My Story
I’m an explorer at heart — curious, analytical, and endlessly fascinated by what makes us tick. I love hiking with our dog, traveling, and learning everything I can about health, consciousness, and human potential.
I’ve been married to the love of my life for 38 years and am a proud mother and grandmother. Motherhood has been my greatest teacher — a mirror, a challenge, and a profound source of joy. Some lessons came easily; others arrived through heartache and grace. All of them deepened my faith in transformation and the quiet power of love and compassion.
Like many women, I’ve had seasons that cracked me open — personally and professionally. Those moments led me toward the work I do today: helping others navigate change with curiosity, compassion, and resilience.
My Path to Coaching
Before becoming a life coach and board-certified health coach, I spent years in healthcare management — serving on the executive team of an acute-care hospital and leading medical-staff programs that supported collaboration and education. Later, my husband and I built a national commercial construction company that grew to nearly 50 employees. It was rewarding work, but also demanding.
Like many women balancing career and motherhood, I often pushed through exhaustion, juggling deadlines, long nights, and the invisible load of caring for everyone else. Chronic stress became my normal, and over time, I began to see how easily even the most capable, well-intentioned women can lose connection with their own health and energy.
That realization changed everything. My lifelong interest in wellness, psychology, and behavior change eventually led me back to health, this time through the lens of functional medicine and mindbody science. I began to understand how stress, sleep, nutrition, mindset, and relationships communicate with our biology at every level, and how self-compassion, not self-criticism, is what truly restores balance.
Today, I help women 45+ rebuild that same connection to vitality, using science, curiosity, and compassion as the foundation for sustainable change.
What “Rooted in Being” Means
Rooted in Being reflects the foundation of my coaching philosophy: sustainable health begins when we reconnect to our deepest awareness — the calm, steady part of ourselves that exists beneath constant thought and striving. From that place, choices align naturally with what the body and mind truly need. My work helps women return to that grounded state, where change unfolds with clarity and ease.
What I Believe
True change begins with awareness — not willpower. We can’t hate ourselves into healing. Self-compassion is the foundation of growth.
My approach is rooted in curiosity, kindness, and partnership. I don’t tell you what to do; I help you uncover why things feel out of balance and how to create sustainable change that fits your life.
In Joy and Health,
Suzanne
“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time. This expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it...”
Education & Training
M.B.A., St. Mary's College, Moraga, California
B.Sc., San Francisco State University
NBC-HWC, National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach
Certified Functional Nutrition Counselor - 10 month program, Functional Nutrition Alliance (see end of page)
Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach, Functional Medicine Coaching Academy — 12-month certification program developed in collaboration with The Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM). From 2021–2025, I’ve also served as a coach for physicians and healthcare professionals through FMCA’s Coaching Advancement Initiative, an ongoing collaboration with IFM.
Certified Life Coach - 8 month program, Martha Beck International
Certified Myers-Briggs Practitioner - certification program taught by CPP, Inc.
Tiny Habits Certified Coach - 8 week behavior change coaching program created BJ Fogg, Stanford Behavior Scientist, and Linda Fogg-Phillips.
Some of My Additional Training/Coursework
Professional & Advanced Training Programs in Mind Body Medicine - The Center for Mind Body Medicine
Journey of Intrinsic Health - 8 week course with Zach Bush, M.D.
Cultivating Compassion Training - 8 week Stanford University program taught at Spirit Rock Meditation Center
…plus countless meditation retreats and day-longs.
Member, Institute of Coaching, Professional Association - MacLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School Affiliate. (The Institute of Coaching was established in 2009 with the mandate to cultivate the scientific foundation and best practices in coaching.)