about me
Hey there! I'm Anika, and I'm absolutely thrilled to join you on this incredible journey of personal growth and empowerment. As a coach, mentor, and guide, my passion lies in helping individuals like you tap into their inner power, embrace their true selves, and create a life filled with love, joy, and authenticity.
My own journey of self-discovery and transformation has shaped my approach to coaching. I've spent years exploring the depths of personal growth, relationship dynamics, and the intricacies of human sexuality. Through my own experiences, trainings, and certifications, including my work with renowned experts in the field, I've cultivated a unique set of tools and insights to support you on your path.
"I had the privilege of training with Martha Beck, a renowned expert in personal development, whose teachings deeply influenced my understanding and approach to empowering individuals in their personal growth and relationship journeys. Additionally, I was mentored by Lea Newman, further enriching my knowledge and guiding me on the path to becoming an empowered love coach."
But here's the thing - this journey is not about me. It's about YOU. Your dreams, desires, and aspirations matter deeply to me. I am here to create a safe and supportive space for you to explore, heal, and grow. Together, we'll dive into the depths of self-discovery, dismantle limiting beliefs, and unlock your inner power.
I can't wait to be your companion and guide as we navigate the path together. The adventure awaits!
My Story:
Why Eroticism?
His His hazel eyes sparkled under the dismal gray sky that reflected my despair. I risked meeting those eyes and whispered the confession. “Sometimes I think I’m defective in relationships.”
I’d come a long way. I’d arrived into adulthood as a deeply sensitive, small town girl masquerading as romantically impervious and rebellious. I carried a soon to be tossed out moral compass, an avoidant conflict style, and an attitude of hurt or be hurt. May the person who cared less win.
When I finally, and sometimes accidentally, would allow love in, it was an extravaganza of enmeshing and overextending. It felt like trading in my ambition and separateness. It felt like a life sentence of full responsibility for someone else’s well-being and care. Romantic love felt like drowning.
By the time I whispered my confession to my hazel eyed best friend, I’d hard won my capacity to show up in integrity and in compassionate, affirming friendship. I’d faced my codependency (Thanks be unto that talented therapist), learned to repair relationship ruptures, and begun to trust my capacity to make new friends and build community, even through the ebbs and flows of life and relationships. But when it came to romantic love and definitely sexual love, I still felt fucked up.
“Girl, you got a bent antenna!” A friend observed sassily. “Your radar is WAY off. The more red flags you see, the more you barrel towards someone.” I gazed back at them, searching, wondering, if after all this time I was still missing some key ingredient. On some level, did I still believe I deserved the inconsistency and shame spirals? Was I confusing chaos for adventure? Probably.
Transforming an overarching pattern doesn’t happen in a day. Small shifts evolved and multiplied through powerful conversations, long talks with girlfriends, journaling prompts, lessons in screwing it up-- just a little less this time around, and perhaps most importantly, incredible teachers and authors to light the way forward. I began to understand that healthy love was possible. There is a kind of love that expands and empowers rather than shrinks and limits. It’s the kind of love that’s built between two or more people who understand what they need. Each person possesses the capacity and the willingness to show up for the other(s) and contribute to what’s being built together. Healthy love communicates. It listens. It repairs. It practices perspective taking. It’s built over time and it’s invested in. It’s prioritized and it prioritizes the multi-faceted wellness and fulfillment of its givers and recipients. When one plants healthy love, they have MORE energy to give to the whole garden.
Yet the biggest shift in my relationship dynamics came from taking a deep, long intentional look, (or more accurately an entire journey!) into the heart of my sexuality. There at the root lay the judgments I was holding against men, my infatuation with pain, the shame that was sewed into my education about my body and about sex. There lay the fear of letting go, and letting in, and being seen wanting. There in the dungeon of my challenges lay the key to my own palace of ecstasy, connection, exploration, and trusting, expansive love. (And if you prefer a dungeon over a palace, you certainly can have either or both) It unfolded as the heroine's journey, requiring me to stretch my edges, participate fully, and investigate versions of sexuality I hadn’t considered.
At the end of that road stood the boy with hazel eyes, smirking mischievously, fully in love, freshly intrigued, and ready to dive with me. He buckled in for the ride of healthy love and erotic discovery. The journey isn’t over. Transformation doesn’t end in this lifetime. Yet I know the kind of love that uplifts and empowers exists. It is possible.
It has now become my mission to light the way forward for others who may feel broken, stuck, or limited by the version of love or sexuality they’ve believed in or settled for. It’s my wicked delight to unlock doors of possibility for those whose solid relationships have lost some of their lusty creativity and passion. It’s my belief and experience that a healthy relationship with sex and your body strengthens your capacity for healthy, empowering love. A peacefulness with yourself and an unraveling of the past experiences you’ve been carrying open you to letting love in from all directions, from romance, friendship, community, and family. I believe that we are here to experience connection and now is the time. It’s time to remove the barriers that keep you from living and receiving this message: that you are lovable, you are loved, you are capable of love, and you are love.
