The "About Me" Section. Version 2.0

I've sat in the chair you're sitting in. And I know exactly how exhausting it is to be this self-aware and still feel stuck.

I'm Tara Kanerva — holistic coach, NLP practitioner, former humanitarian worker, ex-doula, mother of three teenagers who somehow still let me hug them, and slave to three cats and one emotionally unstable dog who makes the cats look like paragons of mental health.

I didn't arrive here with a tidy origin story. I spent nearly a decade living and working all over the world, mostly in service of girls and women who deserved more power over their own lives. That work changed me. It also kind of broke something open that I've spent years learning to understand.

I came home. I became a birth coach and doula — sitting with women at the most raw, unfiltered threshold of their lives. That work led me to NLP, which led me to coaching, which led me here: helping women who have given everything to everyone finally turn a little of that intelligence and care back toward themselves.

Academically, I am a bit of an addict — after a few post-grad degrees completed over the years, (not including a recently abandoned PhD — the quitting of which was transformative and one of my greater moments of personal growth!)

My newest area of passionate, powerful attention is going into neurodiversity in coaching, because the mind and body are so much weirder and more wonderful than most models give it credit for.

I'm also closely acquainted with hormonal chaos — I'm looking at you my fellow mid-life ladies! — the kind that makes you question your sanity, your identity, and whether you left the oven on.

I'm excited about how quickly we are starting to learn about women's minds and women's bodies and energetic fluidity and expanding antiquated ideas. We're going great places in this field of growth and healing.

If any of this sounds like your kind of person and you need to re-wire your brain and strengthen your heart — come talk to me, I bet I can help.