The Butterfly Transformation
Five Stages of Becoming
Whether through one-on-one coaching or on the Camino trail, this is the journey we walk together.
Stage 1
The Difficulty
Something has happened. A diagnosis, a loss, a transition, a quiet unraveling you cannot name. You are standing in the middle of something hard, and you know — even if you cannot yet say it — that the life you had before is no longer available to you.
Stage 2
The Surrender
This is the most counterintuitive step. Not giving up — giving in. Allowing the difficulty to be real. Stopping the fight against what is. The caterpillar does not resist the chrysalis; it enters it. Surrender is not weakness. It is the bravest thing you will ever do.
Stage 3
The Chrysalis
Inside the chrysalis, everything dissolves. The caterpillar literally liquefies. This is the sacred container — the space between who you were and who you are becoming. It looks like nothing is happening. Everything is happening.
Stage 4
The Imago Cells
Within the dissolution, imago cells — cells of imagination — begin to appear. At first, the old immune system attacks them. But they persist. They find each other. They begin to build something entirely new. These are the seeds of your transformation, the first whispers of who you are becoming.
Stage 5
The Struggle & Flight
The butterfly must struggle to emerge from the chrysalis. This is not cruelty — it is necessity. The struggle forces fluid into the wings. Without the struggle, the wings are too weak for flight. Your difficulty is not the obstacle to your life. It is the forge of it.
One-on-One
Resilience Coaching
This is not life coaching in the conventional sense. There are no vision boards. No six-step formulas. What I offer is something I learned at the bedside: the practice of honest presence in the face of difficulty, and the tools to transform that difficulty into resilience.
Drawing on my training as a nurse (RN), scientist (MS), and social worker (MSW), I meet you where you are — in the chrysalis, in the struggle, or in the first fragile moments of flight.
Who This Is For
- •People navigating serious illness — their own or a loved one's
- •Those in major life transitions who feel lost between identities
- •Caregivers who have been carrying everyone else and forgotten themselves
- •Anyone who senses they are in the chrysalis and wants a guide for the emergence
Camino de Santiago
The Way
The Walk Is the Work
Camino Pilgrimages
The Camino de Santiago is one of the oldest pilgrimage routes in the world. Walking it with a certified guide who understands the interior journey transforms a beautiful hike into a practice of deep resilience.
On the trail, the butterfly metaphor becomes literal: you shed what you don't need, you walk through weather and uncertainty, and you discover who you are on the other side.
Explore the Camino →