Welcome, dear ones. I’m glad you’re here

If you’re here, it’s probably because you want to know more about me. Who am I? What do I do? Why should you trust me?

It can be frightening to embark on a relationship as intimate as personal and business coaching with a stranger. Here’s your chance to get to know me a bit better.

I’m a wife, mama (of 6!), & granny. I’ve held lots of “jobs” in my adult life: a baker, then, at age 20, a real estate agent, a childcare worker, a stay at home mama, a doula, a labor and delivery nurse, a hospice nurse, a writer, a speaker, a coach, a podcaster. For 6 years I was the editor-in-chief of an online women's magazine writing and discussing women’s health, politics, mental health, body image, parenting, marriage, sex, + one time even killer cucumbers.

I’m the oldest daughter of a mentally-ill alcoholic. I never had much of a mother, and then in 2020, the one I did have (in body anyway) took her life. Her death, on the heels of her husband’s suicide two months earlier, wasn’t unexpected, but my feelings about it were.

My lived experiences include:

What I’ve learned I didn’t learn in my university education. What I’ve learned can’t be taught. My life has been wild + wonderful, and at times, destitute and desperate. I am resilient. And so are you.

joni in glasses with flowers behind her head. She is smiling wide.

It took me a little while to get it all figured out. But now I know, all of the struggle, all of the joy, it was all preparation. You’re being prepared too.

I believe that before we come here, we sign a sort of implied contract. We agree to inhabit a body and to experience life in a particular way. I agreed with my creator to do it all, to get on the rollercoaster of life, and STAY on it. I agreed to share those experiences with those who need to know they aren’t alone.

You’re not alone.

joni and raechel ray