You’re probably reading this because you want to free your mind of the oppressive ideas that you secretly know you’ve internalized
—and you might not even be aware of some of them. Yikes!
Are you a white anti-racist who could use someone to talk to about the challenges arising in your life and work?
Do you want to feel more rooted in a positive sense of culture or heritage as you do this work?
Hi y’all
I’m Michelle. I’m a Social Justice Coach who works with people who feel alone, overwhelmed, or stuck in their work and/or activism.
I help them heal from oppressive conditioning and self-doubt so that they can be their most powerful, connected, change-making selves.
I am certified as a Life, Leadership, & Executive Coach through the Institute for Coaching Excellence, and I hold an A.C.C. credential from the International Coaching Federation.
As a working class white woman from the South, I’ve been consciously unearthing and working through my own experiences, as both oppressed and oppressor, for my entire life. I’ve spent over 20 years doing emotional and somatic anti-oppression work as a peer counselor.
I’ve organized for social change through electoral, non-profit, and direct action work for over 25 years, everywhere from my home state of Texas, to my current home in the Bay Area.
I know how to help people build powerful, connected relationships of solidarity that can withstand the pressures of the reckoning times we are living in, to help bring about the just world we so desperately need.
Some of the experiences that inform my Social Justice Coaching:
Growing up poor and female in the South.
Discovering that I’m a descendant of enslavers and colonizers. Not giving up on loving my family, despite this fact. Working to understand and reach for my “cousins” who don’t believe that racism is a problem.
Supporting women through pregnancy, and deepening into their own power, while serving as doula at over 75 births.
Being in conversation with Grace Lee Boggs and spending four summers learning and practicing Visionary Organizing with the Boggs Center and so many other powerful Detroiters.
Working as a unionized Administrative Assistant and, eventually, as an Operations Director of a disability rights non-profit.
Being transformed, in all the ways, by traveling to Standing Rock as a water protector with my crew in 2016.
Praying at rallies with the families of people lost to police violence as part of Interfaith for Black Lives.
Co-founding Creating Freedom Movements, a school that trains year-long cohorts in social justice leadership, across movements, and across many lines of difference.
Being a queer, feminist kitchen-witch. Living on a 200-year-old farm in Ohio during the pandemic. Adoring the earth. Harboring a not-so-secret desire to (one day!) become a regenerative farmer.
Truthfully, it had never been on my radar to go into coaching. But a powerful fellow white woman I know through movement work asked if I’d be her racial justice coach. She worked in philanthropy and wanted help making strong relationships with other white people as she organized them to move money toward backing BIPOC-led movements. Terrified (but excited), I said yes.
Some years later, that same client is successfully sunsetting her foundation. She's helped guide the spend down towards getting all that money out to amazing grassroots groups that are led by the people most impacted by oppression. She’s heeded the call that’s so often demanded from us with privilege: to redistribute and repair. I am humbled and beyond honored to have been a part of her journey. Supporting work like this satisfies me deeply.
That’s why I now proudly wear the title of “Coach.” Because I love seeing someone come face to face with their own brilliance. And I’m a hell of a cheerleader…
Does this resonate?
If so, I’d love to connect with you. Schedule a consultation below so that we can discuss my offerings to see what might best fit you and where you are on your journey.
