a little about my story.
If we haven’t met in person, I’m Michélle, a former attorney who now speaks and writes about Story Work. I’m so glad you are here.
I help women understand how their past shapes their present so they can move toward connection, freedom, and wholeness. My work sits at the intersection of faith, neuroscience, and lived experience.
I did not set out to become a speaker or Story Work guide. This work began in the middle of my own need.
There was a time, particularly in my marriage and parenting, when I could not understand why I kept reacting the way I did, over and over again. Why certain patterns felt stronger than my best intentions. No matter how hard I tried (and I tried really hard!). I loved my people dearly. I wanted to show up differently. And yet something in me felt stuck.
Eventually, I reached the end of myself. The strategies that had helped me survive when I was a child were no longer serving me. In fact, they were beginning to cost me the very connection I longed for. I knew something had to change.
What I needed was not more effort or information. I needed the courage to look back with honesty, and people who were willing to sit with me in it.
Slowly, in safe community, the places I felt most stuck began to untangle.
As I began to experience hope and freedom in my own story, something surprising began to unfold. I had experienced such deep relief in realizing I was not alone and not beyond hope, that there was nothing irreparably wrong with me. I wanted other women to know that too.
I found myself speaking more honestly about my journey, not from a place of having it figured out, but because something real was changing in me. Women began to respond by sharing the struggles in their own stories. And slowly, I found myself sitting with them the way others had once sat with me.
communities that have formed me
I have not done this work alone.
For more than two decades, I have been shaped by communities that take both suffering and redemption seriously.
Hope Heals gave me permission to acknowledge my pain without rushing past it, and to understand that naming our wounds is often the first step toward healing. It also shaped my understanding that joy and sorrow are not opposites but companions, and that our good and hard stories are often the very same stories.
The Center for Being Known has been a place of deep formation through group work, where I have learned to integrate neuroscience and faith in lived, relational ways. It is where I have practiced bringing my whole self into community with honesty and vulnerability.
The Allender Center first introduced me to Story Work more than a decade ago at a Story Workshop, where I experienced the power of telling the truth about my story in community. I believe so deeply in this work that I am now continuing my training in Narrative Focused Trauma Care with them.
The MomCo has been part of my life for over twenty years. When my extended family was thousands of miles away, that community became family to me. It held me in early motherhood and taught me what it means to lead with humility and hope, shaping me first as a young mother, then as a mentor, and now as a board member.
Through Lily of the Valley Endeavor (LoVE) in my native South Africa, I have had the privilege of serving vulnerable children for nearly two decades. That work has reminded me that healing deepens as we step outside of ourselves and participate in the restoration of others.
These communities have not simply influenced my thinking. They have shaped the way I live, the way I lead, and the way I walk with others. I believe we are formed in community, and I gently encourage women to seek and become part of spaces that will form them well.
outisde of speaking and writing…
My family is the place where I am most molded and formed. They see the best of me and the worst of me. I am still living this story with them in real time, practicing repair, humility, and grace.
I was born to European parents and raised in South Africa, a place that shaped my earliest sense of belonging and beauty. I now live in the D.C. Metro area with my husband of almost thirty years and our youngest daughter. Our three older children are grown, and we have recently welcomed a son-in-law into our family.
I have been told I have a knack for finding great Airbnbs, and I carry a deep love for hospitality. I love creating spaces that feel warm and inviting, whether that means decorating a room or gathering people around a table where they feel welcome.
And yes, I believe I still have an accent!
If you are exploring your own story, I would be honored to walk alongside you. My hope is that you will find spaces where your story can be held with honesty, compassion, and hope.