Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Vande Hey

Hi Michelle, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.

I’ve been Entrepreneurial most of my life and even graduated with an Entrepreneurship and Business Management Degree in May 2007. Something I always found helpful in being Entrepreneurial was personal growth and development. Those were always my favorite books, articles, and speakers to learn from. Throughout my time as an owner of an online supplement store, I would have many people tell me I should be a life coach because of what I would talk about on social media. I mostly always laughed it off.

In October 2018, after my son died in his sleep at 12 weeks old my life fell apart. I didn’t know who I was and became a mom to my living daughter that I hated. After a year of healing and inner work through nutrition, fitness, and talk therapy I asked a close friend of mine, “What should I do now?” She suggested I become a health coach because I was already coaching people, just not getting paid to do it. I was adamant that if people were paying for supplements I shouldn’t get paid for coaching. After discussing it further, I realized that she was right. I should be a health coach.

Soon after taking on a few clients, I realized my clients needed more work with their mindset than what to eat. I wasn’t actively looking for anything, but in January 2020, I came across a Holistic Life Coaching certification. It was hard enough to convince me to become a health coach, I definitely didn’t want to be a life coach, but there was something inside of me that said I should do it. So I did!

It wasn’t long into that certification that I got the message that I should be helping women who had experienced the death of a child. I felt called to do this work. About two years later in the Spring of 2022, the pandemic had been lifting and I was being asked to do more in-person speaking at retreats, conferences, and workshops. Many were for nonprofits serving bereaved parents.

The more people I worked with folks leading nonprofits the more I realized they were suffering too. They were so passionate about their mission that they were putting themselves and their families last. By January 2023 I had decided to shift my focus to helping nonprofit leaders prioritize themselves so they can continue to power their mission.

Since then I’ve started working with leaders AND teams within mission-driven and nonprofit organizations. I am now a certified Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga Facilitator. I use this and other tools in my holistic tool belt to help repair and prevent compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and burnout. I help the people that are helping people.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?

Looking back it doesn’t feel like the challenges were that big, but when I was living through them, they felt huge. One of the biggest challenges was the pandemic. Having all my family at home while I was trying to work was a BIG challenge. It put my relationships with my daughter and husband through a lot again. I’m thankful for therapy and support systems that helped us through.

There have been many times when I felt like I was robbing Peter to pay Paul so I could keep my business open. I have contemplated quitting and getting a full-time job many times. And I don’t mean just thinking about it, I mean putting a resume together and actively looking for jobs. This is more common than you think for small business owners. I know in my heart, it would never work for me. I’m an Entrepreneur. I can’t change that. I will say I do have two very part-time (less than 30 hours a month) consulting type of jobs while I’m growing my business. They give me that base consistent income without distracting me from my business. That has been really helpful for me.

As you can see from my story, I have made many shifts in who I am serving, and that comes with many challenges. People get to know you for one thing and then when you make a shift they forget that you’re not that person anymore. I definitely think this has been a factor in making enough money to keep the lights on.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?

I specialize in working with leaders and teams of mission-driven and nonprofit organizations. I’m becoming more well known for my Trauma Sensitive Yoga. Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) is an adjunctive treatment for Complex Trauma and PTSD. I take the principles of TCTSY and apply it to compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and burnout.

What sets me apart is that I want to help create Trauma Sensitive Workplace Culture not Trauma Informed. Trauma Sensitive goes beyond knowledge. It is an embodiment and a shift in perspective. When individuals within an organization can embody this and see it being modeled by leadership it can change and shift the culture to honoring each individual while also growing the organization. This is how you prioritize yourself AND power your mission. It’s not one or the other. It’s both.

I offer 1:1, group, and team coaching. I also offer TCTSY on it’s own. I love speaking and facilitating about this topic at conferences, retreats and workshops.

What’s next?

I’m planning to bring this idea of a Trauma Sensitive Culture to the world. The more people that can embody and embrace this, the better we will all be collectively. I plan to be speaking at larger conferences and bringing this work into more organizations.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lightoflovecoaching.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michellevandehey/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michelle.vandehey
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkFuUkfdqoOz1hymW1P1nzA

Image Credits

Miriam Bulcher Photography
Kelly Kendall Studios