Elle’s Path
I didn't set out to understand behavior. I needed to.
For 25 years, I was a stay-at-home mom raising three boys. I managed schedules, personalities, emotions, and all the everyday dynamics of a busy household. I was holding it all together until life shifted all at once.
I empty nested, divorced, and moved across the country to rebuild life from scratch on my own for the first time all within the same year.
That season didn't just change my circumstances. It made me curious about something I hadn't really understood before:
Why do I do what I do, and why do other people do what they do?
Like many people, I had read the books. I tried communicating better, being clearer, being more patient and becoming more self-aware.
But the shift came when I began to understand that we each operate from a natural internal process, our own way of interpreting the world, making decisions, communicating, connecting, and responding under pressure.
We weren't necessarily doing things wrong. We were doing them differently.
And when I could finally understand the difference, so much of what hadn't made sense before began to make sense.
Most people are familiar with the idea of love languages, the different ways we give and receive affection.
I began to recognize something broader:
We also have a Behavior Language.
It's reflected in how we think, communicate, make decisions, solve problems, respond to stress, show care, build relationships, and navigate change.
When we don't understand those differences, we tend to fill in the blanks ourselves. We assume intent. We take behavior personally. We expect people to operate the way we do.
Understanding gives us another option.
By combining Emotional Intelligence with the CliftonStrengths framework, I developed the Self-Intelligence Principles I use today to help people recognize their Personal Process and better understand the Behavior Language of the people around them.
Why This Work Matters to Me
I've learned that some of life's biggest transitions don't come with instructions.
Marriage. Parenthood. Divorce. Empty nesting. Starting over. Career changes. Building something of your own. Leading other people. Health challenges. Relationships changing as the people in them change.
I've lived through enough of my own milestones to know that even the ones we choose can leave us wondering:
Who am I in this now?
Why is this affecting me this way?
Why isn't the person beside me experiencing it the same way?
How do I move forward without losing myself in the process?
That's why this work isn't theoretical for me.
It's lived.
Today, I work with people in the middle of those moments personally, relationally, and professionally.
Sometimes we're making sense of the relationship they have with themselves.
Sometimes we're translating the differences between two people.
Sometimes we're helping a team understand why people who are all working toward the same goal can approach it completely differently.
The setting changes. The foundation doesn't.
My role isn't to tell people who to become.
It's to help them understand what's already there so they can move into what's next with greater clarity, confidence, and connection.
I believe different doesn't mean wrong.
I believe most people don't need someone to fix them. They need help understanding what they're experiencing.
I believe relationships become easier when we stop assuming intent and become curious about process.
I believe understanding ourselves changes how we show up with everyone else.
And I believe life's milestones, the exciting ones, the difficult ones, and the ones we never saw coming can become opportunities to know ourselves and one another more deeply.
Because when behavior makes sense, relationships get easier, life becomes lighter, and you feel empowered every day.
I work with clients virtually across the country, in addition to in-person sessions in Ohio.