You don't need more willpower. You need a better design. I help leaders, teams, and parents notice the patterns running their days and design a steadier way forward.
No shame. No lectures. Just small steps that fit real life.
You don't have to have it all figured out to begin. Come as you are, and we'll find the next small step together.
The pattern beneath the overwhelm
You push through, you say yes until you are empty, and the loudest thought in the room gets the final word. None of it is a decision you consciously make. It is a well-worn neural path being traveled again. Coaching gives you the handles to travel a different one.
About
I fell in love with the brain years ago. Knowing how it worked did not stop me from standing in my kitchen stress eating protein chips after reading yet another book about self-control. Apparently, understanding your habits and changing them are two completely different skills. So I stopped waiting to magically become calm and organized. I started building those things one small, slightly awkward step at a time.
Now I help smart, capable, exhausted humans do the same. No color-coded routine that falls apart the first time someone gets the stomach bug.
My background is in marriage and family therapy, with certifications in neuroscience and neuropsychology. But life has a funny way of ignoring the research. Your brain does not care about the perfect plan when you are running on four hours of sleep and microwaving the same cup of coffee...again.
My husband and I have been married for fifteen years, and we're raising three wildly different humans ages five, ten, and twenty. My kids are also my unpaid research team on what really helps a nervous system settle, and they give me fresh data every day. I’m not the expert on your life. I’m that friend with the map, the good snacks, ready to walk alongside and laugh along the way.
A quick note: coaching is educational and forward-looking. It is not therapy, diagnosis, or crisis care.
The framework
Three simple moves, repeated until they become the new normal. This is how a practiced pattern loosens its grip and a steadier one takes its place.
Bring the automatic into the light. You cannot change what you cannot see, so we start by catching the pattern as it happens: the tightened chest, the spiraling thought, the reflex yes. Naming it creates a sliver of distance, and in that sliver lives your freedom.
Insert a pause between the trigger and the reaction. A slow, extended exhale. A named distortion. A held boundary. Interruption is not force or willpower. It is a small, repeatable move that tells your nervous system it is safe to respond instead of react.
Lay down a truer path and walk it until it holds. What fires together, wires together, so we practice the new response on purpose. Repeated with care, the redesigned pattern becomes the well-worn one, and steadiness becomes second nature.
Why it works
No jargon for its own sake. Just a few ideas from applied neuroscience that make the rest make sense.
The amygdala is a fast threat alarm; the prefrontal cortex is your calm executive. Under stress the alarm takes over and the executive goes quiet. Much of this work is simply keeping the executive engaged.
Every thought and action runs a specific circuit, and repetition strengthens it. Autopilot patterns are just well-practiced pathways, which means deliberate practice is how you shape new ones.
A slow, extended exhale activates the vagus nerve and downshifts the body out of high alert. Calm is not a temperament you were assigned. It is a skill your nervous system can rehearse.
A starter you can use today
The most accessible interrupt you have is your own exhale. When your out-breath is longer than your in-breath, you press a brake pedal your body came equipped with. Here is the whole practice.
Name what is happening, quietly and without judgment. "My chest is tight. The alarm is firing." That is data, not a verdict.
Take five slow breaths. Breathe in for a count of four, then let the exhale stretch longer, a count of six or more. Long, unhurried, all the way out.
Choose your next move on purpose. One truer sentence, one small action, one honest limit. You just authored a response instead of running a reflex.
"I cannot always govern the moment, but I can author my next breath." Christina TaylorWant help making it stick? Book a call
Get the free 90-second reset as a printable PDF, plus occasional small steps for a steadier mind. No spam. No lectures.
What we work on together
These are the leverage points coaching is built around. They are interdependent, and a gain in one usually lifts the others.
Practicing the return to steady, so you respond instead of react.
Designing a rhythm that respects your limits and restores the mind.
Movement as medicine for the brain, small, consistent, not punishing.
Noticing, naming, and gently challenging the distortions that spiral.
Letting the right people close while protecting your mental energy.
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The NeuroDesign Shop
Neuroscience-informed guides you can print at home or read on any device. Every purchase sends 10% to the NeuroDesign Scholarship Fund.
Parenting
Parent-Child Connection Guides
Brain science, words to try, and repair tools for every age, from first cuddles to curfew.
From $12 · All four for $30
Grief
Held in Love
A soft place to hold pregnancy or infant loss, plus a companion guide for the people who love you.
From $12 · Both for $20
ADHD
Designed Differently
Why your ADHD brain gets stuck, where it happens, and simple ways to get moving again.
$15
The fund gives youth navigating foster care or instability the chance to experience coaching. When life keeps changing around them, coaching offers something steady: a place to understand their own brain, name what they are carrying, and choose a clear next step.
A session is $125. I cover half. Your $62.50 covers the rest.
When you shop the guides, you are part of this too.
Every option is available in person in the Charlotte area or virtually. Not sure where to start? That is exactly what the discovery call is for.
A focused session to untangle the thing that keeps looping. You leave with one clear next step.
Four sessions to walk one pattern all the way through Notice, Interrupt, and Redesign, until the new path starts to hold.
Life doesn’t pause between sessions. Your support shouldn’t either. This is a coaching relationship, not a series of appointments. Progress builds instead of starting over.
The same Notice, Interrupt, Redesign framework works for whole teams. I offer workshops, team resets, and one-on-one leadership coaching for organizations that want less burnout and better decisions.
Not sure which fits? You do not have to decide alone.
Book a discovery call →Coaching is educational and is not therapy, diagnosis, or crisis care.
Let's talk
A relaxed, no-pressure conversation about where you feel most on autopilot and whether coaching is the right fit. Pick a time that works for you below.
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