08/19/2026
I did a thing.
At 59, I posed for a n**e portrait collection called In Shape: A Celebration of Women.
As an Integration Coach, I help women close the gap between how capable they look and how unsettled they feel inside. So when this came up, I knew I couldn't teach self-trust and sit it out.
For most of my life, my relationship with my body was complicated.
Beginning around age five and into my early 20s, I experienced sexual, physical, mental, and emotional abuse. Somewhere along the way, I began believing my body was responsible for what happened to me. I carried shame that was never mine to carry.
My body became something to judge, fix, protect, and sometimes punish. I learned my appearance could earn acceptance and approval, so my worth became tied to what people saw, not who I was.
The hardest work I've ever done was changing the story I believed.
Through deep inner work, including recovery from addiction, I realized my body was the part of me that survived. I began focusing on the who, not the what — my heart, resilience, and how I show up in the world. Slowly, I felt at home in my body because I was becoming at home in myself.
Over the last five years, injuries & diagnosis's have changed my shape, strength, and more. I've slipped into old stories, but I'm learning those changes don't determine my worth. They reflect that I am human, that I have lived, and am still becoming.
As I prepare to enter my 60s, I'm choosing to stop fighting — not for my health, but against my age or imperfections.
That's why modeling for In Shape mattered. It wasn't about being photographed. It was about finally allowing myself to be seen — not for my body, but for the woman who has lived inside it all along.
Today, self-love means the grace I give others. When the old voice returns, I come back to the who, not the what.
For years, I believed my body was where my shame lived.
Today, I know better. This body is where my soul lives.
Tickets are still available for art gallery & celebration of women on Sept 19th in NY. Reserve your ticket here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/in-shape-a-celebration-of-women-tickets-1984813379247
