My experience with Stephanie has been transformative. Stephanie is one of the most passionate people I have ever met and it is clear to me that she pours her heart and soul into coaching at Choose YOU First. Not only is she intelligent, talented, driven, and diligent, she genuinely cares about helping her clients achieve joy and happiness to live the most fulfilling life possible.

I began working with Stephanie at a time in my life when I experienced a failed career change at a job that I had dreamed about for over 10 years. This new job, for which I had to move out of state far away from my family and friends and almost re-homed my newly adopted rescue dog for, ended up being a poor fit for me and led me to return to the job that I had originally left for it. I found myself back in the same city that I had grown up in and have lived in my entire life. I felt overcome with feelings of being stuck, trapped, disappointed, and convinced that there has to be more to life.

While these changes were happening in my work life, I was going through turmoil with a family member which changed and retracted the health and support I had always received from my parents. Additionally, the relationship I entered when I was 30 years old fell apart after years of mind games and emotional manipulation. I had thought that this relationship was going to lead to marriage, a home, children, and all of the other perfect “white picket fence” bonuses that are involved with being in love. These things were the primary focus of my life aspirations for years and I wanted them so badly.

When I began Stephanie’s coaching program, I lacked passion in a career field that I had worked SO hard to succeed at, my family dynamics which were always a major source of love and happiness in my life had become strained, and I was utterly heartbroken because I lost the romantic relationship that I thought I would be in forever. While it seemed like EVERYTHING was falling apart, I could not comprehend how or why things were happening the way that they were. How could my life be such a mess when I always tried to do everything right and be the best at everything I did? I grew up being an all-scholastic athlete in high school who always made the honor roll, a collegiate soccer co-captain who graduated Magna Cum Laude, I earned a master’s degree and ran 11 marathons despite a major knee injury, and I have always had so many friends. I asked myself, “How is this happening?”

After struggling for two years and feeling like I had reached the darkest place I have ever been to, I started working with Stephanie. I became awakened to the fact that everything was going wrong because I was living a life that was out of alignment with who I am. Not only that, I had been abusive to myself through my pattern of forcing myself to do things that did not serve me for the sake of gaining achievements. I took on the feelings, stresses, and behaviors of family members which were not mine to own up to, and I sacrificed my values and character to salvage a relationship that never respected me. I would have never realized these things without Stephanie.

Through breath work, unblocking exercises, journaling assignments, meditations, relationship worksheets, one-on-one mind strengthening exercises, verbal coaching, online courses and workshops, and referrals to podcasts and reading materials, Stephanie equipped me with a tool kit that has made me strong and committed to CHOOSING MYSELF. I feel the best that I have felt in a long time in regards to my mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health. Stephanie has helped me reflect on my passions in life as I undergo a career change to a new job that fuels and energizes my soul. She has taught me that loving myself is my number one priority and when my relationship with myself is healthy, anything is possible. I KNOW that this is true and I know that I will never abandon myself again for any job, person, or relationship – ever.

Before working with Stephanie, I had never thought about or learned about the importance of self-love. It was never a concept that was brought up within my family, during years of schooling, or within social circles and extracurricular activities. Stephanie opened my eyes to the fact that I sacrificed over and over again to do things because I thought I had to rather than understanding that it is ok to walk away from things that do not serve me. I betrayed myself to salvage relationships with others, not realizing that this was the catalyst for what made me feel the loneliest I have ever felt. Stephanie has guided me to reach the point that I will never allow ANYTHING to interfere with the relationship that I have with myself.

I highly recommend coaching with Stephanie at Choose YOU First! The inner work that I have been doing with Stephanie and my recognition of my self-deprecating patterns and blocks has truly changed my life. I love myself now more than I have in my entire 34 years of life and I and have become comfortable setting boundaries with others to protect my peace and preserve my integrity. If you enroll in coaching at Choose YOU First, you too will see that anything in life is possible when you get clear on what you want and when you create a strong, loving, and positive relationship with yourself – the most important relationship there is! Stephanie created a program that was tailored to my needs and goals, and without this program, I know that I would not be in the place that I am in now where I know that I DESERVE the life, career, and relationship of my dreams.

Thank you so much, Stephanie!

I was quickly drawn to Stephanie’s personality which is both outgoing and easy to confide in. When I first started working with Stephanie, I was experiencing a lot of transition in my personal life and in my career. I moved to a new city, was away from my family, started a new job and was also in the beginning stages of a divorce. I’m sure most are familiar with the adage that we are our toughest critics.

