About


 
 

Hello!

As a Transformational Life Coach, my mission is to guide you to explore, discover and manifest your intrinsic talents so that you will thrive and realize fulfillment. My professional background in mental health, as well as my life experiences, have shown me that a balance of purpose and joy brings lasting satisfaction and overall well-being.

Our work together will be characterized by compassion, collaboration and creativity. In a supportive and welcoming space, you will be encouraged and challenged to achieve your personal and professional goals. 

Why I Coach

When I was an adolescent, my family made a life-changing decision to move from Israel, where I was born and raised, to the U.S.A. The transition was emotionally, relationally and culturally challenging for me. In search of belonging and connection, I was drawn to the theater, a world in which role-flexibility and intimacy are fundamental. Acting gave me ways to adapt and move forward.

As I got older, this led me to two careers, the first as an actor and the second as a licensed creative arts therapist. When performing, I felt the excitement of creative expression, but I longed for a larger purpose. I became drawn to art that pushed beyond aesthetics, changing minds, hearts and perspectives. I decided I wanted to harness the healing power of theater, so I trained as a drama therapist.

For me, being a mental health professional is a privilege and a responsibility. After years of practicing as a therapist, I recognized a familiar need for even more contribution. I wanted to accompany my clients from well, a tremendous personal milestone for many, to extraordinary. So, “What’s next for me and my clients?” I wondered.

Enter – coaching! A way to actively manifest a future that excites you!

When I experienced being coached myself, I learned to harness my positive life experiences and abilities to change how I thought and how I could take action in order to have a happier life. In-between session communication with my coach reminded me to consider new behaviors and thoughts every day. The process helped me follow through with my commitments and engaged my courage to choose calm over fear. Coaching answered the question, '“What can I do to measurably embrace my core values of freedom, serenity and contribution?”  

What kind of life change or accomplishment would take your breath away? Let's start a conversation and make it happen!

My (Body) Story

I am an Israeli-American, Ashkenazi Jewish, cishet woman who grew up between Tel-Aviv and Rehovot, Israeland New York City. My heritage is Polish and Lithuanian and I am a third generation Holocaust survivor. I come from an affluent, blended family background and have lived my life as a straight-size person with chronic health conditions. I’m a healer and helper, a creative person and a highly sensitive person.

I grew up loving the world of dance and drama. In the beginning, dancing and playing pretend felt natural, like pure joy and freedom. When I expressed myself through movement and character I was full of energy and my imagination soared. As my passion and resolve to become an actor developed so did the pressure to “look the part”, that is, to conform to Western ideals of beauty: cis-gendered, able-bodied, white and thin. Hit musicals on Broadway or in Hollywood films reinforced a narrow definition of who could succeed in the industry. Although representation of body sizes, abilities, genders, races and ethnicities have been diversifying in media, film and TV over time, we still have a long way to go.

Performers are especially vulnerable to diet culture because the body is seen as an aesthetic tool to be molded for an artistic purpose. This body shaping includes, but is not limited to, manipulating weight, shape and size. Being prepared to change our bodies for a role is par for the course. Eventually, the thrill of rehearsals and performing became intertwined with an underlying pressure to keep my body thin. Damaging ideas and behaviors about the body such as equating thinness with health and rigorous exercise and dietary regimens were widespread in my artistic community and affected all of us to varying degrees. While I felt the burden of prevailing ideals about appearance, the unearned advantages related to my identity, such as size privilege, also gave me protection. Still, the more professional training and experience I gained the less embodied I felt. 

Embodiment is being able to feel at home in your body. It’s where I had begun my journey and was the very reason I loved dance and theater. I needed to restore meaningful connection to my body and wanted to help others do the same. At that point I decided to go back to school to study drama therapy and to focus my clinical work on eating disorders. And as a professional coach, I continue to support others to rebuild their relationship with food, movement and their physical bodies.

 

Professional Background

 
 
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Education

BFA (NYU - Tisch) – Drama  

MA (NYU - Steinhardt) – Drama Therapy

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License and Registration

New York State Licensed Creative Arts Therapist 

Registered Drama Therapist

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Training and Certification

Certified Body Trust® Specialist (THE CENTER FOR BODY TRUST®)

Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor (Evelyn Tribole MS, RD, CEDRD-S and Elyse Resch MS, RD, CEDRD-S, FAND co-authors of INTUITIVE EATING)

Professional Certified Coach (International Coach Federation)  

Certified Professional Coach (Leadership That Works)

Developmental Transformations Drama Therapy – Level I (Institute for the Arts in Psychotherapy)

Pilates Mat Instructor (CORE Pilates NYC) 

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Professional Memberships

Eating Disorders Association of Maine

International Coach Federation

North American Drama Therapy Association


 
 
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