I’m Cara—a coach, educator, and at heart, a deep listener.
Listening has always been how I move through the world. From an early age, I was fascinated by what makes each person uniquely themselves: the particular gifts and ways of seeing that no one else carries in quite the same way. I’ve always wanted people to see in themselves what I could see in them. Alongside that, I’ve always sensed the deeper connection that holds us all.
Over time, that curiosity became a lifelong study of what helps people grow, heal, and become more fully themselves. I spent years studying human behavior, personal growth, spirituality, mindfulness, and the deeper patterns that shape our lives.
I spent nearly twenty years as an analyst after graduating from the University of Virginia. I still love finding patterns, but over time I became most interested in the patterns that shape our lives.
That path led me to become certified as both a Contemplative Enneagram Practitioner and Wayfinder coach. Both shape the way I work today, alongside my experience as a parent, educator, mentor, and coach.
Today, through True Nature Alignment, I work with children, teens, parents, families, and adults who want to know, love, and trust themselves more fully.
A Deeper Exploration
My search for deeper understanding led me into contemplative traditions, mindfulness, body awareness, and the Enneagram.
These practices helped me learn to listen beneath the noise of constant doing and reconnect with a deeper sense of presence and trust.
Nature became an important teacher as well. Being outdoors keeps reminding what belonging, perspective, and humility look like.
Through this journey, I discovered something simple but profound: much of what we seek — clarity, connection, peace, and a sense of our own worth — is already present within us.
Why the Enneagram
Of all the tools I’ve studied, the Enneagram is the one I return to most. Richard Rohr and Center for Action and Contemplation describe it as a tool to uncover our wounds, our wisdom, and our work.
Our wounds are the strategies we built early on to feel safe and loved. Our wisdom is the gift underneath each one. Our work is the path back to who we were before we thought we had to earn our place.
I use it deeply with adults and lightly with kids.
How this shapes my work
This inner shift transformed how I support others.
Today my work centers on helping people reconnect with themselves.
I create a warm, reflective space where people can discover their gifts, recognize their own value, and build trust in their inner wisdom.
Coaching integrates:
Contemplative Enneagram wisdom
Wayfinder Life Coaching
Mindfulness and body awareness
Nature-based reflection
Reflective inquiry and meaningful conversation
Parent, educator, and mentoring experience
My work is welcoming to people from a variety of religious, spiritual, and secular backgrounds.
Children, Families, and Growth
Over time, it became clear that helping children thrive cannot be separated from supporting the adults who care for them.
I believe children are separate, whole people with their own unique strengths, temperaments, and developmental journeys. Supporting them well requires relationships rooted in connection, trust, and understanding.
Kids benefit from having another adult in their corner, someone who isn't their parent, with whom they can be fully themselves and seen for the beauty already there. I try to be that person.
Beyond Coaching
Outside of coaching, you’ll usually find me spending time with my family, walking my dogs, volunteering with children in my community, reading, journaling, or enjoying a game of pickleball.
These rhythms continually remind me of what matters most: connection, presence, and living from the inside out.
On Children
This poem has long shaped how I understand parenting and the sacred trust involved in caring for children.
Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931)
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth…
Excerpted from The Prophet (1923). Public domain.