My Story
Your story and the pain you carry will be met with empathy and understanding. Having healed from my own childhood and religious trauma, I offer a space where you can be heard without judgment and supported at your own pace. As a Level 2 Internal Family Systems (IFS) practitioner and Soul Care (narrative-based) practitioner, I’ve spent the past 15 years helping people find relief from anxiety, depression, and trauma-related patterns.
If you’re wondering what this work feels like, you can listen to a real session at the link below the page.
Looking back, I can now see it clearly-Religious and Childhood trauma didn’t just shape what I believed; it shaped how I experienced myself. Control reached into my thoughts, my emotions, even my sense of identity. I learned to question my instincts, override my feelings, and monitor myself constantly. Anxiety became the baseline—like something was always at risk. And underneath it all was a quiet but relentless belief: I wasn’t enough, or something in me was fundamentally wrong.
I was raised in fundamentalist Christianity, and some of what I experienced felt real and meaningful. I belonged. I was cared for. At times I truly sensed the presence and love of something greater than myself. Those experiences mattered—they were not imagined. But woven into that warmth was a system shaped by fear, control, and power, where love and belonging often felt conditional, and where questioning or doubt carried consequences.
Over time, I began to understand how those contradictions formed what clinicians call trauma bonding—a dynamic where care and threat coexist, binding you to the very system that harms you. Devotion and fear lived side by side. The message of love came with the threat of punishment. Safety came through obedience, not authenticity. And this didn’t just exist in church—it echoed in my family system as well.
My family, like many others, carried unspoken generational pain. We were encouraged to keep that pain private in order to preserve the image of being a “good Christian family.” Appearance mattered more than healing. Childhood trauma went unnamed, while righteousness was performed.
Eventually, I faced a choice: stay and slowly disappear, or leave family patterns and religoious fundamentalism and rebuild. Leaving cost me certainty, relationships, and the world I once knew—but it gave me something I never had before: space to breathe, to reconnect with myself, and to heal. Today, as an Internal Family Systems Level 2 practitioner, I help others untangle those same patterns—so they can reclaim their voice, their worth, and the parts of themselves that were never broken, just buried.
Hear What an IFS 55 min Session Sounds Like
Curious what this work actually feels like?
You’re invited to listen to a sample Internal Family Systems session featuring Nathan Cooley, Director of Deep Water Emotional Health, as a guest on the popular podcast Holistic Health with Melissa Armstrong. This episode offers a real-life glimpse into how IFS gently helps people connect with and heal emotional pain.
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-46-why-trauma-lives-in-the-body-ifs-somatic/id1778991009?i=1000748373617
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2O3Yx0gHxF7bzlj2Dtnq5U?si=LgOONmJ-SdaA0GIlz3ba6Q