Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Patti Ibanez. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Patti thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s go back in time to when you were an intern or apprentice – what’s an interesting story you can share from that stage of your career?

I’ve only ever had one internship – I was 19 years old and going to film school at Boston University. I was incredibly driven and wanted real world work experience. I found a list of all the production/post production companies in town and cold called each one asking about internship opportunities. One particular company liked my proactive attitude and called me in for a meeting. Though this job was a big deal, I made a micro-decision in that moment that I only wanted the job if I could be myself there. So, I wore my oversized X-Large skateboarding shirt and baggy pants that swallowed my tiny frame as well as a heavy chain necklace and skateboarding shoes. Wearing clothes that made me feel like me and gave me unshakeable confidence. I remember the smirk on the owners’ face and knew I was doing something different. He asked when I could start and I said immediately.

I learned absolutely everything I could in a short period of time. When the editor would take a smoke break, I would sit at his station and teach myself Avid editing software. When the owner was generating invoices, I would sit with him and learn Quickbooks. I would later learn photo editing software, 3d generating software and visual effects software. When I was asked whether I wanted to film B-roll camera for a commercial, I enthusiastically said “Hell Yeah”. There I was on a film set with a full crew of working professionals, dollys, lights and a Bolex 16mm camera in my hands. The gritty footage I captured was later edited into that video game commercial. I wasn’t an intern for long – the company ended up hiring me and I worked there until I graduated.

Though I am no longer in the film business, I learned a few powerful lessons from that experience. I learned the power of versatility, the freedom that comes from not letting anyone put you in a box, and the confidence that emerges when you show up authentically as yourself. It was easy to bring a beginner’s mind to that internship experience because I was a beginner at life, but that mindset is something I hold onto to this day. I wish I could say that I kept that bold spirit throughout my 20-year career in the film business, but the truth is, I lost it at times and in the process, lost myself.

That early version of me is someone I return to now and channel, particularly in the work I do today. I encourage my clients to show up as their full selves in all parts of their life, unapologetically. Whether changing careers, launching a business or reevaluating life’s direction, starting from a place of curiosity and grace can be transformative. Somehow when we get older, it is harder to embrace the discomfort of being new at something. We are expected to have it all figured out, but I guide clients somatically in working with that fear and discomfort so that they can trust they have the capacity to be with whatever comes.

I still find people trying to fit me into a box and just like my young self, I refuse to let that happen anymore. I have felt the pain of what that means and I refuse to go back there. My own journey has taught me the importance of adaptability and that there isn’t a one sized fits all approach to healing. At 19, I led with curiosity, refused to compromise who I was and dove headfirst into learning across discliplines. That same spirit is the foundation of my coaching practice. I work with creatives, artists, single moms and high achievers who are often in some sort of transition and given their drive, they often want to focus on one very specific thing. However, I coach the entire person – body, mind and spirit. I pull from a wide toolkit, which includes creative visualization, somatic practices, inquiry, embodied awareness, internal family systems, inner child work, fascial maneuvers, yoga of intimacy and breathwork. That, along with deep listening and a background that spans creativity, reinvention and real world grit, it feels like my calling to support people in remembering who they are underneath all the noise and conditioning.

Patti, 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 help people come home to themselves and their personal power, through the body, through intuition and through the quiet truths they may have learned to live without, silence or push down. My work lives at the intersection of emotional presence, body-based healing and energetic attunement.

My path into this work is deeply personal. I’ve lived with chronic pain for parts of my life. I’ve also loved and cared for partners who suffered deeply in their own bodies. I’ve moved through significant life events that led me to seek out many different avenues for my own healing and peace. It wasn’t a clear cut decision or a linear path, but rather a journey through many versions of myself, becoming who I am today. Those experiences of navigating physical pain, emotional isolation and the complexity of being in relationship with suffering and chronic pain/illness, has shaped not only who I am, but how I hold space. It has sculpted the way I listen and the presence I offer my clients. Whether or not they live with pain themselves, they come to me when something hurts – physically, emotionally, spiritually – and they’re ready to explore what lies beneath it with curiosity and grace.

Before this work, I was in the film industry for 20 years. For 10 of those years, I had a deep knowing that I wanted to find a more aligned path but I did not know what that could be. I could feel my body whispering, then yelling, that this path no longer fit. I had bought into the belief that I needed to know what I was jumping to before jumping. That kept me stuck for a lot of years. In the end, I just jumped. Without knowing what was next and it turned out to be one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself.

I work with clients both in person and on Zoom for 1:1 coaching sessions that support real, embodied transformation. At the heart of this work lies the power of possibility and choosing differently, to bring long-held dreams into the light and step into a life that feels aligned.

With personalized guidance and support, we embark on a journey together, crafting a path that honors your goals, your truth and your pace. We face the obstacles that arise – the fear, shame, deep-rooted beliefs, and outdated assumptions – we navigate these challenges together. We slow down to move forward. By honing in on your body and nervous system, we build the capability to stay present with the discomfort (and freedom) that growth often brings.

