Every once in a while, something happens that really matters. Something that will define at least the next chapter of your journey – perhaps it’s a conversation with a client, a meeting with a visionary or a major event in your personal life. Below, you’ll find some very insightful folks sharing defining moments from their journeys.

Mytrae Meliana

I was a few months away from getting licensed as a holistic psychotherapist. I was very excited and thought this would be my work for the rest of my life. I hadn’t worked for myself before so it was new territory for me. I consulted with my intern supervisor, teachers in graduate school, and my therapist friends on how to go about that. Read more>>

Lisa Brown

The moment that changed the whole trajectory of my career path happened as a result of a session with a life / abundance coach who I asked to help me define my goals. I had just received a certification in Ayurvedic Medicine, and I anticipated opening my own Ayurvedic practice or working for someone else in a clinic. I wanted to know how to make this a prosperous pursuit. But I soon discovered that my heart and Soul wanted to follow my passion and hobby I has been developing an Animal Communicator. This session gave me the startling AHA moment that encouraged me to TRUST the whispers of my Soul Calling. Read more>>

Kay Baker

Who you are and who you become is not just one defining moment, it’s an accumulation of choices and actions we make up to those moments. My moments started when my father passed away at 60 yrs old while running a local track from a heart attack… I was 23 at the time. It made me spiral into unhealthy life choices that accumulated when I was married in a size 24 dress and over 250lbs. That realization of hitting rock bottom health wise, caused me to one day ask “what would dad say?”, and that began my change to who I am today. Read more>>

Dr. Rose Schlaff, DPT, WHC, IF (

I’ll never forget the moment I was sitting on the floor of my shower, crying, water streaming down my back and shoulders. I had just finished a day at my dream job, I should have been happy but the truth was, I had been struggling with my physical health for some time. Read more>>

Amber Turner

My defining moment happened in 2016 while I was laying in a hospital bed. “You are going to die young if you do not get a hold of your health.” I was there again for issues with my Type II diabetes and my uncontrolled weight gain, I was 28 years old. Although in the moment when I was being told this I knew I needed to change, I just had no clue it would change the whole trajectory of my life and not just my career. Read more>>

Maya Brewer

Learning how to ask for and accept help from others in my field really changed the way I approach new endeavors. My instinct has always been to do everything myself. This was satisfying when it worked out, but navigating roadblocks on my own hindered my growth without me realizing it. Read more>>

Brandon Lirio

I remember I was in the military and deciding if I wanted to continue my career there or move to a different phase in my life. After a great workout on shift, I saw a young Airman really struggling on his deadlift. i went over and spent 30 mins going over proper form and out of that session, his lift went up 30%. As we finished, I felt this immense sense of satisfaction to see him so happy. Read more>>

Kam Horton.

I have been a Healthcare professional for 33 years. I frequented many salons and spas trying to relax and rejuvenate. I felt that after a hard day’s work I deserved to have a quiet space to unwind and enjoy personal services. I went to a local nail salon late after work in hopes of quiet but I had the same experience of loud music, much chatter and toxic smells. I decided on that day that I would create a space where I could go, relax, have natural and non toxic smell as well as services. I set my goal to retire and open Kazi Blooms Read more>>

Chelsey Simoni

One of the most defining moments that opened my eyes to military and veteran-related healthcare issues was during my senior year of nursing school. I was finishing my clinical rotations in a level-one emergency department, meaning it was a heavy trauma flow, in a bigger New England city. Of course, I was older having left the Army recently, so I had that “world-view” advantage. And, being from Boston, I am quite outspoken, not shy at all (also I thank the Army for that). Read more>>

Amy Bizal

After going through my first pregnancy and dealing with some trauma from birth, I knew that I wanted to educated and prepare myself more for the second pregnancy so I began weekly prenatal yoga classes that I drove 30 minutes away to. It was in this class that I experienced a transformation, It was that class that prepared me for the birth and recovery that I was hoping for, and it’s that class that made me realize that I wanted to pay this forward and become a prenatal yoga teacher. Read more>>

Myriam Khouzam.

I worked with youth, homelessness, and employment right out of university. I started to notice how, when people were in crisis, they were completely disconnected from their bodies. I didn’t have the words for it yet, but I saw what I can now say was their nervous system entering sympathetic mode (fight or flight), and, as a means of survival, they couldn’t think or act rationally. They hadn’t taught me that in school. Read more>>

Laurie Greenberg

I worked as a clinical pharmacist for over 20 years, I loved helping people, assisting medical teams of doctors and residents, improving an individual’s overall health care by ensuring that they received the best possible therapy regimen and understood how to properly take the therapies in order for them to feel better and improve their quality of life. Read more>>

Kharlin Miles

Ever since I was a young kid, I had a huge passion and interest in sports and health. I was always playing sports at recess or PE and eating healthy foods like apples and grapes. It was so severe to the point where I once was hurt playing in a game and my mother came to check on me and my response was “where is my apple?” Read more>>

Akaytra Jones.

