Becs Zelis

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Coaching

My work as a trauma therapist and board certified health coach focused on the impact of illness, life events, and transgenerational trauma on people’s nervous systems. I see no distinction between mental and physical health as the interplay of physical, environmental, emotional, and experiential factors all affect well-being.

As an organizational consultant, I work to identify gaps between mission and practice.

Culture Strategy

As a therapist, I worked successfully 1:1 with clients, then they returned to workplaces, neighborhoods, families, and systems that caused significant distress and mental health symptoms.

People are not the problem — unnecessary harm caused by institutions and environments is the untold story of mental health.

Collective Organizations speaks to some of the ways traditional organizational models have become obsolete in a digital age, and the harm done to individuals by rigid hierarchies.

The foundation of my work as a culture strategist is the human nervous system. As a culture strategist, I help organizations attune what all humans need to get past survival-mode and be able to sustainably thrive, create, and connect.

Caregiving &
Long Haul Illness

I write about the difficulty of belonging in our culture when experiencing struggles related to caregiving and health challenges.

Shame and a sense of failure around chronic illness is often rooted in personal history, family systems and our dominant culture.

We don’t struggle because something is wrong with us, we struggle because we are human.

Creativity

It is a challenge and a privilege to lead a creative life.

I love working with artisans, writers, leaders, and all kinds of folks who make (or hope to make!) choices that support creativity through well-being.

Classes I teach include Neuroscience for Well-being and Living a Creative Life. Both address the critical connection between a healthy nervous system, creativity and sustainable productivity.

Forget thinking outside of the box. Ask who made the box and what purpose it serves.

Somatics

Addressing the human nervous system is a beautiful, transdiagnostic approach to healing and thriving. Training with the Hakomi Institute, Trauma Informed Weightlifting, and IPBN, along with my personal experience of Shen therapy, led me down a road of study and practice related to experiential and embodied healing.

My work as an artist and writer who focuses on human need and belonging, my career as a coach and educator, and my love of adventure sports and weightlifting have coalesced into a new practice; through the lens of interpersonal neurobiology is the promise of healing through embodied experiences within supportive environments and communities.

About

I have a successful history of failures, learning my craft as a vulnerable human navigating broken systems.

MS, MFA, NBC-HWC

My work as a coach is informed by the belief that many of our modern workplaces and systems make it hard for people to thrive. My writing and artwork are focused on building awareness of the impact of these systems, and the need for healing as individuals so we can help create the healthy, equitable, compassionate communities and environments we all deserve.