Finding Your Way
For Women Seeking to Heal, Increase Resilience, and Be More Present In Their Lives
Welcome to Finding Your Way 🍂
Learn everyday ways to soothe your nervous system, increase resilience, and reconnect with yourself through Post-Traumatic Growth coaching and connection.
Your post-traumatic growth is a tender time of renewal.
It’s a time for reclaiming joy, restoring your sense of wholeness, and reconnecting with the beauty in life — parts of yourself you may have lost sight of due to trauma.
Through my own healing journey, I have come to understand the power of a gentle, safe space— a place where you can feel safe, seen, heard and cared about.
With years of experience teaching children and mentoring student teachers and guiding educators, I’ve developed a deep ability to listen with empathy and attune to your unique story. I offer thoughtful, compassionate attention to help you hear your own voice, connect with your inner strengths and values, and find your next steps with confidence.
That’s why I created the Finding Your Way Community 🍂— a calm, supportive space where you can step away from the noise —and feel safe, seen, heard , and cared about. It’s a place to feel held in kindness as you explore your hopes, dreams, and next steps.
Soothe Your Nervous System
Are there times you feel distracted, overwhelmed, or disconnected from the present moment?
These feelings can be signs that unresolved experiences are still held in your body. Maybe you’ve tried countless tools and techniques, yet something still feels off. You want to feel at ease. You want to feel present. You want joy to flow naturally.
Through trauma-informed coaching, you'll learn how to gently regulate your nervous system using evidence-based practices grounded in mindfulness and neuroscience. You’ll also find connection within a supportive community of women.
A warm invitation to join a community of women walking a similar healing path, guided by Esther Brandon’s compassionate, science-based approach.
I support women who are on a growth and healing journey—women who:
Are seeking meaningful connection with others walking a similar path.
Are healing from feeling overwhelmed and unsafe in the world, and there are times the world may not feel safe.
Are learning to release tension and hypervigilance, even as they still face moments of being easily triggered by small everyday situations.
Are beginning to connect more deeply with family, friends, or partners—though, at times, connection can still be challenging or overwhelming.
Are cultivating more compassion for themselves, while continuing to navigate inner critics and times of overwhelm.
Are feeling both the anxiety and excitement of discovering their purpose and taking the next steps on their path.
Who I Serve
What is Trauma? Trauma isn't always about one big, dramatic event. As I learned from Dr. Peter A. Levine — trauma expert and creator of Somatic Experiencing®, a body-centered healing approach — trauma isn’t defined by what happened to us. Rather, it’s about what happened inside us as a result of what happened, especially when we didn’t have an empathic witness to help us process it.
The word trauma comes from the Greek word for wound.
Trauma expert and author Dr. Judith Herman describes trauma as “anything that overwhelms our sensory capacity to adapt to our experience.” In other words, trauma can stem from any experience that feels too much, too fast, or too soon — something we couldn't fully process or integrate at the time.
These unprocessed experiences often stay stored in our bodies and nervous systems, quietly shaping how we feel, react, and relate to the world around us.
With the right resources, your nervous system has an innate ability to heal. Together, we’ll create a safe, compassionate space to gently support your healing, strengthen your resilience, and nourish your growth.
What to Expect in Our Sessions and Groups
Growth and healing take time. They unfold gradually, supported by a sense of safety, small manageable steps, and a soft knowing of when we’re ready to reconnect and begin to repair. Our work together creates space for that process to happen with care.
Blending Mindful Awareness and Science
After a traumatic event or experiences, life can feel tender and overwhelming. The nervous system is often more sensitive — easily triggered, and slow to calm.
Through my own trauma recovery, I learned the powerful impact of blending mindful awareness with science-based practices to restore balance, calm, and increase resilience. This blend is like medicine for the nervous system. When your nervous system is soothed, your body relaxes, your mind becomes clearer, and your whole system— your heart, brain, lungs, and gut shift into a state where healing and growth can take place. In both group and individual sessions, we gently weave together the following practices to nurture healing, resilience, and growth.
Mindfulness, Backed by Science
Mindful awareness is the natural capacity we all have to be aware of the present moment we’re in. Like a muscle, this awareness strengthens with gentle, consistent practice. Even short pauses—just a minute or two— can calm the nervous system, increase clarity, and restore balance. These small mindful moments throughout the day help ground you and build resilience in the face of life’s noise and stress.
Mindfulness can be described as attending on purpose to our moment to moment experience with a non-judgmental, interested, friendly presence. (inspired by Tara Brach)
Self-Compassion Tools
Self-compassion creates a sense of inner safety, making it easier to try new things without being distracted by fear or an inner critic. When we meet ourselves with kindness, we become more resilient and it cultivates our well-being. Self-compassion is not self-indulgence— it’s strength rooted in both gentleness and fierceness— fierce like a mama bear protecting her cubs.
Science-Based Insights and Practices
Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB)
We explore how the mind, body, and relationships can be gently integrated with awareness and care. Integration— the linking of different parts of our inner and outer experience—is a key foundation of health and well-being. It strengthens our capacity to meet both difficult and joyful times with clarity, self-awareness, and resilience. Trauma can create disconnection. Integration helps restore your sense of wholeness.
Polyvagal Theory
You’ll learn about how the nervous system responds to safety and threat— and how physical sensations— like tension, pain, restlessness— relate to those states . At the heart of this system is the vagus nerve, which acts like a communication hub—signaling whether your body engages in calming or protective responses.
What Clients Are Saying
Esther Brandon’s Story
“Mindfulness is about being fully awake in our lives. It is about perceiving the exquisite vividness of each moment. We feel more alive.
We also gain immediate access to our own powerful inner resources for insight, transformation and healing.”
– Jon Kabat Zinn
In the aftermath of trauma—and now, in this tender space of renewal and post-traumatic growth—mindfulness has become a steady guide. These practices have deepened my ability to be present. They gently show me when I’m reacting from old pain and offer me the grace to meet those moments with kindness and awareness.
A simple pause.
An intentional breath.
A soft return to the body.
Like strengthening a muscle, these small yet powerful shifts create more inner space—so I can soothe my nervous system and respond with more ease, clarity, and compassion.
Paying attention with mindfulness doesn't mean we won’t have judgments. It means we don’t judge ourselves for having them. Life brings waves of emotions—some small, others overwhelming. Especially after trauma, our nervous systems can be more sensitive, more easily flooded.
Mindful awareness invites us to turn gently toward those waves—only when we’re ready. Often, they carry important messages. Wisdom waiting to be heard.
There are many ways to cultivate this kind of awareness. But where do we begin? As Rumi reminds us, “What is important is to visit with yourself every day.”
In this season of healing and renewal, I am also physically restoring my ability to walk. Each step is both uncertain and full of strength—a reflection of the life force moving through me. Grief and loss have opened my heart to deeper love, forgiveness, and light you don’t expect to find in the darkness. This journey is not just about recovery, but about reclaiming wholeness—a quiet, courageous return to self.
I look forward to connecting with you.
“The gift of healing trauma is that the woundedness becomes a gateway to freedom, healing and love.”
— Tara Brach
