Hi, I’m Betsi
I have called Alaska home for 15+ years. Through a spicy career that included wilderness guiding, science educating, community organizing, and public relations, I developed a deep passion for the ways we change when we are challenged, when we are inspired, and when we grow in community with others.
I became a life coach to support women to navigate this incredible period of human history. We are waking up rapidly to a new way of being human, but it's not always obvious (or easy) to know what that means. I'm here to help you find the roadmap for your life.
My journey took off nearly ten years ago after I quit my job, moved to the jungle to work with a shaman, and then moved back, disgruntled about not having any new answers. That's when I learned that I could not look outward for answers. Answers need to come from within. They can't come from the cultural norms where I was raised, but they also aren't going to come passively from "the universe." I needed to be an active participant in my life if I wanted to create something meaningful. And that meant actually paying attention to - and following - my inner wisdom.
About my Coaching
I am trained by the Institute for Women-Centered Coaching, with Dr. Claire Zammit. I walk clients through a proven process to truly change at the deepest levels (rather than constantly trying to change and feeling frustrated or depleted). I also teach clients a model for self-coaching going forward, long after the program ends.
I am a specialist in how humans learn and change. My clients transform old mindsets and awaken their power to live out their highest calling. My superpower is creating spaces for deep development and growth. I especially serve people who are feeling called to step into a larger version of their life and impact others with their gifts, but who don’t yet know exactly how to do it.
My expertise is in community-building. Decades of leading groups, in the board room and in the wilderness, have prepared me to deeply understand how to cultivate healthy, productive, supportive group dynamics. I've identified the key inner shifts (mindsets and beliefs) and the key outer shifts (behaviors and skills) to learn and practice in order to develop mutual, empowering, growth-oriented relationships.
In addition, I've spent the last several years becoming an expert in online transformational communities. Using online spaces for growth, connection and transformation is pivotal in leveraging these new technologies for healing, instead of generating more isolation. I didn't think it was possible to have this level of meaningful connection via online at first either, until I experienced it!
My superpower is creating spaces for deep development and growth.
A lot of people think being a Life Coach means giving advice. The truth is, I very rarely -if ever- give my clients advice. In fact, what I do includes:
Helping you get clarity on what you truly want in life and clarity on what's been stopping you from achieving it
Shifting your relationship to yourself, your thoughts and your emotions, so that you become your own partner in achieving what you want (and in getting past those things that were keeping you stuck)
Teaching skills, mindsets, and behaviors that enable you to reach your highest potential
My Journey with Psychedelics & Embodiment
I first studied entheogens (aka naturally occurring psychedelic medicines) in 2010 with Dennis McKenna and Kathleen Harrison. I started having experiences that radically altered my understanding of how life works. I volunteered at a plant medicine retreat center in Peru, bicycled the playa at Burning Man, journeyed under the shaman’s drum, pulled against flesh hooks, and explored wilderness corners of Alaska and around the world. I continue to work with traditional healers for my own growth, and I create retreats for traveling healers to offer their work to select communities.
An important part of “peak experiences” is the integration work. Integration is how we make sense of an experience and how we implement it into our lives.
It took me years to develop the skillsets that supported me to live in alignment with the experiences I was having. During those years I frequently felt isolated, lost, frustrated, broken, and clueless. Nobody was supporting me to process my visions or live in alignment with the true nature of reality. Often the only way I knew to again touch that bliss of true universal Love was to seek another peak experience, whether that was a substance or a wilderness expedition.
Through my journey, I developed a hefty library of texts on psychedelics and psychedelic healing. I’ve done psychedelic integration training workshops at California Institute of Integral Studies; MAPS Psychedelic Science Conference; with Mary Cosimano, lead guide for the Johns Hopkins psilocybin trials; Richard Schwartz, creator of Internal Family Systems, and Sunny Strasburg. Additional influence on my understanding of embodiment and creating health comes from workshops with: Bessel van der Kolk, Peter Levine, Bruce Lipton, Thomas Hubl, Gabor Mate, Otto Scharmer, Richard Strozzi Heckler, Ilan Stephani, Tara Brach, Dan Siegel, Stephen Porges, James Fadiman, Sutra, Cuyamungue Institute, and more.
I have clients who are microdosing, doing Ketamine-assisted therapy, Iboga, Ayahuasca, sacred mushrooms, and other psychedelic retreats & ceremonies. I give my clients support and tools for meaningful, effective integration, without the years of struggle and isolation. My coaching is deeply informed by my journey with psychedelics, and I invite anyone who has this as part of their own journey & experience to reach out.
The Big Picture
We live at a moment in time when radical changes and rapid evolution are urgently needed to save life on Earth and resolve the crisis in humanity. In our most expansive moments, we can touch, see, or feel a new paradigm that is ready to be birthed. Our work is to find our own place within the expansion.
There IS a shift in consciousness happening, and each one of us gets to nurture that shift along within our own life experience. I spent years developing a body of work to support other seekers who are sensing this and who desire to be part of the solution. As more and more individuals take this journey, all of us get closer to success.
One of the first things to let go is the belief you are alone, that you have to figure it out for yourself, or that you can “get there” on your own. True healing means reclaiming our human connection to each other in healthy ways. It’s impossible to create new community by working on yourself all alone! We need peers & mentors.
I’m honored and excited to share my mentorship, coaching, and community with you.
