Melissa Taylor

Coaching with me

Results & Goals

My name is Melissa Knight Taylor and I am a fellow human on the long journey of coming home to deep connection with myself, with others, and with life. What I most want for myself is to experience my life and life force with joyful creativity and exuberant acceptance. 

I have had many roles, many stories, many versions of myself. These days, I’m a mom, a partner, a coach, a lover of life and other people. I am passionate and compassionate about boundaries and self-care. I honor the difficulties I have experienced and the strategies that have helped me survive those difficulties. 

I have faith in our collective capacity to transform our suffering into a source of healing and connection. The world is calling us to grow and be together in new ways. I love working with my clients and witnessing new possibilities emerge.  

I am a Transformational Coach and NARM Master Practitioner. I also use principles and methods of Somatic Experiencing®. I have an MA in Marriage and Family Therapy and a BA in Organizational Communication. I live in Sebastopol, California with my husband, our two (not so) little ones, and our pup Ice Bear.

How I like to coach

When you engage in a coaching relationship with me, we will explore what gets in the way of you having the life you most want for yourself.  

Foundational to my work with you is the understanding that all people naturally move toward health, aliveness, and connection to self and others when obstacles are removed.  

These obstacles come in the many forms of suffering and strategies but they have a common origin. They can all be traced to ways we had to adapt to a world (body, family, culture, environment) that didn’t perfectly support our development.

These adaptations were brilliant and unique and they WORKED. You survived. You’re here.

The mistake, and the tragedy, is that we take these adaptations to be who we really are.

The process of disidentifying with these adaptations is what this work is all about. Unfortunately, we can’t think or will our way out of it. These are deeply rooted psychobiological patterns that shift, over time, when we begin to increase our capacity to tolerate and experience our own life force.

When these shifts begin to take hold, you may find yourself amazed at how small you’ve made your life in order to feel safe. You might find yourself unwilling to judge and pressure yourself so harshly.  You may find yourself being less reactive in relationships. You will likely begin to feel a greater sense of ease, fluidity and aliveness.  

Let’s get started…