My Personal Journey

I was born for Big Change.
Not just to endure it—but to walk through its fires and emerge radiant. And to guide others through their own.

Across four decades, I’ve gathered a lifetime’s worth of experience—professional and deeply personal. I know what it is to lose everything. And I know how to shape that devastating loss into a life of beauty, power, and soul.

In young adulthood, I trained to be a concert pianist. But life had other plans—crippling tendinitis forced me to stop. The physical pain was terrible, but the emotional and spiritual toll of losing my music was even harder. I lost my identity and all my dreams for my future.

But this painful experience ignited my curiosity about adversity and the transformation it can offer. In conversations with others who had endured great challenges, I found two wildly different responses to hardship:

  • Some people shut down, becoming bitter or stuck.

  • Others allow the pain to break them wide open, embracing the unknown and stepping into new, vibrant lives.

I yearned to be in that second group. And so began my journey into psychotherapy and coaching, along with exploring—through global travel and study—how different cultures mark life’s transitions. I founded a nonprofit dedicated to wilderness vision quests for women in midlife.

The Soft Wildness of Women

Vision quests are a passageway to rebirth, transformation, and connection to the earth’s wild rhythms. A powerful opportunity for women to reconnect with their deepest wildness—the authentic, untamed part of themselves often buried under the rubble of familial and cultural conditioning and the demands. Vision quests offer a passageway to rebirth and transformation. They reconnect us to the earth’s wild rhythms—and to the wild within ourselves.

When I founded a nonprofit dedicated to wilderness vision quests for women in midlife, I discovered something profound: Women don’t need “fixing.” They need permission to return to their untamed, original self buried under the rubble of familial and cultural conditioning, “upholstered ruts,” and the demands of everyday life.

Vision quests unleash the full expression of who initiates truly are. Embracing their own wildness—not as something chaotic or destructive—but as a grounded energy that is inherently creative, sensual, and powerful. As presence and power that doesn’t apologize for itself.

For women, this wildness is often repressed, and my work today as a depth coach and therapist is still, 35 years later, about freeing that authentic soft wildness and creative life force, giving it permission to flourish in all its beauty and strength.

Life transitions are unchosen vision quests: they offer an opportunity to navigate a turbulent portal, and emerge into a more authentic and empowered version of yourself, a gorgeous freedom that is yours to claim.

Facilitating Big Change hasn’t “protected” me from trauma and vision quests of my own. I’ve faced lots: marriage, parenting, several autoimmune diseases, cancer, neurodivergent unmasking, the loss of treasured livelihood, divorce and remarriage, the death of parents and several close friends, and the destruction of my beloved childhood home in New Orleans. These challenges have been crucibles for profound transformation. And through it all, I’ve learned to trust deeply in life, spirit, and love.

Creativity: The Heart of My Own Life

When I’m not working I immerse myself in my creative passions—gardening, reading (usually in bed with my cats), traveling, Tai Chi, weaving, and dancing. And, of course,  chocolate (is that a creative passion?).

I have also been a professional classical pianist, painter and fine art photographer, and these creative pursuits are woven deeply into the fabric of who I am. SEE PORTFOLIOS

Creativity is not just what I “do.” It’s how I thrive, and how I meet the inevitable challenges of living on this planet right now. It’s how I speak the truth, praise the ineffable, and stitch myself whole again and again.

I have been a concert pianist, a painter, a photographer, an author. But at the creative core of all this “doing,” I have been a weaver of meaning: of beauty, of the depths of the inner life, of soul.

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The Heart of my Work

At the heart of my work is the knowing that juicy, soulful aliveness is not only possible but inevitable when we step into our full power—embracing all parts of ourselves, the easy as well as the difficult.

My approach is deeply rooted at the crossroads of emotional healing, embodiment, spirituality, and creativity. Spirituality connects us to something greater, creativity helps us express and reclaim our aliveness, and emotional healing allows us to make peace with all that we’ve been through, so we can be “fierce with reality” (Florida Scott Maxwell) and step into our future with confidence.

This work is about remembering who we truly are—not the roles we’ve been assigned, the masks we’ve worn, or the identities we’ve clung to—but the soulful essence that’s always been there, waiting to be fully expressed. When we embrace our true selves, with all the wisdom, light, and shadow that we carry, we become powerful creators of our own lives, and we transform our challenges into a life of meaning, freedom, and joy.

My Professional Background

With 40 years of experience as a psychotherapist, life coach, spiritual counselor, and teacher/workshop facilitator, I have helped thousands of women navigate life’s most profound transitions. My journey has also led me to teach internationally, author several books, and serve as Co-founder and Program Director for a transformative retreat center

Some of my key contributions include:

  • Authoring Four Books: On transformation, spirituality, and personal growth, including Silver Linings (2005) and Exploring the Labyrinth (2001).

  • Leadership at a Retreat Center: As Program Director at Harmony Hill Retreat Center for 10 years, I created and facilitated retreats for spiritual renewal and emotional healing for women with cancer.

  • Founder of the School for Mystics: A learning community for those seeking to deepen their spiritual journey.

Let’s Begin Your Journey

If you’re ready to explore how I can help with your own transition, I’m here.

You can contact me at 206-427-1325 or Melissa@MelissaGayleWest.com . I look forward to connecting with you!