I didn't choose this work. It chose me.
The hard way.

Hello! I’m Melissa. 👋🏼

For years, I was the woman who handled it all. I was an Executive staffing consultant for the global oil and gas industry, a high-stakes, high-speed, no-room-for-error kind of work. And at the height of my career, my body started sending signals I didn't have language for. Fatigue that sleep couldn't fix. Brain fog so thick I missed deadlines. A nervous system that felt like I was plugged in to a wall outlet. Rage so powerful it caught me by surprise.

I went looking for answers but instead I was handed a diagnosis that wasn't a diagnosis at all: stress. What nobody mentioned was perimenopause. What nobody connected to my symptoms was that my hormones were in freefall and my body was doing exactly what a body in perimenopause does: whatever the hell it wants.

And as I was struggling with symptoms I didn’t understand, the bottom fell out of my life. My 50-something spouse betrayed our marriage, burned my business (and my self-confidence) and cleaned out our bank accounts before vanishing with his new 20-something. That’s the kind of rupture that leaves you standing in the rubble, smack in the throws of midlife and menopause, wondering who the hell you are now.

Because I had lost my business and couldn’t purchase another home, I bought an adorable vintage RV and parked it in the woods next to a river where I could rebuild on my own terms while my nervous system quieted.

There, I pivoted careers. I have an ACE Health Coach certification (2023-2025), an ISSA Menopause Coach certification, a MindBodyGreen peri+menopause certification, a Naturopathic practitioner certification and a culinary diploma from the Art Institute Houston. To pay for my education, I worked with perimenopausal and post-menopausal women in a clinical setting, where I watched the same thing happen to them that had happened to me: symptoms dismissed, overwhelm pathologized, magnesium supplements prescribed. These women were continually being blamed for their stress levels instead of addressing their estrogen levels.

I couldn't stand the gaslighting. So I quit.

And that’s where the real work began: I created Finding My Fierce because women over 40 deserve awareness about their changing bodies and the level of exhaustion that cannot be fixed with self-care. Every hormone-friendly recipe I develop and every blog article I write happens in my 30-foot camper overlooking a river where eagles soar and otters splash.

Finding My Fierce is my personal brand of rebel wellness, named for what it is: a refusal to keep pretending the system is fine when the system is what's breaking us.

Welcome to my blog! I hope you find the answers you are looking for!