Today we’d like to introduce you to Brittney Emerson.
Hi Brittney, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today?
Like many people, I lived through a cycle of repetitive trauma from childhood into adulthood. Pick your flavor—I walked through it.
While I can’t say any of those experiences are things a person would choose, life has been gracious in the way it has allowed me to use them. Each experience has given me a deeper ability to relate to a wide range of people and life circumstances. It has taught me how to create trust and safety in the work I do and, perhaps most importantly, how to sit with someone without judgment.
There is something powerful about being able to look at someone and say, “I see you. There is no judgment here. I’ve walked a version of that road too. I understand the feelings, the emotions, and those places where you feel completely stuck. You’ve got this—and I’m here alongside you while you figure out your next step.”
At 23, I moved from near Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington, where I spent the next 20 years immersed in my own healing and in learning about the mind, the nervous system, trauma, and human behavior. At the same time, I was living the very real trial and error of learning how to heal my own trauma and change the belief systems I had carried with me.
Those 20 years were not picture-perfect, but they became the building blocks for everything I do today.
Along the way, I led recovery groups, spoke at events, worked in domestic violence shelters, facilitated groups for solo parents, ran businesses, worked in the nonprofit sector, and worked one-on-one with people from virtually every walk of life. I was also fortunate to be mentored by CEOs of some of the country’s leading humanitarian nonprofit organizations.
After some significant life changes, I began reflecting on what was next. For decades, people had continually pointed me toward becoming a trauma therapist or a pastor. But when I really sat with it, I realized what I wanted to do was help people move forward. I wanted to care for people, encourage them, and remind them that no matter what they had come through—or how stuck they felt—there was a way to build something new.
So I decided to take a chance and become a certified life coach. I thought, “Let’s see if this fits.”
Then I started seeing what happened when people had a safe place to work through the things that were holding them back. The feedback and the breakthroughs became so pronounced that I knew I had found my path.
In many ways, it felt like a full-circle moment. Life had taken some of my greatest heartaches and transformed them into a way for me to love people right where they are, believe in them, and help them see the possibility and genius that already exists within them.
Over the past year, I also began feeling that life was pulling me away from Seattle so I could do this work more fully. I especially love walking and outdoor sessions with clients because movement can be such a powerful part of getting out of our heads and reconnecting with our bodies. Seattle’s rain can make that a little challenging!
So I started asking, “Where am I supposed to go?”
Over and over, San Diego kept appearing. Different people, different conversations, same answer: San Diego.
I had never been here. I didn’t know anyone. I knew almost nothing about the city. But eventually, I decided to listen.
I had a family meeting with my two kids, who were in junior high and high school, and asked what they thought about trying something completely new. They were on board.
So I packed up our house, loaded a U-Haul, and drove to San Diego without knowing a soul.
I can’t say every moment has been easy, but I can say that San Diego became home the moment we arrived. I’ve been overwhelmed by the incredible people life has brought into my path here and by the privilege of working with them and witnessing their breakthroughs.
This isn’t always easy work, but it is a gift to walk alongside someone who is willing to do the work to create—and fight for—a life they are worthy of.
One of the things I love most about San Diego is the heart I’ve found in the people here. There is such an openness to growth, healing, connection, and possibility. That makes the work I get to do here even more rewarding.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Has it been a smooth road? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I like to say, “Smooth is for peanut butter—not life.”
The journey of overcoming past beliefs, trauma, and patterns in order to build something new is rarely a straight line. It’s three steps forward, four steps back, eight steps forward, two steps back. That’s part of being human.
I’m no different.
I’ve lived through the grief of family-of-origin trauma, being the sole custodial parent of two small children, building from the ground up financially, spiritually, and emotionally, loneliness, fear, isolation, burnout, and emotional disconnection.
You name it, I’ve probably had to walk through some version of it.
But the real story isn’t that I’ve had hard things happen. The story is that I’ve continually had to find a way to keep walking into the new.
I’ve had to make the choice, again and again, that no matter what statistics, circumstances, or old patterns might say about where my life should end up, I don’t have to accept that as my story.
I think that’s one of the reasons I can sit across from another person in their hard place and genuinely believe in them.
I know what it feels like to be there.
And I also know that being there doesn’t mean you have to stay there.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Please tell us more about your business or organization. What should we know?
My core focus is being a trauma-informed and trauma-aware life coach.
I’ve worked with people from many different walks of life, and I’ve noticed that when we take the brave step of seeking a coach to help us work through an obstacle or mindset, we often feel like we need to present ourselves in a certain way.
We think we need to have it together.
My goal from the very beginning is to create a different experience.
I want my clients to understand that every part of them is welcome and that they don’t have to perform or pretend to be somewhere they aren’t. This is a place where they can be honest about where they are while also believing that where they are isn’t where they have to stay.
I believe every person already has immense power within them. I’m not there to “fix” someone. I’m there to help them learn how to access what is already inside of them.
I want to be their biggest cheerleader while helping them develop the ability to become their own.
That can mean identifying beliefs that may have once served them but no longer support where they’re going, choosing new thought patterns, learning to work with themselves instead of against themselves, tuning into their intuition, and creating practical action plans.
My goal is that when our coaching relationship is complete, clients aren’t dependent on me. They’re equipped with tools and a deeper understanding of themselves that they can continue to implement for a lifetime.
A changed mind and a changed belief system can affect every area of our lives.
Maybe someone wants to become a better parent. Maybe they want to grow their business, find a healthy relationship, navigate a neurodivergent mind, build confidence, or finally take action on something they’ve been afraid to pursue.
The circumstances may look completely different, but so much of the work begins with how we see ourselves and how we interpret the situations we’re in.
That’s what I love about this work: helping people uncover the beliefs and patterns that may be keeping them stuck and giving them the tools to move forward with greater intention, self-trust, and belief in themselves.
What are your plans for the future?
What are your plans for the future? What are you looking forward to or planning for?
I’m incredibly excited to expand the ways I can make this work available to more people.
I’m looking forward to offering more focused groups and courses centered around mindset shifts—especially getting to the root of why we do what we do, rather than simply trying to change the behavior on the surface.
I’m also excited about developing more business cohorts and continuing to work with entrepreneurs and leaders who want to grow their businesses while also growing themselves.
And I’m especially looking forward to doing more work with high schools and young people.
I love working with younger people because I think so many of us who are middle-aged and older have the same realization when we look back: we wish we had been given these tools 25 or 30 years ago.
What if young people could learn earlier that their past doesn’t have to dictate their future? What if they understood how their thoughts, beliefs, patterns, and nervous system can influence the way they experience the world? What if they learned how to believe in themselves before years of self-doubt had a chance to take root?
That possibility is incredibly exciting to me.
Ultimately, I want my work to help people recognize that they are not defined by what they’ve been through or by the places where they’ve felt stuck.
There is always a possibility for something new.
And sometimes, having someone walk beside you who can see that possibility before you can see it for yourself is where the journey begins.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://theemersonpractice.com
- Instagram: theemersonpractice
