She Leads Honestly

06/10/2026

For a long time I measured my life against the balance standard.

Whether everything was evenly distributed. Whether I was showing up equally across work, family, relationships, and myself. And no matter what I built or how intentionally I tried to live, that standard had a way of making it feel like not quite enough.

It took me a while to realize the problem wasn't my life. It was the question I was asking about it.

The concept of balance isn't wrong. But the way we've been told to measure it has been quietly making us feel like we're failing at something that was never designed to be achieved.

And I think there's a more honest question to ask instead.
Not: is my time evenly distributed?
But: does the way I'm living actually reflect what matters to me right now?

That's the difference between balance and alignment. And it's a distinction that has changed how I make decisions, how I show up, and honestly how I feel about the life I'm building.

I went deeper on this in my blog: https://www.newgroundwellness.ca/blog/i-havent-given-up-on-balance-ive-just-changed-what-im-measuring

If any of this is landing for you I'd love to know. What does alignment look like in your life right now?

For a long time I thought balance was the goal. Not in an abstract or inspirational way, but in the very real way many women in the helping professions understand it: trying to hold work, clients, family, and self, and still somehow feel like you're doing enough of each thing well. Over the years I'

05/28/2026

Do you feel guilty charging more even though you know you’re good at what you do?

Do you constantly move the goalpost on what feels “enough”?

Have you tied your worth to how much you give, help, or hold for others?

What beliefs about money, success, or visibility are you still carrying that no longer fit the woman you’re becoming?

FREE Money Stories Reflection Guide: https://forms.gle/tmR3B8ATvZreCYK29

05/26/2026

This photo came up recently and reminded me how much I have to be grateful for.

This was taken last year just after Lucinda and I finished recording our first podcast appearance together. And looking at it now I'm still smiling about it.

Side note: appearing on a podcast has been on my vision board for a while. Turns out writing things down actually works. First of many. 😄

Lucinda and I have been in the trenches together building our group practice for years. What started as South Okanagan Counselling has grown and evolved into what is now New Ground Wellness. And honestly, one of the things I'm most grateful for in this whole journey is that we chose each other. Not just as business partners but as people who genuinely show up for one another.

We could have seen each other as competition. Two therapists in the same town, building similar things. But that was never how it felt. It felt like collaboration. Like the work was bigger than either of us alone and better because we were doing it together.

I think about this a lot when it comes to building something in the helping professions. It can feel lonely at times. The pressures, the decisions, the financial weight, the team dynamics. Having someone in the trenches with you who actually gets it changes the whole experience.

That's what I want to talk about more here. The women who get it. The ones who understand the dual identity of being a helper and a business owner. The ones who don't need you to explain why charging feels complicated or why saying no is still hard sometimes. The ones who just know.

Find your people. Build with them. It changes everything.

We sat down with Lisa Catallo on her podcast Empowered to Lead to talk about partnerships that work and building a group practice together. If you're curious about what that actually looks like behind the scenes, go give it a listen. Link in comments.

And if you don't already know Lucinda, go find her on Instagram at .and.become and .newground
She is building something really beautiful in the breathwork space and I couldn't be prouder to call her my partner.

Who is the person in your corner who just gets it? Tag them or tell me about them below. 👇

05/26/2026

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the difference between working in a business versus actually working on it.

When I first started, I wore every hat.
Every call, every problem, every decision somehow came back to me.

At the time, I thought that meant I was committed.
Capable.
Needed.

But eventually I realized something important:

Being involved in everything wasn’t helping my business grow.
It was making me the bottleneck.

One of the biggest shifts in my own growth has been learning how to step back, trust others, build systems, and create a business that doesn’t depend entirely on me to function.

Honestly, that’s still something I’m learning.

This carousel is a reflection on that process. The tension between letting go, leadership, identity, and building something sustainable.

What’s one thing you’re still holding onto because it feels easier to do it yourself?

05/23/2026

05/11/2026

New Ground Wellness Formerly South Okanagan Counselling is once again in the running in Best of Penticton! 🤩

05/08/2026

I almost didn’t post this.

Hair tied back. Hoodie. No script. Just me talking about what it felt like after I shared my money stories post this week.

Because here’s what nobody talks about enough. The self doubt doesn’t only show up before you post. It shows up after too. And honestly that’s when it hits hardest because that’s when you’ve already made yourself open for others to judge and criticize.

Did I share too much? Was I too vulnerable? Who am I to talk about this?

So I made a video about all of that. And then almost didn’t post that either.

Vulnerable about being vulnerable. Ironic, I know.

And then, at 5am this morning, coffee in hand, I heard something on a podcast that felt like it was speaking directly to me. So I’m posting it now.

Ponytail and all.

If you’ve ever talked yourself out of showing up, this one’s for you!

05/06/2026

Something I carried for years without really questioning it.

My duty as a therapist is to serve others. Charging high fees is greedy. And if I actually make good money doing work I love, I've sold out.

We were told in grad school that we weren't in this for the money. And honestly, we weren't. But somewhere along the way that message quietly became: you shouldn't expect to be paid well either. And I absorbed that completely. And when we looked around, that narrative was everywhere. Reinforced by low agency salaries, by colleagues burning out in public service, and by a culture that in my experience quietly sent the message that caring deeply and charging well were somehow in conflict.

So I did what made sense. I set my rate based on what others around me were charging. I didn't want to stand out. I told myself that if so and so down the street was charging $X after ten years of practice, who was I to charge more?

And every time I raised my rates I would hold my breath, sometimes literally, and wait for it all to fall apart.

"THIS is the number that will scare people away."

But here's what actually happened when I finally gave myself permission to charge what I was actually worth. Not based on what everyone else was charging, not based on fear, but based on my experience, my training, and what felt in alignment with my values. More clients came, not fewer. And in my experience they were ready. Invested. Present.

I've since learned there is actually well documented research behind this. It's called the price-quality heuristic, a cognitive shortcut that leads people to associate higher prices with higher quality, particularly when they don't have much other information to go on. Think of it like choosing between two similar bottles of wine with no other context, most people assume the more expensive one is better. I can't say with certainty that's exactly what happened in my situation, but raising my rates seemed to signal something to potential clients about the value of what I was offering.

I don't have it all figured out. I still grapple with my money story and have sought out specific coaches and support to help me work through it. But I've learned that the first step isn't changing what you charge. It's getting honest about the story you've been telling yourself about why you can't. Naming it, questioning it, getting curious about where it actually came from. That's where the shift begins.

If any of this is landing for you, I've put together a free Money Story Reflection Guide, a set of prompts to help you start examining your own beliefs around charging and worth.

Comment MONEY below and I'll send it your way. 👇

And if you know a woman in the helping professions who needs to hear this, a colleague, a friend, someone quietly undercharging and overgiving, I'd love it if you shared this with her. She might need to hear it more than you know. 🙌

05/04/2026