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.

Terri Chaplin

Sitting in my office, at the end of a long day spent helping others navigate their darkest moments of grief, I felt like something was missing. As a grief coach, I had dedicated my life to empowering individuals to heal and find hope in the aftermath of loss or major life change. On this day, I was working with a client whose story was heartbreakingly familiar—a story of loss, pain, and a desperate search for meaning. As I listened to her, offering words of comfort and strategies to cope, a sudden thought struck me out of no where. Read more>>

Joy Miyatake

The moment I discovered yoga therapy from my mentor. He showed me the path to sobriety. It turned me around from living in the darkest days.. I had learned to forgive myself. I wasn’t the addict, I was the trauma survivor! In the moment of my turn around, I feel I moved from the shame and guilt feelings to courage. Knowing that I had accumulated habits that weren’t working for me. Learning new tools of self regulation and deep work to move through pain changed my reality. And even these words aren’t accurate for what I feel now.  Read more>>

Duncan Campling

My defining moment as a stroke survivor was probably during my first day surviving stroke. One sunny 2018 March morning at my home in suburban Philadelphia, I called my manager in Brooklyn, New York, informing him that I urgently needed to take a power-nap, as I had an earth-shattering headache. Phoning my manager was one of the niceties of working from home. As I slowly drifted off, I tried slightly adjusting my position, but I awoke suddenly. To my horror, I realized I was paralyzed head-to-toe, and was only able to blink!  Read more>>

Luis Estrada

I had been a personal trainer for 3 years before Covid hit for the first time. With gyms and health clubs shutting down, I saw a need for people to still stay health focused, and get relief from isolation. I started TeamEstrada online coaching where I would help clients across the country lose fat, build muscle, create healthy lifestyles and habits, but most importantly plug into an online community where they could feel a sense of belonging. Other people just like them across the country going through the same struggles but leaning on each other to keep chasing after goals, have positive support along the way, and never feel alone even through the midst of shut downs! This is where I want from just a trainer, to a physical and mental health coach! Read more>>

Joslyn Farray Pierre

The defining moment in my professional career came from a rock bottom moment of deep scarcity and feelings of not-enoughness. I had moved from my regular fixed-income job and homeland to another island to build my ideal career and business. Unfortunately, it was far from how I imagined it to be and everything around me except my physical health and appearance, appeared to have crumbled. It started with me playing small to be accepted, This was quickly followed by a lower standard of living, and I couldn’t accept that my standard of living had dropped. and my friendships were different. I felt slighted in many ways by my associates and I allowed it to quickly spiral down, leaving me financially broke, and feeling spinless like a worm hurrying away from a shoe that was ready to crush it. Read more>>

Madeleine Dale

My story as a therapist actually begins in the early aughts. When I was in second grade, I learned what a therapist was. I was so taken with this idea that I immediately set up shop in my bedroom, printed actual business cards with the help of my father, and proceeded to pass these around to my classmates. I actually got clients, too. Granted, I hadn’t yet learned the concept of a dual-relationship, or HIPAA requirements, so this wasn’t my most ethical venture. But that year, I solidified something important: My sole purpose on this Earth is to help people. To witness people’s souls, their hearts, their dreams, and their sorrows. What was clear to me as a child couldn’t be any truer to me now. This is my lifelong passion, and my greatest honor. Read more>>

Roy Duprez

A series of events lead to an epiphany of sorts. I have been working with at-risk youth for a long time, and I introduced them to a program we developed. It was an experiential theme as opposed to just doing regular classroom activities for at-risk youth. I felt that many kids learn differently and want something more hands-on. Seeing how much kids benefited from those hands-on experiences taught me that kids need various types of learning, and I applied that approach when developing Back2Basics. Read more>>

Alice Nova

I’ve had several defining moments in my life, but the most recent and most transformational was when I decided to follow my “calling.” At first, I wasn’t exactly sure what that “calling” was, but I simply could no longer ignore this lingering feeling that a key piece was missing from my life. That decision sent me on an incredible journey. I left a well-established corporate career, along with its sense of security, for a path full of unknowns – and plenty of twists and turns along the way. Despite all the uncertainties, it turned out to be the most rewarding journey, filled with self-exploration, travel, new connections, healing, growth, and endless learning. Read more>>

Denise Lamoureux

I owned a restaurant for 26 years. And on the outside it looked like everything was fabulous but inside I was a mess. I Suffered from anxiety and panic attacks and low self-esteem. I began to drink too much Chardonnay. I went off and studied Eastern medicine because nothing in Western medicine could help me at the time this was 1996-2005. One day, the building behind my restaurant, which was my office and my food storage was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. I rebuild the building for zoning with no idea what I was gonna do with it. It became a wellness center, and Healers started coming from all over the world. Read more>>

Tom Lamog

It was my parents who first got me interested in music. Both having grown up in Hawaii in the 1950s, my Dad was a pretty good ukulele player. He would sing with my Mom who I also remember having a beautiful voice when she’d sing to me in my youth. When they discovered how I responded to the sounds of their music, I think this was their cue to get their son (me) enrolled in lessons! Read more>>

Sanja Oropeza

I don’t think I’ve publicly shared this story before, but it was a moment that truly changed the trajectory of my career. I was 26 years old, preparing to transfer into the psychology program at CSULB, when my mother had a life-threatening reaction to a mental health medication prescribed by her doctor. It was an incredibly frightening time for our family, and it made me realize that I didn’t want to be part of a field where such scenarios could be initiated for others. Read more>>

Rossi Dimitrova

My defining moment in my career as a mindset coach, yoga teacher, and energy alchemist was when I chose radical honesty with myself. As humans, we often see what aligns with our preconceptions and conditioning, seeking confirmation of our inadequacies. During my initial Yoga teacher training, a pivotal question was posed to me: “Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?” This question struck a chord, revealing my tendency to cling to perceived flaws rather than embracing freedom. Read more>>

Eric & Monica Bland

One of the defining moments in our life as farmers and becoming mentors ourselves was when we moved to Texas. In 2013, as our family was still growing we started to realize the need for healthier foods and more ways to take care of ourselves within the community and not relying on big businesses to supply everything for us. In the middle of 2014 we had the opportunity to move across the country and begin that transition of truly, becoming more self and community sustaining. We moved from a townhome right outside of Baltimore city, to 10 acres of beautiful land here in Texas. The Lord gave us a home and ability to start increasing our knowledge and skills of how to live from the land he’s given us as well as the community he surrounded us with. Read more>>

Chelsea Roberts

Huntington’s Disease has impacted four generations of my family. When my Mom was diagnosed, after finding out she was at risk when meeting her birth mother, the reality hit that she could have passed on that gene to myself and my siblings. This terrible disease is genetic and is passed down through families from one parent with a positive gene to offspring with a 50-50 chance. I decided I wanted to be tested as soon as possible, which is usually 18 years old, unless you are showing juvenile onset symptoms of Huntington’s Disease. My reasoning behind this huge decision was because I wanted to plan my life accordingly depending on the results; I’m a planner through and through. Read more>>