I was struggling with allowing myself to feel any emotion in the midst of these transitions, and was quick to blame myself if anything went ‘wrong’ or felt difficult. I would fill my schedule with work and my only real coping mechanism at the time was working out excessively. My sleep was suffering, my friendships were suffering and obviously so was my marriage.

I’ve never had the closest relationship with my family, so during this time I began to isolate myself and take on the burden of all that I was going through alone. I stopped focusing on things that were healthy to me, both physically and for my emotional wellbeing.

I let myself be sucked into a downward spiral where I questioned my self-worth and ability to make decisions without ‘answer-shopping,’ or seeking opinions from people who didn’t always have my best interests in mind. I continued in this pattern for over a year until my body finally started experiencing the physical symptoms that come along with stress and fatigue before realizing that I needed a change.

I needed to start focusing on my mental health and wellbeing and prioritizing myself over others. I needed to realize that my purpose was not solely to please everyone or make everyone approve of my decisions or path in life. I needed to realize that I mattered and learn how to love myself again.

Stephanie is really great with the ‘tough love’ concept, and those of you who will have, the privilege to work with her will understand what I mean. She doesn’t sugar coat the truth or the hard concepts that are going to help us grow in our journey. But her delivery method is one that is non-judgmental, caring and absolutely person-focused in a way that genuinely shows she’s invested in our journey. 

Stephanie has walked with me through how to break down the lies I told myself surrounding my self-worth. One of my favorite things she’s told me is when I’ve said to her “Oh, but what do I know?” She always responded with “More than you think!” And she was right.

She helped me realize that the answers were always within myself, I just needed to learn how to access them. Dissecting how to live out my faith in a way that makes sense to me without feeling guilt for not accepting the same worldview as my strict upbringing was hard. I realized that this was possible by just looking inside myself, having confidence in my decisions and for me, continuing along my faith journey knowing that the guilt and shame I was feeling wasn’t coming from God.

Another concept I worked though with Stephanie deals with manifesting our own happiness and joy. There really is something to be said for surrounding yourself with positive influences. You often attract people who are similar to you or going through a similar phase of life. During the year or so when I was depressed, anxious and admittedly not making healthy decisions, those were the people who I seemed to be most attracted to and who found themselves attracted to me. This made pulling myself out of that pattern all the more difficult.

Stephanie and I worked on ways to introduce positive coping skills, hobbies and other influences into my life that changed the trajectory I was on. Again, all while she reiterated that I had the strength to do this all along.

Loving yourself can be hard. Finding self-confidence and inner strength can be hard. While I’ve never struggled with these things much before, the moments can come on fast and strong. Letting yourself feel your emotions, sitting with them, identifying them and making a plan is so important to emotional wellbeing. Stephanie helped me realize that I had the power to do this all along.

I had the inner strength. I had the confidence. I didn’t need to feel the shame or the guilt anymore and that it was absolutely okay to learn how to love myself and then to do so fiercely. Choose YOU First stands for all of these concepts. This business is founded by one of the most selfless, strongest and loving people I’ve had the privilege to meet. I highly recommend working with Stephanie if you are considering it. Her methods are real and produce tangible results. And the best part of it is, you already have all the tools inside yourself. Sometimes we just need that extra push to remember!  

If finding a great connection with the opposite sex would be as easy as my connection was with Stephanie, I would have saved myself a great deal of time. When I was introduced to Stephanie, I immediately knew she was wise beyond her years and that she would be a wonderful fit for me as my new coach.

She never ceases to amaze me as to how intuitive she is when it comes to human behavior (in my experience, especially when it comes to men). She has helped me gain a clearer understanding of my romantic relationships and always leaves me feeling empowered to make the best decision for me. She never tries to put her personal beliefs onto my situation and always shows me several different ways of looking at things.

What I find most helpful is when she shares the possible outcomes of the decisions I’m considering; specifically, how those choices could make me feel moving forward. She reminds me that I need to be comfortable with the decisions I make in the long run and to carefully take the time to really think about things before taking action.

It’s always been important to me to minimize the amount of regrets I have in life, so I’ve always appreciated Stephanie’s reminders to make careful choices, ones that will serve me well moving forward. Stephanie’s personality of being very empathetic, relatable, and caring is what makes working with Stephanie so comfortable. She is non-judgmental and truly cares about women’s lives and their well-being.

She is so invested in empowering women to be their best selves that it feels contagious. It’s as if you want to become part of a club where its members consist of strong, courageous women who continue to work on themselves to grow into the best they can be (their higher self if you will). I would highly recommend any woman to begin coaching with Stephanie at Choose YOU First. It’s time/money well spent to help recommit yourself to nourishing the most important relationship you have, which is of course with yourself.