We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jenna Hardcastle. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jenna below.

Jenna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

What is life, but a bunch of defining moments strung together. I have been in the career of health care for over a decade with 8 of those years being a registered nurse.

Coming from a family of fire fighters I was so proud when I became a nurse (defining moment #1), I had the skills and knowledge to fix the people and problems that my family members would bring through the hospital doors. at least thats what I thought,

My first big job was at Providence medical center. I completed a residency program on an acute care floor and shortly after got trained as a float pool nurse (defining moment #2) and worked in nearly every area within the hospital, from oncology, to cardiac, to orthopedics, to rehab, to IV therapy, to wound care. I did it all, and it was exciting. I thrived in what most people would describe as chaos. I was the help to people through their most voulnerable experiences, life threatening experiences, and I was honered to be that person.

until I burned out. (defining moment #3). I burned out multiple times throughout my career in the hospital. People would come in with diseases that were preventable or reversible and we would patch them up from their crisis, send them back out into the workd and they would come back over and over again. I wondered. Am i really helping people? This thought lingered in the background for years.

then I discovered yoga (defining moment #4). yoga canged my life. it changed how i felt in my body. I felt less back pain, I felt stronger, and even happier. I got trained to become a yoga in structher throgh the 200hr teaching program where I learned the philosophy structure and sequencing of the practice. I wondered why dont they teach this stuff in nursing school? in hospitals? yoga was medicine in my opinion.

fast forward a couple years and I was working at a new hospital Evergreen Health, teaching yoga on the side and I was 7 months pregnant. then boom! pandemic hits. I am a front line nurse working at the epicenter of the COVID 19 pandemic and I am carrying my first unborn child. (defining moment #5) At first the bravery and the feelings of duty were stronger than the fear. but as time went on and I continues to care for others in their most vulnerable and frightening times. supporting patients and their families while simultaneously keeping it together for my baby and family. the world became to heavy for me to carry. I felt hopeless.

and then I discovered nurse coaching. it is a specialty in nursing that helps people make sustainable life changes weather they have a disease or not. (defining moment #6). think registered nurse meets life coaching. all of the skills i had learned as a nurse could be used to actually help people get better and make changes to stay better. It was the first time in my career I felt hope for humanity after i had been burned out and jaded from years in acute care and bing surrounded by trauma. I was a new mom and i had learned to not only prioritize my health and wellbeing through yoga and nurse coaching. I has the skills and credentials to teach others how to do it too. In a world that had a collective trauma of the pandemic and the awareness of how sick we are as a nation. I felt empowered.

While still working in the clinical setting and building my private practice as a coach I am humbled of the challenges that come with entrepreneurship. I have never felt more passionate and called to work like this. I have a decade of western/modern medicine experience under my belt and I continuously explore and learn eastern/alternative healing modalities like yoga, meditation, breathwork, plant medicine, and somatic therapy practices.

These hand full of defining moments bring me to a point in my professional career where I can build something that supports a healthy life for me and my family while helping people truly heal. Today I am a registered nurse and somatic/mental health coach. and I am so proud and grateful. I help people become aware of the habits that are keeping them sick or stuck and support them with tools and actionable ways to improve their life experience.

Jenna, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I got into this work because healing is so much more than managing or treating symptoms. I became a nurse because I wanted to help sick or injured people get better and help them survive. I have transitioned to the coaching role so I can help people get mentally, physically, and emotionally healthy and thrive. I believe that so many of our problems stem from a disregulated nervous system and an unconscious repeat of familiar but unhelpful patterns. I am so proud and honored to offer people a way to uncover the root of a problem and provide them with healthy and accessable tools to feel and experience life differently. I believe our culture and society accepts the covering up or masking symptoms with substances or things and this is not sustainable in my opinion. Your mind and body have magnificant ways to navigate and heal from lifes challegenges, traumas, and sickness. Yous just have to know how to access them.

As an acute care nurse, helping thousands of people on their healing journey, and navigating my own physical and mental health struggles I am so excited an honored to help people find their way to health and happiness.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The concept I had to unlearn what that the goal is always to feel good. In my mind, If I wasnt happy or good, or productive then I wasnt good enough.

Im not sure where thic belief came from but as I have learned over the last handful of years is that its not about feeling good or better; its about getting better at feeling. Growing my capacity to feel the spectrum of feelings unconditionally has been such a wild ride and the greatest gift I have given to myself. As i learn to hold and move through the really unconfortable emotions and sensations such as pain, anger, sadness, and anxiety, I also have more space to feel joy, happiness, peace, love, and contempt.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

Training and knowledge can get you so far. I believe the most helpful attribute to succeeding in this field is the ability to be present and the unshakable desire to keep going. The willingness to be with all the challenges that come with entrepreneuership as well as being with and truely celebrating the successes is so important. We can only help or clients go as deep as we have been willing to go ourselves. This shows up in buisness and in life, and in health.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jennahardcastlecoaching.com/
• Instagram: @jenna.hardcastle.coaching
• Facebook: Jenna Hardcastle