My defining moment started when I was introduced to the world of energy work and healing. I didn’t know at the time, when I took my first class that it was going to be life changing but it was. I was then working at a bank for about 7 years and also attending school full time to become a forensic scientist. I attend a healing fair and met this amazing woman, who in so many ways reminded me of my grandmother. Read more>>

Kristen Murphy

My defining moment was spread out over a few years but I still refer to it as a defining moment. It really began years ago while working with clients in inpatient Substance Abuse treatment. I have always felt a strong connection to them on a much deeper level than I could explain. While maintaining professional boundaries, I was able to connect with their inner essence. Treating just their mental and emotional needs always felt a bit restrictive because I recognized each one as a soul with a higher purpose in spite of their struggles. Read more>>

Hervé Damas

During my first year or so in Medical School, I started noticing something had changed about my sleep patterns. For the life of me I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t able to fall asleep the way I used to. I began to find myself up til the wee hours of the morning doing absolutely nothing besides struggling to find a way to fall asleep. The insomnia was soon followed by another unusual phenomenon (for me), anxiety. Read more>>

Liz Davis.

I graduated with a degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Friends University in July of 2021. I have been professionally practicing therapy for only 15 months. That said, this first year has been an incredible experience with so many defining, special, intimate moments with so many of my clients. One such defining moments comes to mind right now. In my field, we are careful around the issue of self-disclosure with clients. Read more>>

Andrew Henry

A defining moment, when traveling through the jungles of Nepal, I realized on Elephant back that I truly wanted to help people as often and as much as I could. It was an ah ha moment as my camera bag fell from the top of the elephant onto the jungle floor, and the driver motioned for the elephant to pick up my camera back by it’s top loop, that I realized that it truly takes a village to achieve greatness. Read more>>

Kimberly Berry

Here is my story…… One thing I’ve never done is give up on the things that matter. No matter what life has thrown at me (and trust me, it’s just about everything and the kitchen sink), I have never let go of hope. During the darkest times in my life, when I would look around me and see everyone’s Instagram perfect lives, I let faith be my guide.  Read more>>

Jennifer Gulbrand

Hello Beautiful Souls! Corporate DropOut Gone Goddess here. I spent 21 years owning and operating a sales training business in the life science industry and found tremendous value serving in a leadership role, building and supporting a team’s professional development, and providing best-in-class customer service to our clients. Read more>>

Lauren Levine

I feel like you often hear people say things like “Becoming a parent changed everything”, but for me it truly did change the entire trajectory of my life and my career up to that point. I had been playing music professionally since I was a young teenager, I had released albums and accomplished some bucket list stuff that seemed very important to my goals at the time. I always knew I wanted to be a mom, but I assumed that after a brief hiatus following childbirth that I would return to music. Read more>>

Annie Young

One of my biggest defining moments came at a time when my integrity, ethics, professional knowledge and competence were challenged. I was many years into my career as a Registered Pediatric Dietitian specializing in children with special needs and medically complicated. Read more>>

Siyara Dobbs

When I initially started grad school it was with the intentions of making more money. I had no idea what I wanted to do career wise. I just knew that my BSW was not affording me financial gain or professional development. With that in mind when my daughter started Kindergarten I began the traditional MSW program at North Carolina Central University. Our program required us to have internships our first and second year. Read more>>

India Cook.

Running has not always been a part of my life. When I started running in 2008 I knew that I wanted to run with groups to push myself outside of my comfort zone. I connected with a local run group in Atlanta and at that point, I learned that my drive and leadership were something powerful in the running space as an African American female. Read more>>

Tasha Church

Three years into teaching martial arts, I happen to be enjoying an evening out salsa dancing. I loved to dance and had come to that ballroom for over a year. That night, I was roofied, taken, and had to fight for my life. I remember driving home at 3 am realizing my saving grace wasn’t one of the moves I taught. I instead used a haymaker and hit the guy in the face with a pair of keys. It was a defining moment, realizing that the majority of what I was teaching wouldn’t work while wearing three inch heels and a dress. Read more>>

Sheela Ivlev.

I had a couple of pivotal career-changing moments. The first was when I was working in the corporate world and experienced the loss of a close family member to a preventable illness. I realized how unhappy I was in my career and wanted to do something more meaningful. I had always wanted to be a doctor, so I knew that switching to healthcare would be a good fit and that loss pushed me to make a change. I volunteered with physical and occupational therapists and quickly realized that occupational therapy was for me. Read more>>

Amanda Huggins

Before becoming a coach, I spent nearly a decade in the fast-paced startup world. While at first, I thrived in those high-pressure environments, my career quickly became a place where I could pour all of my energy and identity into. It was the perfect enabler: it allowed me to avoid my underlying and pervasive anxiety. Read more>>

Rosalind Grigger.

I discovered the power of CBD while on vacation in Myrtle Beach, SC, but little did I know that one experience would forever change my life forever! Read more>>

Avital Cohen

When I first decided to become a psychologist, my intended focus was to provide therapy services. However, my first year in my doctorate program I was exposed to cognitive testing and found I really loved it. I took all classes related to assessment that I could and also became a teaching assistant for some of the testing classes. Then on my internship at Brooke Army Medical Center, I was exposed to a specific test called the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule or ADOS while on one of my rotations. Read more>>

Robin Anderson

When I was a teenager I took care of my sick grandmother until she passed away. It meant so much to her for me to help her care for herself and make her comfortable. In fact, she only wanted my help. When I graduated high school I wanted to enter in the medical profession so that I could help people get ahead of the curve with their health and wellness, however, I did what any “good daughter” would do and I took the advice of my parents and entered in to the corporate world. Read more>>

Latoya Sherixe

A defining moment for me was being led to start therapy for the first during a toxic work experience. I was going through a lot personally, as a new first time mom but it was work that tipped the scale for me. As difficult as it was to experience, it helped me seek the help that I needed to start addressing issues in my life, including past relationships. It was a blessing in disguise. Read more>>