Meet Jamie...
For most of my life,
I was very good at doing
what was expected of me.
Or at least trying to.
I built a career. Raised a son. Ran businesses.
Helped other people navigate
some of the biggest moments of their lives.
Along the way, I accumulated a long list of things
I thought I “should” be doing, achieving,
fixing, proving, and becoming.
Sound familiar?
Life eventually handed me a very different script.
Divorce. Grief. Loss. Reinvention.
Starting over more times than I care to count.
Each experience stripped away
another layer of certainty
and eventually left me with a question:
If nobody else was writing the script,
what kind of life would I choose for myself?
At sixty, I decided to find out.
I sold most of what I owned,
packed up my life in Pennsylvania,
and moved to Europe.
Not because it was practical.
Not because it was safe.
Because it felt alive.
But A Passionate Life didn't begin
when I moved to Europe.
In many ways, I've been doing this work for decades.
I've spent much of my professional life helping people
navigate the places where relationships, identity,
and transition meet —
helping couples communicate more openly,
individuals understand themselves more deeply,
and families honor some of life's most
meaningful moments.
Through all of it, one thing has remained constant:
People fascinate me.
How we love.
How we change.
How we connect.
How we lose ourselves.
How we find our way back.
I love to travel —
not simply to see places, but to experience them.
The sights, the sounds, the flavors, the people, and
the stories that make somewhere unlike anywhere else.
I will talk to almost anyone about almost anything.
People fascinate me, motivate me and inspire me —
particularly those whose lives and experiences
are nothing like my own.
I'm also the enormously proud mama of one incredibly
extraordinary son, who has spent much of his life
challenging me to think more deeply,
love more generously,
and occasionally reconsider
whether I actually know what I'm talking about.
I have a confession to make...
I have been in a passionate love affair
for the majority of my adult life...
with Wine, Food, Music, & Travel :)
Seriously - they have been among the things that have brought me
the greatest joy, comfort, and connection...
especially during challenging times.
Wine has become one of my favorite teachers.
Not simply because of what's in the glass,
but because of everything it represents.
The vineyard doesn't rush.
Great vintages aren't created overnight.
Complexity takes time. So do people.
A Passionate Life isn't the story of having life figured out.
I certainly don't.
It's about being willing to pay attention
when something in your life asks for more —
more honesty, more connection, more courage,
more meaning, more aliveness.
I've spent decades helping people navigate those moments.
And I'm still navigating my own.
Perhaps that's why this work has always felt
less like telling people how to live —
and more like helping them hear
what their own life is asking of them.
A Little More About
the Work Behind the Work
Author • Speaker • International Workshop & Retreat Leader
Certified Premarital Counselor & Marriage Enrichment Coach
Guest Lecturer
Master Humanist Celebrant
Certified BePeace Facilitator
with training through HeartMath and Nonviolent Communication
Peace Ambassador, Rasur International Foundation
Former President, Heal My Voice Foundation
WSET Level 4 Diploma Candidate • Wine Educator
Co-author of three collections of women's stories:
Fearless Voices: True Stories by Courageous Women
Harmonic Voices: Women on the Path to Peace
Tender Voices: True Stories by Women on a Journey of Love
