About Me
Hi. I’m Linda…
I am an unapologetic (most of the time) renaissance woman, living in a suburb of Dallas, Texas with my husband Eric and my puppy Ursa. I spent the last 10+ years of my life unhooking from patterns of people pleasing and over-achieving that disconnected me from who I truly am.
Which is someone who is endlessly curious, loves exploring new ideas, values the power of feeling deeply, and relishes in the simple pleasures of being alive.
I value leisure time and adore spaciousness in my day. Our societal obsession with productivity and optimization severs us from our bodies, our souls, and our natural rhythms, not to mention from connecting with one another. I no longer wish to collude with those societal forces; something wildly natural and organic calls to my soul.
Who I am and what I love deeply informs how I work with women. Below I have elaborated on a few of the people and practices that have been instrumental to my own journey and how I approach coaching.

My coaching approach
I found my way to coaching in 2013 when I enrolled at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. My initial thought was to become a health coach, but it quickly became clear that my clients were not very interested in talking to me about food. Instead they told me about their jobs, their relationships, and how they felt about their lives, which I also found much more interesting than talking about broccoli!
I completed the Martha Beck Life Coach Training Program, but in reality, I learned the art of coaching experientially through working with my own coach-turned-mentor, wise woman extraordinaire, Lianne Raymond. We worked together bi-weekly for three years and on a less regular cadence thereafter. It was an old school apprenticeship, where I was able to understand through experience what it meant to be held in the calm and confident presence of the grounded feminine.
Qoya is based on the simple idea that through movement we remember that our true essence, like nature, is wise, wild, and free.
Qoya Inspired Movement
In 2015, I found my way not only to Lianne, but also to my first Qoya Inspired Movement class, led by Sara Ballard in Austin, TX. Qoya was unlike any other kind of movement I had previously done. It was deep and meaningful, but also playful and silly. For the first time in my adult life, I began to feel my body, myself, and my life from the inside out. In 2017 I became a certified Qoya Inspired Movement teacher and taught weekly classes in Austin for over 2 years.
Now, I am grateful to be a part of the LORE (Lifestyle of Reverence Everyday) online community, where I am able to take classes from my own home with Qoya founder Rochelle Schieck, as well as other teachers. Qoya is a core practice for me, as I always feel more like myself after taking a class. I also teach occasional classes online and in the Dallas area.
Qoya also deeply influenced the way that I coach. In Qoya, there is nowhere to get to, no end goal to achieve or outcome to engineer. It is also founded on the idea that it doesn’t matter what the movement looks like, but rather, matters more how it feels to the dancer. In class, we explore what feels true for us, moment to moment. Qoya’s focus on the inherent wisdom of the body is something I carry with me into every coaching session.
“Don’t talk about being true to myself until you are sure to what voice you are being true.” – Marion Woodman
The words of wise women
I am a voracious reader and the written words of other wise women have shaped, and continue to shape, my life and my coaching approach. Some of my favorite and most influential books include…
- Anything by Marion Woodman
- Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
- The Heroine’s Journey by Maureen Murdock
- If Women Rose Rooted by Sharon Blackie
- Descent to the Goddess by Silvia Brinton Perera
- In a Different Voice and The Birth of Pleasure by Carol Gilligan
- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
- And though not written by a woman, I also loved Wild Mind by Bill Plotkin
It is my sincere hope that my book Homecoming can be this kind of a soulful resource for another woman.
The beauty, wisdom, and wonder of nature is a continual source of inspiration and replenishment. I also wish to give back to the natural world, showering mama nature with my appreciation and love.
Creating and appreciating beauty
Finally, as a fine art major in college, the beauty and creativity of art speaks to my soul.
When I was younger, I approached my art making from the critical lens that I inherited through my schooling. Art was a potent way to bring to light the fundamental flaws in our society. And it still is.
But these days, I seek to balance that by working with art as praise. Praise of what I love and find beautiful about nature, the body, and the human experience.
My art journey has also been one of loosening up, moving from perfectionism to presence, and from performance to expression. Borrowing the Qoya Inspired Movement philosophy, I am more interested in how the art feels to make than how the finished product looks.

Some other things you should know about me…
I am obsessed with dogs, and my two dogs that I have had as an adult have both been pit bulls or pit bull mixes. I find these creatures to be an alluring mix of strong and sensitive, soft and powerful. My girls continue to guide me as no other human can.
I love trees. Like a lot.
I am a recovering perfectionist and straight A student. My journey now is more about softening into who I truly am, rather than trying to achieve some external benchmark of success or “bettering” myself.
My ideal temperature used to be 82 degrees; now I’d say it is 76.
I love to roll down all the windows in the car, blast the music, and drive with the wind whipping through my hair.
I used to dress up like Gwen Stefani and perform No Doubt’s whole Tragic Kingdom concert in my parent’s living room.
I hate to run, but love to dance and swim.
I love wild places and wild creatures and yards that don’t look super manicured.
I want to experience the breadth and the depth of life, and believe that we are here to feel it all and feel it deeply. The joy and the grief, the love and the heartache, the anger and the exuberance.
