MENTAL HEALTH SPEAKER ✦ ADVOCATE ✦ AUTHOR OF ‘A SPARKLING TORNADO’

Through over two decades of “thriving-ish” with bipolar disorder, my mission is to turn struggle into strength  by helping others understand mental illness, embrace movement as medicine, and build workplaces where mental health is supported with compassion and knowledge.

When I published A Sparkling Tornado , A Memoir of Living and Thriving-ish with Bipolar Disorder, I thought my work was done. But it was just beginning. With each speaking engagement and each person who shared their own story with me,  I realized I could reach more people by bringing my experience to a broader stage.

Although my career as a mental health advocate is still unfolding, I spent the decade before giving corporate wellness talks and hosting events as a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and Certified Fitness Instructor. From intimate wellness programs to speaking to over 1,000 people at a national conference and even internationally in Europe,  the stage has always felt like home to me.

But bipolar disorder is a very stress-sensitive illness, and eventually, the pace and pressure took its toll. I stepped back to focus on my own health. Then COVID happened… and instead of speaking, I started writing.

After multiple mental health hospitalizations in my 20’s, I've spent the last three decades learning how to embrace both the darkness and the light. Along the way, I discovered the incredible power that movement has in supporting mental health. I consider myself to be thriving-ish. Never fully out of the woods, but always walking, or pedaling my bike on a sunny path on the edge of those trees .