About Michele

We all have a story to tell and I'm no different.

Born in Philadelphia, PA, my family moved to the suburbs when I was 11. We spent summers at the Jersey shore where my mom and her twin brother owned and ran a Doo-Wop motel by the beach. I grew up with motel customers as friends, a heated (crowded pool), and learning the realities of family business ownership.

My mom was 100% enveloped in running that place, and so we didn't exactly spend quality time together. One thing is for certain--a strong work ethic was instilled in me; probably at the expense of developing other parts of my character, that would thankfully happen eventually.

Health and wellness has been a passion of mine since I was a child, and I don't mean that figuratively. I was 4 years old when I started doing Jane Fonda workout videos with my mom, and stuck with it for years after she quit.

In 7th grade, I found Bodyshaping on ESPN, bought my own hand weights, and followed their workout routines at home.
Shortly thereafter, I created a "Nutrition Newsletter" for my classmates. Later, I signed up for my first gym membership as soon as I was allowed at 16 years old. By the time I was college-aged I had a pile of Muscle & Fitness magazines in my closet about 2 feet high.

I learned whatever I could about being healthy, whenever I could, not knowing at my young age how much all of that information was apt to change on a dime, and most certainly did in the last 30+ years.

Lots of things happened my last year of high school. Inspired once by a movie that centered around a psychiatrist, I decided that I wanted to major in Psychology (never quite connecting any dots between my passion for health & fitness and a career path).

When I got a colorful informational magazine in the mail from Loyola College, MD, depicting the their beautiful Tudor-style Humanities building, I knew immediately this was where I was going. Sure, I applied to two other schools close by (got a full scholarship to one and a partial to the other), but the partial scholarship to Loyola, assisted by more financial aid to meet the difference, was just my path. I had zero question or qualms.

In February that year, we lost my father to complications following brain surgery when I was 17. This was not the outcome we expected. The morning he died, before we got the call, I remember I called out of school sick. Something I literally never did unless I was actually sick. My mom had no problem with my request. A few hours later, the hospital called my mom, "Your husband is a very sick man."

An unusual way to get a family to the hospital without breaking the news over the phone, but he had indeed already passed. That season was hard, but we got through it pretty well. My mom had already built up some pretty thick walls of self-protection and never let herself get overwhelmed by grief. Note, this is not necessarily, and likely not, a good thing, but to me, we accept the situation and we move on, after processing the pain.

My family was insistent I continue as planned and go away for college.

Later that summer, before heading to Loyola, a friend and I had a fun night out at the Wildwood boardwalk. Her boyfriend and friend accompanied. We rode Go Karts. At the end of the cycle, we all pulled up to a stop as directed. Except my friend.

She rammed into my parked go-kart at full speed. I saw her face as she rounded the corner. She was laughing.

These are not bumper cars, guys. I immediately knew something was wrong. We got out of the cars and saw that even her boyfriend, three cars ahead of me, got whiplash. The ride operators never did or said anything, and she continued giggling, not sensing that she'd done something un-smart.

For the next month, I would suffer continuing worsening lower back pain. My mom finally took me to a doctor (after cleaning rooms with an ice pack stuffed into the back of my waistband). Turned out I had a grade II spondylolisthesis--a vertebra that had been pushed forward, now out of alignment with the rest of the spine. It does not reverse itself.

If it didn't ever worsen, I could live with the moderate pain that often turned severe. I wasn't given much guidance and no PT, so over time I learned more and more about how to deal with it, and about anatomy and held trauma in the body.

I pursued my undergrad degree in Psychology, explored my freedom to the fullest extent, and learned about the niche of Health Psychology. I took a course my senior year where I learned about progressive muscle relaxation, biofeedback, and the numerous ways behavior can manifest as good health (or the absence of).

It turns out, my intuition helped my passion directly intersect into my career path. I was so pumped!

I scoured for a post-graduate program in Health Psychology. I found an applied health psych program in Flagstaff, at Northern Arizona University. Again, no qualms crossing the country to pursue my path. When I told my family, my older brother was like, "Awesome! I've always wanted to visit the Grand Canyon and Sedona. Let's go!"

My destiny was sealed after that magical trip.

The two years I spent in Arizona were life-changing and invaluable. Much happened personally, but also professionally. I certainly still had a lot to learn (a LOT). But, I was headed in the right direction. It would be another 25 years before I arrived at my true calling. I knew what direction I was heading and stamped it on my body in the form of a lower back tattoo---the Chinese character for "health". (hey, I was 22)

I returned to PA after graduating, and struggled to find a job that felt like a match to my dreams: I wanted to help heal a community at a large level, but society was not yet there. Instead, I got certified as a personal trainer and worked the front desk at the Hilton while I figured out what other "better" options existed.

A year later I was offered a position as a health educator at Fox Chase Cancer Center--part-time. I was grateful to get my foot in the door of any respected institution at this point, so I gleefully accepted. For that time, my position was a support role in two psychosocial cancer research projects---one for colorectal cancer, and one for melanoma. The study designs were the same: Contact the siblings of cancer patients who are at high risk for the same cancer, and convince them to come in for a screening.

Noble work for a start, and it taught me a lot.

Another year after that, I would be promoted to the project manager of the cancer research projects I was involved in. But after a short time, I realized this wasn't the best fit for me. I couldn't bear being in an office with no windows, under fluorescent lights, looking at a computer screen all day.

No. This wasn't me.

I decided to take another leap: I began applying to personal training positions in local gyms. I had already been training one very dear client for the previous 3 years and loved it. I was ready to take this bull by the horns and go all in. This meant, accepting an entry level position at a gym that was walkable to my apartment at the time, and still working at the Cancer Center until I had enough clients to cut ties completely.

That took about four or five months. And so began the beginning of the rest of my career that I was happy to say, never felt like work.

I'll skip ahead to today, leaving out more than a few details. (some of which may include MANY house moves and even a 7 month stint on an RV with a toddler and a senior dog in 2016)

I'm married 15 years to a Marine Corps veteran who was trained to be an Air Traffic Controller---a job that he was actually good at until the schedule wore him out. We made a couple of bold moves with our two kids and ended up in Virginia, where we are happily settled now for 8 years.

We've been in our current home for a year and a half, and it was coming here, situated above a river, that I learned to really slow down, go inward, and reflect deeply on what I was doing with my life after mothering my babies into pretty independent young kids. I was pretty convinced I had already done my time professionally and that I would be content to garden and homeschool my kids until they left the coop.

However, an unexpected twist of fate at the personal training certification company I had been the blog publisher, exam development coordinator, and next-in-line to run the joint, caused me to leave the job that I had been very comfortable in for about five years, which threw me big time.

The dark night of the soul from which I emerged showed me the important new path ahead:

I have always had the potential to do more than I have been doing with my clients. I stayed in my lane as a personal trainer despite being educated and skilled in more in-depth areas like naturopathy, homeopathy, cognition and health behaviorism, spiritual concepts, etc, always offering suggestions to my clients for their health issues, doing research on their behalf, and of course, modeling the lifestyle that is possible for everyone.

However, I was comfortable being comfortable for far too long, and it was time to go deeper.

I read, and I read, and I read some more.

I developed a daily spiritual practice that took me deeper into my purpose.

I got trained in new modalities.

And here you are seeing the culmination of all that I have always been capable of and more in the manifestation of

Encompass Pathways.