A Personal Note

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After completing my holistic health studies in New York, I launched my health coaching practice and founded Pure-E, a raw, organic green drink delivery company that began to change people’s lives. At the time, I was still transitioning out of a nearly 30-year career as a hairdresser, supporting myself and my son while slowly stepping into the work I loved most... health.

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That transition was interrupted abruptly.

Losing Everything in an Instant

In a single, shocking moment, my career, independence, and sense of stability came to a halt. During an ordinary day at work, I experienced sudden, unbearable burning pain running down my arm, caused by severe cervical spinal stenosis, which compromised the nerves in my neck and arm. What followed was a series of medical interventions and surgeries that left me temporarily immobilized and completely dependent on others.

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This period became an unexpected initiation, one that taught me surrender, have humility, and to learn receive help with grace. It also flared a severe fibromyalgia episode that I had previously put into remission, intensifying my experience of pain and fatigue.

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The Long Road Back

After a major surgery on my spine through the back of my neck, and four months of rehab, further spinal damage required another major surgery, a three-level cervical fusion, followed by yet another surgical repair to my shoulder. Recovery was long and demanding, filled with physical limitations that challenged my identity, patience, and sense of agency in profound ways, while raising a teenage son and preparing him to graduate and go to college. 

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Through it all, I learned something essential: how deeply our sense of self is tied to our bodies, and how vulnerable we become when that relationship is disrupted.

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Turning Pain Into Wisdom

As I was healing from these surgeries, I developed shingles, more painful than they warn us about, and another painful chapter layered onto an already long recovery. Having experienced the toll of opioid medications and withdrawal, I chose a different path this time, enduring the process without them.

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There were moments when I felt flattened by life, exhausted, discouraged, and afraid to rise again. But in the quiet, difficult nights, something else emerged: perspective. I used that time to reflect, to grieve, to rebuild, and ultimately to alchemize pain into wisdom.

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That process reshaped how I work with others.

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Loss, Grief, and Caregiving

Years later, during the isolation of the pandemic, I faced another medical challenge involving surgery on a cyst in  my brain, followed closely by a cascade of personal losses, including the deaths of my father, brother, and many loved ones over a short span of time.

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Soon after, my partner and I relocated to Oregon to be closer to my son, who lives with schizoaffective disorder, so I could better support him. Rear ended three times and physically debilitated again, I wondered about karma but decided not to ascribe meaning that way.Those years stretched me beyond what I believed was my capacity. My health, finances, relationships, confidence, and hope were all tested, some broke entirely and I keep rebuilidng .

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What carried me through was a quiet remembering: beneath everything, there is something indestructible within us.

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Why I Chose Healing

My path into health and healing began long before these later chapters. As a young woman, I lived with ulcerative colitis, endometriosis, severe allergies, fibromyalgia, and chronic pain. I was often dismissed or misunderstood within the medical system and learned early what it feels like to be told your suffering isn’t real.

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Those experiences led me to explore food as medicine, mind-body connection, and eventually Eastern and Western healing traditions. Through years of study, experimentation, and inner work, I learned that symptoms are not enemies, they are messages, like flashing check engine lights on a car.

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True healing came not from fighting my body, but from learning to listen.

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The Work I Offer Today

I believe health is not just the absence of disease, it’s our capacity to respond wisely and compassionately to imbalance. Often, symptoms are not the problem; they are the clue.

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My role is not to “fix” people, but to help them hear themselves more clearly, relate to their bodies with respect, and make changes rooted in self-trust rather than fear.

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I don’t believe the warn out saying that "suffering happens for a reason," but I do believe there is opportunity in what happens, and that opportunity can become a source of strength, meaning, and contribution.

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Walking Together

If your path includes physical challenges, emotional pain, or a longing for deeper alignment, you don’t have to walk it alone. Sometimes what we need most is a guide, and a compassionate witness, to help us take the next step with courage and care.

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If this resonates, I invite you to schedule a complimentary consultation. We can explore whether we’re a good fit and what support might serve you best.

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It would be an honor to walk alongside you.

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Warmest Reflections,
💕Jo-e