Coming Home Within, My Breakdown & Breakthrough

I have been thinking a lot about this path. Awakening does not happen one way. There is not one single moment when the light breaks through and everything suddenly makes sense. Sometimes it looks like your life slowly cracking open while you follow a pull you cannot explain.

The most important lesson I have learned is that there is not one right path. Once you clear the baggage, the trauma responses, the habits we use to avoid, you begin to express and be guided by your soul purpose. What you truly came here for.

Navigating the Last 5 Years and What I Have Learned Along the Way

My awakening began unfolding between 2005 and 2010, but without a doubt, April 7, 2012 marked a defining turning point. I was in a Transpersonal Psychology class while earning my master’s in Art Therapy with adjunct professors Diane Israel and Rob McNamara. As I sat there listening, something inside me shifted. It felt like an internal witness rose for the first time. A quiet remembering of self.

Around that same time, I was also studying meditation with my teacher Dale. She gave me permission to only study what truly resonated or what I needed to complete for a grade. That single act of permission taught me to trust myself. And that trust led me straight into the moment that changed everything in Diane’s class.

Diane was truly something special. A truth teller. A force of nature. She swore. She spoke openly about death, dreams, and spirituality. She never made herself palatable. She was also a world class runner and triathlete, the author of Joy: Befriending Death, and executive producer of the film Beauty Mark. But beyond titles, what mattered most was how she lived. She gave me permission to be all of me. To swear in the therapy room. To bring my full self into the work. To stop shrinking. To go all in, not only for myself, but for those I am here to serve.

That class opened something inside me that has never closed. I can still feel her spirit rising in me more and more these days.

Diane passed unexpectedly in November 2021, only months after surviving an aggressive female moose attack while hiking. She survived by playing dead, then somehow found the strength to walk miles back to safety without a headlamp. When I heard the story of her death, I looked up the spiritual meaning of the moose. It symbolizes strength, pride, wisdom, and independence. The wise elder who balances solitude and community. That was her exactly. She explored death, dreams, and spirituality without ever shrinking. I owe much of this awakening to witnessing how she moved through the world. Thank you, Diane, for being who you were and for sharing your life with such truth and love.

No Looking Back, I Would Never Be the Same

What was truly happening was the activation of my intuitive senses and a deeper witnessing of self. And in true Amy fashion, I got my first tattoo shortly after, around April 12.

The tattoo was two peacock feathers and an organic shape that later became a peony. The peony symbolizes healing, transformation, love of the divine, and prosperity. Its gradual unfurling represents personal and spiritual growth. The peacock symbolizes beauty, dignity, self confidence, renewal, and immortality through the shedding and regrowth of its feathers. It was a rise. A transformation. An initiation into fully seeing myself.

In true Sagittarius Sun, Leo Rising fashion, this was not a small tattoo. It covered the inside of my entire left forearm. As my friend Ryan drew the design on my arm with red marker, I knew I was standing at a threshold I would never cross back over. There was no going back. It marked the beginning of the Phoenix path and my courage to step into a larger version of myself.

From that moment forward, I followed every desire and curiosity that rose up. Essential oil blending. Aromatherapy. Crystals and mala making. Astrology. Human Design. Gene Keys. Painting and every medium I could find. Resins. Natural botanicals. Vitamins and minerals. Yoga and movement. Whole foods. Plant medicine. Retreats and circles. Books. Podcasts. Classes. Courses. Every breakthrough along the way.

Every single step served a purpose. I do not regret a single one.

This Season Marked My Rebirth, The Phoenix Path

That moment in 2012 felt like a rebirth. I later understood it as an activation of my intuitive senses and remembrance of self. Not long after, I got my first tattoo. Two peacock feathers and a peony.

The peacock symbolizes renewal and confidence. The peony represents healing and prosperity. In true Sagittarius Sun, Leo Rising fashion, that tattoo covered the inside of my entire left forearm. I knew that day I stepped onto a path I could never turn back from.

After that, I followed every curiosity that rose up. Essential oils. Crystals. Mala making. Astrology. Human Design. Gene Keys. Painting. Botanicals. Yoga. Plant medicine. Retreats. Circles. Every step served a purpose.

Visual Storytelling, Art Therapy, and Service

After graduating in 2014, I worked in after school programs, foster care systems, and nonprofit community therapy. In 2015, I founded an art therapy nonprofit offering workshops and one on one therapy.

These were not just jobs. They were initiations. The art cracked me open. The people shaped me. The work carried me into who I am now. Every image has a story. Click on the image to learn about the part the moment played in my awakening.

My Body, My Initiations, and Chiron in Aries Healing

I have lived through physical, mental, and emotional initiations. Surgeries. Loss of people, money, businesses, and love. Broken bones. Illness. Infections. Allergic reactions. Kundalini awakening. Weight gain and loss. Change upon change. So much pain. So many tears.

There were moments I did not think I would make it. And yet, even as a child, I knew I was here for something meaningful. Looking back now, I love this little life. It has held heartbreak and beauty. I feel deep gratitude for all of it.

A huge part of my healing lives in my Chiron in Aries. The wound of identity. The wound of not feeling safe to fully exist as myself. The wound of having to fight for the right to take up space.

This showed up through physical pain, inflammation, surgeries, exhaustion, and cycles of over pushing and self abandoning.

My healing has come through slowing down instead of forcing. Listening to my body instead of overriding it. Choosing rest without guilt. Reclaiming anger as sacred information. Rebuilding trust with my nervous system. Learning that my worth is not earned through suffering. Choosing myself even when it felt uncomfortable.

This healing is ongoing. But it has transformed how I lead, how I love, and how I serve.

2.5 years old, that full belly laugh, i just love it, Cincinnati, OH

My partner in crime, Linds, bringing back that full belly laugh. This season of breakthrough, of finally accepting myself, loving myself without condition, and truly claiming who I am, has been so beautiful. For years I helped others heal, receive, and step into their lives, all while knowing there was still a part of me learning how to do the same.

Now I can say I have received my breakthrough. And though it took time, it arrived quietly. Gently. Little by little, it became the life I am living now. Joshua Tree, 10/2025

Universal Healing, Energy work blend of Reiki and Quantum Healing, 2024

Sweet Angel Luna Moth, Jasper Georgia April, 2024

Alchemy of the Breakthrough and the Call to Rise

This journey gave rise to Alchemy of the Breakthrough. A space where we stop trying to become someone else and finally learn how to become more of who we already are. Where patterns make sense. Where intuition grows louder. Where the body becomes home again.

There comes a moment when intuition speaks before the mind catches up. A quiet knowing. A full body truth that says this is it. Most of us were taught to ignore that voice. To shrink. To stay polite. To blend in.

But we are not here to play small.
We are here to trust our instincts.
To honor what the body feels.
To walk out of rooms that cannot hold our truth.
To stop abandoning ourselves to avoid discomfort.

The more you choose you, the clearer everything becomes. Your intuition sharpens. Your energy settles. Your path opens.

Your Invitation

If something in you is waking up and you are craving clarity, connection, support, or a place to land, you are invited to walk with me through Alchemy of the Breakthrough for deeper inner work and ongoing guidance.

If your body is asking for a full reset after the holidays, our Asheville Gathering in January offers five days of rest, laughter, embodiment, sisterhood, and reconnection.

Choose one, both, or none. It is up to you. You are the expert of you.

Whichever path you choose, your heart already knows it is time to return.

XO, Amy