The impact of my coaching lies in my capacity to delve deeply and remain profoundly present to all that arises, actively listening to all that is said and unsaid from a place of non attachment, non judgment and curiosity. I listen with my whole system. I pick up on energy, subtle shifts, stories that are being held in the body and things people often haven’t fully seen themselves. I am privileged to see people – really see them. That moment of being seen in a way that is both safe and spacious can be incredibly healing. It’s often the beginning of real transformation.

What sets me apart is the way I combine intuitive depth with a somatic, body-based approach to growth and healing. Many of my clients come to me after trying “talk-based” solutions that didn’t fully land. My work is more about helping you remember who you already are beneath the conditioning and noise and supporting you in living from that place. I don’t take a cookie-cutter approach. Every session is intuitive, relational and co-created with your unique needs in mind. I meet you where you are, with compassion, curiosity and respect for your pace. My work is really for people who are ready to slow down, listen inward and live from a more grounded embodied place.

If you’re feeling stuck, disconnected, overwhelmed, depressed, I want you to know that you’re not alone AND change is possible. You don’t have to do it alone. In fact, healing doesn’t happen in isolation. We need people, those mirrors in life who can reflect our truth back to us and remind us who we are.

In addition to 1:1 coaching, I offer in-person group somatic movement events in Portland, OR and will be hosting my first retreat in Sedona, Arizona in October 2025.

The movement events are spaces for deep listening, intuitive movement and nervous system restoration. I guide women, femmes and non-binary folks on a deep, personal journey to support them in cultivating a deeper relationship with their body. This is not a class and there is no choreography or performance. I incorporate sound and color healing, body scans, containment, titration, interoception, breathing, visualiation along with curated music or binaural beats to create a rich, restorative experience.

My first retreat, Portal to Becoming, is a multi-day immersion in healing, movement, ritual and body-based connection. This retreat is exclusively for women, femmes and non-binary folks and supports them through the in-between space of becoming. Together, we’ll create the spaciousness needed to listen inward and powerfully step into the next version of ourselves.

I’m deeply passionate about fascia and working with the fascia and trauma. I’ve seen how the body holds what the mind may not be ready to process and how working with the fascia can unlock profound shifts. I continue to study and train in this area through ongoing workshops and practices that keep me in active relationship with my own learning and healing.

I’m most proud of the way I have chosen to live in integrity with myself, especially when it has been scary, uncertain and hurt others. I’m proud of my lion-heart courage, which allowed me to leave situations that no longer were good for me. Most of all, I’m proud of myself in the way I have tended to my own healing. It would be very easy to allow life to harden me, but I remain soft and loving and joyful. It is a conscious decision and it takes effort, but it is one of the ways I live in integrity with myself.

Aside from my professional pursuits, I am deeply passionate about animal welfare, rescue and rehabilitation. I live in Portland, OR with Chunk, my rescue Pittie puppy from Los Angeles.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Being from another country and coming to the US as a young kid, I had it drilled into me that it wasn’t enough to be good – I had to be exceptional at whatever I did. I really internalized this in every arena and excelled for perfection. I remember an assignment at school, which entailed writing an article about chickens. I went home and took my family’s rotisserie chicken dinner, deboned, cleaned and reconstructed it so that it stood upright as if on display at the Natural History museum. And, so of course, it makes sense that after an experience of overachieving at school, I then chose a career where the bar was set unattainably high and not only were you *not* celebrated for your successes, there was always the next ring to reach for. I had to be very mindful and thoughtful about not bringing this ‘striving for perfectionist’ energy into my coaching practice. Over the years, I have really come to learn the toxic nature of perfectionist culture and how it really does not allow for the real genius to show up. Now, I really see the so called failures as some of the most potent learnings and those are often missed when striving for perfectionism. Given that some of my own clients come from perfectionist, people pleasing, codependent backgrounds, I find that what I’m really offering by not striving for that myself is permission. Permission to rest. Permission for things to be ‘good enough’. Permission to turn inward for the answers.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

In our busy world, it is rare to have spaces where someone really listens deeply without wanting to interject something or fix it. It’s very important to me that people feel seen and heard in any space I create, whether a group event, retreat or 1:1 session. Listening like that is a sacred practice for me. It’s not merely listening for the content of what is being said, although that is important. It’s also listening for what is not being said, it’s listening to breath and pacing and what the body is communicating. Sometimes, it looks like leaving lots of space for people to work through their own thoughts. This takes an incredible amount of presence and also an ability to leave ego behind.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.pattiibanez.com/ (UNDER CONSTRUCTION)
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goldenpatticakes/
• Other: https://pattiibanez.substack.com/

Image Credits

Photos by Aubrey Janelle Photography