, I lived through trauma, survived illness, and carried more than most people face in a lifetime. As a young adult, my health battles became much more severe. I went through multiple brain surgeries that left me permanently disabled. I lived with a lot of fear and uncertainty about whether I could truly live and accomplish anything with my life. I lost both of my breasts after devastating infections and septic shock. My body was scarred, my spirit was tired, and my mind was overwhelmed by depression and complex PTSD. There were nights of unbearable pain and days when I no longer wanted to live. I felt isolated, unseen, and too weak to push forward, yet I still had two young daughters who needed me. In their most formative years, I often felt too lost and broken to give them the stability they deserved, and that guilt deepened my depression. I searched for support throughout those years, but no matter how many providers I met with, I could not find someone who could help me carry the weight of my story. I needed someone who could see my humanity, not just my symptoms, and support me through horrors most could not imagine. That gap, that ache of not finding care that met me where I was, planted a seed in me. I realized it was my calling to become the kind of provider I never had. That realization is what gave birth to Moving Mountains Coaching in 2017. Through my master’s in psychology, I built a practice that serves athletes, couples, and individuals. I have provided more than 3,000 hours of mental health coaching, including work with employee assistance programs and direct coaching for NFL athletes and their families. Coaching became not just my work but the extension of my survival. It was how I transformed my pain into purpose. Living with depression, PTSD, and long-term health challenges has shaped the way I connect with others in powerful ways. Struggling with PTSD taught me patience and compassion, while depression taught me the importance of simply being present in the miracles of today. My daughters grew up watching me fight battles that most children never see their mothers endure. They saw me lying in hospital beds, hooked up to machines. They saw my scars and witnessed my suffering. However, I was able to shield them in many ways and never missed a performance or parent-teacher conference. I did everything I could to remain present for them. They saw me rebuild myself more than once, and these experiences shaped their understanding of what resilience means. Our relationship is built on authenticity and acceptance because we understand how to push through and love despite imperfections. This openness extends to the way I support my clients. Whether it is an athlete facing the crushing weight of performance expectations, a couple on the edge of separation, or an individual struggling to overcome the impossible, I speak from lived truth and provide a coaching experience they can relate to and depend on to help them grow. I know what it means to wake up at three in the morning in a panic. I know the exhaustion of depression, the way flashbacks make you feel like you are drowning in the past, and the isolation of being disabled in a world that rarely understands. My clients can sense that I know because I have lived it, and that level of trust opens the door to genuine healing work. Every decision I have made in my career connects back to my journey with mental health. I became a coach because I had experienced darkness firsthand and wanted to help others find their own light. Working with athletes gave me insight into the unique pressures they face, pressures that outsiders rarely see. These men and women are asked to perform at superhuman levels while privately battling depression, anxiety, relationship challenges, or family struggles. The world sees their stats and contracts, but I see their humanity and their truth. I know that they deserve confidential spaces to fall apart and rebuild, just as I once needed myself. Pursuing my Master of Social Work is the natural next step in this path. Coaching has allowed me to positively impact individuals and families, but social work provides me with the training and framework to effectively impact systems and establish justice, equity, and healing. Through social work, I will take my lived experiences and professional practice to a broader level, where I can advocate for policies that treat mental health as a human right and build culturally responsive systems of care for underserved communities. Too often, people who live with challenges are overlooked, dismissed, or left behind. My goal is to ensure no one feels as invisible as I once did. Surviving trauma, illness, surgeries, PTSD, and depression has given me a perspective no classroom could. My work is about honoring pain, nurturing healing, and helping people believe in a future they cannot yet see. I know the mountain of mental health struggles can feel immovable. I have felt that mountain pressing down on me. But I also understand the importance of having the courage to take the first step, even when your body is weak and your heart is heavy. That belief is how I live. Every mountain can be moved if you are willing to take the first step™. My experience with mental health has influenced every part of me. It has shaped my beliefs, showing me that healing is a lifelong process, that culture and identity matter, and that every person deserves to be fully seen. It has shaped my relationships, teaching me empathy, patience, and the power of authenticity. My understanding of mental health has guided my career, pushing me to build a coaching practice and now pursue my MSW to make systemic change. Mental health has been both my greatest challenge and my greatest teacher. It has broken me open, rebuilt me, and given me the voice and purpose to dedicate my life to this work.