ABOUT FINDING RESILIENCE WITH LEANN

For a long time, I thought being stressed and overwhelmed was just part of being a woman, a mother, a partner, a professional. You power through. You make the to-do lists. You juggle the roles. And when your body starts screaming for rest, or your emotions start spilling over, you tell yourself, Just get it together.

MY CHALLENGES

I used to live in a constant state of low-grade stress. My nervous system was always humming, my shoulders tight, my breath shallow, and my mind constantly scanning for what could go wrong next. I was highly functional on the outside—productive, dependable, the one others leaned on. But inside? I felt like I was running on fumes. I didn’t know how to name what I was feeling. I just knew I wasn’t okay.

But here’s what I’ve learned, that most people overlook, about stress and overwhelm: 

• They aren’t just things to manage.
• They are messengers. 
• They show up not because we’re broken or weak or dramatic, but because something within us needs tending.

From Courtrooms to Coaching: My Journey from Legal Professional to Life & Health Coach 

For years, I wore the armor of professionalism in the legal field;  structured, precise, and emotionally guarded. To the outside world, I was successful and grounded. But beneath the surface, I carried unhealed trauma that no amount of logic, productivity, or career achievement could soothe.

Like many women, I was doing what I was “supposed” to do. Pursue a respectable career, provide for myself and my family, and keep pushing forward no matter how exhausted or disconnected I felt. But trauma has a  way of whispering until it screams. Mine finally demanded to be heard.

Why I became a Health Coach and Life Coach and created Finding Resilience with Leann.

In 2020 and 2021, I lived with the daily weight of PTSD, triggered by betrayal trauma from more than two decades earlier. The pain was compounded by a fresh betrayal at work. I disclosed my condition—detailing my symptoms—and requested an accommodation but was denied. After quitting multiple times and returning out of guilt, I finally walked away for good, closing the door on the legal profession I had dedicated 13 years of my life to.  

I was drowning in trauma soup. Brain fog, memory loss, hypervigilance, sleep issues, extreme fatigue, overwhelm, fear, self-doubt, it was terrible. I thought I had lost my resilience, my ability to keep trudging forward through life’s worst moments. It was gone. 

My confidence in my skills and abilities was gone. I had to find a way out of the darkness and back to my light. I later determined that I had experienced a full nervous system crash. My mental health, physical health, and emotional health had all crashed at once leaving me to face the dark night of the soul.

That began to change when I found Brené Brown’s Atlas of the Heart. That book didn’t just give me words—it gave me permission. Permission to feel, to name, and to listen to my emotions without shame or self-judgment. For the first time, I understood that overwhelm is not a failure. It’s not a sign I’m not doing enough—it’s a sign I’ve done too much for too long without enough support or rest.

Reading that book felt like a reckoning. It gave shape and substance to the emotional fog I had been swimming in. Words like anguish, dread, resentment, and disappointment helped me understand the layers beneath my stress response. My body wasn’t betraying me—it was communicating with me.

I set out to understand what was happening to my body and mind—and how I could truly heal. I sought out alternative healing practitioners, explored a variety of holistic modalities, and began asking myself the big, life-shaping questions. I wasn’t interested in a pill, a band-aid, or a quick fix. I wanted real answers. I wanted education. 

The Education That Changed Everything

Healing became my full-time job. I immersed myself in trauma recovery,  somatic healing, and integrative wellness. I trained to become a  Certified Life, and Holistic Health Coach, not just to learn how to help  others, but because I needed those tools for myself first.

I studied:

• Trauma-informed coaching and how the nervous system influences behavior, health, and relationships
• Mind-body integration to reconnect with the wisdom my body had been holding all along
• Stress resilience strategies that actually work, including breathwork, somatics, and nervous system regulation
• Nutrition and holistic health, not as a punishment or control mechanism, but as nourishment and self-respect
• Transformation coaching, which allowed me to move from surviving to thriving—and help others do the same

Each certification, each modality, wasn’t just an academic pursuit; it  was a layer of healing, a reclamation of power, a deeper return to my  true self.

I could re-learn what was missing while learning new skills that could help others reduce their stress, make changes like finding a new career/or calling, leaving a toxic relationship (I did that too), learning how to live a life with purpose. 

I completed my certification as a Certified Health Coach and Life Coach in September of 2022 and became an entrepreneur and business owner. Through self-education and self-discovery, I found my true calling in supporting women in their quest for answers, resilience and personal development.

I’m not perfect at this (no one is), but now when stress creeps in, I pause. I get curious. I ask:

🌀 What am I really feeling?
🌀 What needs are going unmet?
🌀 What boundary is asking to be honored?

Sometimes I need to cry. Sometimes I need to scream into a pillow. Sometimes I just need to rest without guilt. And sometimes, I need to take brave action to change something that no longer fits.