Hi, I’m Melinda!

My greatest hope is for women to know that they are not alone in their struggles. As a survivor of sexual abuse and domestic violence, I spent much of my life inside of secrets and shame. I struggled with anxiety and depression. I hid my trauma behind a façade of overachieving and people-pleasing. My greatest fear was that if people really knew me, they wouldn’t love me. What I know now is that my greatest healing has come from being seen inside of my truth. I want that for you too. 

I share my stories with the intention of connection and healing. I offer practices, tools, and strategies from my professional training and personal experiences, knowing that you are the expert on your life and trusting that you will take what resonates and leave the rest behind. I don’t pretend to have any answers and that doesn’t stress me out because I know that everything you need is already within you. I am a fellow traveler on this path called life and I want to help you reconnect with your compassionate, wise inner self so that you can experience more joy, peace, and presence in your life. 

My work as a Sacred Feminine Priestess has been 25 years in the making.

It’s the culmination of a journey I’ve been on since I was 18 years-old.

*A content warning before we dive in: I discuss sexual abuse, depression, anxiety, and suicide. Please take care of yourself and skip this story if that feels best.

I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression since I was 12 years-old, but you would not have known it. I was a master at hiding my struggles. I coped by over-achieving and just generally trying to be the nicest, smartest, prettiest, thinnest, most helpful version of myself. I earned great grades, was voted Most Likely to Succeed, participated in tons of extracurricular activities, and had a large group of friends.

My mental health plummeted during my first year away at college. My panic attacks were so severe that I was terrified to leave my dorm room. Depression had my mind warped. I hated myself and I couldn’t see a way for things to get better. I felt hopeless and alone. I was holding a lot of secrets and I was sure that if anyone knew the truth about me, they would hate me. I didn't want to live.

My suicide attempt was not successful, which made me hate myself even more. Thankfully, I had a small group of amazing friends who encouraged me to go to the campus counseling center. I started my journey with therapy. I disclosed all the shameful secrets I had been holding inside - that I had been sexually abused throughout my childhood, that my ex-boyfriends had physically abused me, that I’d had an abortion.

I came home from college with a lukewarm will to live and a missed period. I assumed it was the stress of everything that had been going on but my mom encouraged me to take a pregnancy test. One of my college friends said, “If you’re pregnant, there is no god.” I understood what she meant - I had been through so much recently. But when I found out I was pregnant I felt just the opposite. To me, it was clearly divine intervention. Now I had a reason to not only live but to create a wonderful life for myself and my child.

I continued in therapy and approached my healing the same way I approached everything - I would be the best! I read every self-help book I could get my hands on and did all my therapy homework. I was a compliant and motivated client. I did EMDR therapy to process my past traumas. I started practicing yoga and meditating. I journaled. I began to slowly heal my relationship with my body and shift my thoughts about myself. But I still held the deep-seated belief that I was unlovable and I continued to act from that belief. I was still overachieving and over-functioning; I was still trying to earn approval and love.

I worked as a waitress at night and went to college during the day. I completed my Bachelor’s Degree (with a 4.0 GPA, naturally) and went on to earn a Ph.D. in Psychology. I got a good job in my field, with health insurance and a retirement fund. I bought a house. I got married. I checked all the boxes that society had taught me were important. Yet, I felt unfulfilled, exhausted, sad, and anxious most days. I was still in therapy, practicing yoga, and reading self-help books. The fact that I was still sad and anxious despite how great my life looked on paper and the many healing modalities that I engaged in regularly just felt like more proof that I was somehow broken.  

Things started to shift for me in a big way in 2008. I read The Artist’s Way, went on my first women’s retreat, and reconnected with my intuition for the first time. This changed my whole life. I had heard the voice of my soul and I vowed to never turn away from her again. I started to create my life based on what I wanted, rather than what I thought others expected from me. I went part-time at my job and opened a yoga studio. A year later, I left my job, started a private practice as a therapist, and opened my dream wellness center.

I built my businesses. I had another baby. I cared for aging and dying relatives. I landed in burn out. I got curious about self-love and self-trust and created Badass Self-Care. I had an episode of serious depression and took a sabbatical from work. I wrote two books. I sold the wellness center and closed the yoga studio. I thought I had this self-love and self-care thing figured out and in a lot of ways, I did. My intuition guided my choices, big and small. I took time for myself regularly. I journaled daily. I spoke kindly to myself. I worked on setting boundaries. I continued in therapy. I meditated. I went on retreats. I took daily walks. I practiced asking for help. And right there with me the whole time were the same beliefs that I was not lovable, that something was inherently wrong with me, and that I better work my ass off to earn love and approval.

The missing piece of this journey only truly clicked for me when I discovered Sacred Feminine ceremony. I deepened my spiritual practices and came to truly know myself as lovable and worthy. Remembering myself as sacred changed everything. All these years, I had been trying to solve a spiritual problem with everything but a spiritual solution. Now I have a deep trust in myself and in life. I have practices that comfort me on the hardest days (because there are still hard days!). I have a steady inner foundation that supports my life.

My journey has been one of:

~ living from my wounds to living from my soul

~ living from my conditioning to living from my truth

~ living from logic to living from magic

~ living from fear to living from love

This is the change I am offering you when we work together.