Growing up in a household of emotional volatility and dysregulation, I learned early on how to be spiritually strong, read people masterfully, find my own agency, and create my own happiness. It wasn’t easy, and due to the mystery of incarnation, I seemed to also be destined with a different path than my family. I was born with the ability to SEE. To see the truth of things, to see through the bullshit, to see what needed to be illuminated. It was very isolating to exist in a family that I didn’t feel met by. So I turned within and turned towards what was life-giving — nature, dance, photography, water, good friends, and a Buddhist mentor.
Let me clarify, I wasn’t a perfect child. I rebelled against my family’s ways, and I have had my fair share of fighting and ugliness that rears its head with family. Through a lot of hard work, I have (mostly) found my peace with my family, and I have a healthy relationship with them.
As a little girl, I found my own joy by swimming in big Wisconsin lakes, dancing jazz and hip-hop, running around with my unleashed dog following me, and getting my face into every nook and cranny of nature. My fascination with life began with my endless curiosity to understand, explore, and experience the beauty around me and in humanity. That led me to pick up my mom’s 35mm film camera when I was twelve years old, and it didn’t take long before I bought my own camera at the age of fifteen.
Photography was my happy place. I could go outside and get lost in the beauty of a flower, a bee, or a landscape. I perfected my skills through self-study and co-learning with other photographer friends. Ever since then, photography has been one of my paths to helping people connect to the beauty of themselves and the world around them. With over 14 years of professional photography experience, my passion lies in helping people to truly see themselves as a gift to behold, worthy of love and belonging, proud of who they are, in all their shapes and evolutions.
About me
Photos by Bailey Ashlynn Photography
The consistent thread throughout my life has been around wellness, transformation, self-expression, and becoming free. Unsurprisingly, photography wasn’t my only path. At the age of 19, I became a licensed massage therapist and ran a successful business as a private massage therapist for years, until eventually I realized that my heart longed for something more than photography and massage.
At age 22, I moved to Colorado to study psychology at Naropa University, a Buddhist inspired college. That didn’t last long. Turns out, I didn’t actually deem it worth 80K to get an undergraduate degree. I dropped out after one semester. Right about then, I joined a women’s group facilitated by a brilliant life coach and began working with her as my coach. Through our coaching, I discovered that I, too, have a natural gift and passion for coaching. That year, I enrolled and trained at the Co-Active Training Institute (also known as CTI), and I have been a life coach for the last ten years.
I often find myself working with artists, creatives, and visionaries with big hearts who want to create fulfilling and healthy relationships, love and cherish who they are, find their role in creating a more beautiful world, and learn how to trust themselves and their choices. If you fall outside of this categorization, I work with people of all different backgrounds. Trust your gut and what pulls you.
In my coaching and photography, I act as a lighthouse to reconnect you to the joy of being alive and finding your unique place in this world. It is my honor to walk hand in hand with you through the underworld, through the dark, messy bits, all the way through to your own reservoir of inner sunshine. Life is a spiral of ups and downs, falling and getting back up, small changes and big changes, and you are destined to find that inner place of peace and unshakable ground. You are capable of so much.
With love,
Fiona