“I thought I was broken. It turns out I’m not.”
— Morena Carter
HOW I GOT HERE
For about a decade, I thought my body was broken.
Rick and I married in 2010, and I assumed I would be pregnant within a month. Three years later, a doctor told me I had unexplained infertility, which is the least satisfying diagnosis there is. It means something is wrong, and nobody can tell you specifically what. Our third round of IVF produced one viable embryo. That embryo is my daughter.
Then in the fall of 2021 it happened again. I was forty-four, and I could not find simple words. My memory had always been ironclad, and it started dropping things. Hot flushes. Sleep I had never once had trouble with. Joint pain in my hands and my knees and sore tendons in my ankles. What I said at the time was that I had suffered a complete loss of confidence, and I did not only mean my body.
I had a panic attack on a walk with my four-year-old. I left my law firm that July.
A few days later, my neighbor asked whether she could ask me a personal question, and then asked whether it might be perimenopause. I did not know what the word meant.
That question started everything in motion.
Every turn after it came from a woman who said something. My neighbor asked. My hair stylist made a call and got me an appointment with the right doctor seven months early. A friend pushed me into a gym I still go to. I did the work. I just would not have known where to start.
I thought I was broken, twice, for about ten years. It turns out I am not. I was in a season, and I did not move through it alone.
You are not alone, and you do not have to suffer, struggle, fail, or succeed on your own.
WHERE I COME FROM
The best part of being a lawyer was never the law. It was sitting with somebody in a hard spot and working through it together.
I come by that honestly. My mother drove neighbors to their appointments and cooked for the women’s shelter. My father would pull the car over on the way home to unclog a storm drain nobody had asked him to fix. No announcement, no audience. Care because it needed doing.
I never expected anybody to do the work for me. I just needed somebody to tell me where to look.
WHY JUNEBERRY
When I turned our yard into a haven for birds and pollinators, the first thing I planted was a serviceberry. A juneberry. It blooms early, before most other plants have bothered to show up. It grows in hard ground. By June, it feeds and nourishes more birds than the easy berries beside it.
That felt right.
WHAT IT’S LIKE TO WORK WITH ME
The first session is an hour. We build your wellness vision, figure out where you actually are, and set some goals if you decide to.
After that, we meet for 30 or 45 minutes, usually weekly.
You set the goals. I don’t set them for you, and I don’t diagnose, treat, or cure anything.
Your goal can be small. It can be “spend ten minutes looking up gyms near me and write down the numbers.” That counts. What matters is that it’s your goal.
If a goal didn’t work, we don’t relitigate it. We look at what happened, and we decide what to do with it. Tweak it a lot, tweak it a little, shift focus, or leave it exactly where it is.
With your permission, I’ll tell you what I know when it’s useful. If you don’t want it, I’ll keep it in my back pocket.
I don’t sell supplements. I don’t sell anything. I offer expertise.
If I am not the right fit for you, I will tell you and offer to point you to somebody who is. I am building a referral network for exactly that reason.
WHAT I TRAINED FOR
Anybody on the planet can call themselves a health and wellness coach. There is no license for it. The National Board certification is an exception. You complete an approved training program, log 50 coaching sessions before you can sit for the exam, and then pass it. It is rigorous. That is why I chose it.
I am also a licensed massage therapist in Ohio [license 33.028162] and a certified personal trainer.
Have Questions? Let's Talk
Send me a quick note and I’ll get back within one business day.