Every woman in my maternal line and beyond – even aunties by marriage – were nurses, and that was what they expected of me, too. But I just couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t go to nursing school.

But I found my way to being a healer on my own. And it all started in the natural world, which has been my bliss, my source of strength and inspiration since I crawled around in my grandparents’ garden. Swimming in lakes and rivers, building forts with my cousins, gathering flowers to press dry… all brought me home to myself.

My love of the outdoors also ignited my sense of wonder and science mind: How do things work? Why does that plant grow here and not there? This curiosity led me to a degree in Civil Engineering. (For balance and my sanity through engineering school, I also earned a BA in French.)

But something else wasn’t working and this would take me a little longer to figure out…

Food had been my balm and ‘drug of choice’ for decades, which resulted in excess weight, topping out at the end of my freshman year in college at 35 lbs. over my ideal weight. I was miserable inside myself: my self-esteem plummeted as the weight soared.

I’d been a jock-ette all my life: competition tennis, swimming and ski racing, among other activities, but my days working as an engineer left little time to workout or fiddle with my diet. When talk of nutrition and health began hitting mainstream media in the early 1980’s, I began a quest that has never stopped. I wanted to learn how it all worked.

So I set up a program for myself that has become the foundation in my personal and client work: pick one culprit (white sugar, white flour, fat, exercise, water intake) and focus on learning about its health effects while incorporating small changes in my daily life. Living with a pool and track outside my door left no room for excuses to add in some regular fitness activity. I would have loved to have a mentor or a coach, but I mostly found my own way.

What did I discover? One small change led to major body shifts, such as weight loss, overall body toning, intolerance for excess fat, sugar, or salt, along with a bursting sense of accomplishment and empowerment that “I can do this because I did!” I knew I was onto something significant and powerful and that this method could be helpful to others. I kept going with other ‘experiments’ and expanded my “healing toolkit” to include my Reiki Master certification. A few years later, I began studying the French (medically based) model of Aromatherapy and I’ve never stopped learning all I can about healing, which allows me to offer even more to my clients.

And even though the problems I solve are different (digestive complaints instead of road design, for example), I am engineering every day as I help people navigate their way to vibrant health.

Here’s the thing: You want to be healthy, feel vibrant, and stay strong and alert as you age. My commitment is to help you get well, feel well and know exactly what you need to be well as time goes on—and to keep on learning and experimenting as long as I live, sharing with my clients.