About me.

I’m not a self-love teacher. I don’t believe in self-love in the way our culture portrays it. It’s too simplified, commodified, and often conflated with self-care, affirmations without embodiment, and what I see is fear of relational healing. I teach the art of self-regard instead — the idea that when we honor ourselves and our whole story without gaslighting ourselves or diminishing our experiences, we can plant the seeds on which self-love can blossom — attuned to who we really are and because of how we show up for others, especially our own children.

Parenting my two children — the youngest a girl, autistic and nonverbal — revealed this truth to me. The lingering ache of my own adverse childhood experiences made me question if I had what it takes to give them love. My daughter called me to interrogate the mother line in my own family and what I might repeat if I was not careful. Her way of experiencing the world called me into a different sort of presence but it also called me to rediscover and nurture my feminine energy.

I realized that self-love, as it’s often taught, what I was chasing all those years so I’d have something to give them, isn’t the first step nor is it fundamental to loving my children. It’s a distraction from shifting patterns — almost an addiction. This work of moving into presence is so much bigger than the Self. It reaches back, digs deep, transforms, redefines, and restores our belief in love itself, removing our blocks to it. On this dharmic path, self-regard has to come first — because loving our children begins with regard for ourselves and our stories so we can hear them see them and honoring who they are.

I serve you as a woman on the same path, a lover of language, a devoted seeker, and a lover of the children of this world who deserve so much more than our superficiality and distracted presence. I write to heal and teach from what I have experienced and learned along the way. Sure, I have a few certifications in coaching, perinatal mental health, yin yoga, meditation, served as a doula and maternal mental health counselor, and a few degrees — with more certifications in process.

But everything I offer you comes from my life experiences and my deeper reflections about love and the world as I inhabit it. I question everything — that’s the Virgo in me — and I seek wisdom. I hope that what I offer resonates and sparks something in you. I do not believe that love alone, or simply loving ourselves, is the answer — unless we understand both what love means to us and the self we are evolving into.

I invite you to join my ecosystem, you will receive my pithy contemplative notes composed of short reflections, topics to investigate, meditations, somewhat of an odd mix; invitations to community gatherings, and announcements about upcoming offerings. My deepest hope is that my somewhat weekly letter inspires you to transform your relationship with love and restore your belief in your capacity to give and receive it.

From my mat to your heart - Danielle