tales of transformation

I still remember walking into Hunter's office when I was in my 20's, curious about her practice with the intention of exploring options for my own career. Looking back on that time, I think about the burnout I was experiencing in my nonprofit work.  I remember the panic attacks, the guilt and the shame. I thought those elements were integral to living and wasn't sure there was life without those things. I left that first visit with more clarity about myself and my path forward, and that clarity has brought me to my work today as a physician.  Because of my work with Hunter, I am now fully confident that if or when I confront those challenging experiences from the past again, I will move through them. I will know they do not define me or my life. I will know there's a part of me that needs more love and care. 

I continue to work with Hunter because I continue to seek and to find that clarity in our time together. How do I move forward, toward the person I want to be, the life I want to live? Even after all these years, I am learning from her. I am challenged and inspired, and I continue to discover more about myself, the choices in front of me, and that possibilities are endless. 

 I believe that, because of our work together, I'm living my ideal life. I love and I'm loved. I'm safe. I'm fulfilled at work. I'm challenged. I'm healthy. I'm confident. I move through this world with dignity, self-respect, and kindness. I have a sense of wholeness and of who I am.

—family physician

After 8 years of traditional CBT therapy, I was looking for something different and something deeper. A friend gave me Hunter's name and I began seeing her. What a departure from the conventional strategies I had tried before to live a deeper and more authentic life! Hunter brings such a loving and compassionate authenticity to our sessions and is able to cut through the superficial so that I can truly get to the heart of what is going on and address it with Love. It is the most honest and transformative collaboration I've ever had with someone. For those who are ready to take an honest look and do real work, she's a magnificent guide and mentor. The healing I've experienced working with her has been life-changing.

—attorney, teacher

I have worked with Hunter for over a year and a half now and I can say that she has helped me to discover my own breakthroughs to change my life in very real and positive ways.  During this year and a half, I went through significant changes in my life. I struggled in a very significant relationship, lost my best friend to COVID, and lost my job. 

Hunter really helped me lean into long ignored emotional pain I didn’t know I had and open pathways to reground myself in healthy introspection, self-healing and coping methods.  She taught me how to take time to listen to my emotions and my body’s reaction to what I’m feeling.  I was not aware how much work I needed to do to be and act in the present and our discussions and exercises helped me to clarify the way I bring facts into focus, beliefs into context, step towards my emotions, activate my own lens of love for myself, and develop the ability to stay present with integrity in my daily life.  

She has taught me how to listen to myself to create my own intentions, show up and work for my own great life experience, and to allow the space and unlimited possibility to co-create something larger than myself.  I see that there are no guarantees in life, but the way in which we show up and give what we can to ourselves, our family and our communities is so important.   

Working at a job I love, developing the relationship I have always wanted, and living my passionate, engaged, family-centered, sensory filled, juicy life experience makes me smile.  Hunter has helped me understand the ebb and flow to make this happen. 

Grateful does not come close to the word I want to use to describe the feeling of her teaching me.  Blessed is a better word to use to describe the feeling.  

—father, corporate executive

Imparting hope to others has nothing to do with exhorting or cheering them on. It has everything to do with relationships that honor the soul, encourage the heart, inspire the mind, quicken the step, and heal the wounds we suffer along the way. 

— Parker Palmer

Hunter, you have helped do all of the things in this [Parker Palmer] quote in mine and my son's lives and we thank you.

—wife, mother, caregiver for two disabled family members

Over the years I’ve worked with a number of therapists. Until I started working with Hunter (who is a coach, not a therapist) I had never been with someone as genuinely caring, insightful and committed to my well-being as she has been. The support she provides goes well beyond the sessions with her. She is available at all times if you need advice or are grappling with a difficult issue. She also shares resources such as podcasts and blogs that she thinks will be helpful to her clients. As well, her background as a nurse is invaluable, since the emotional and physical realms are often closely intertwined. I highly recommend Hunter – talking with her has been life-changing for me.

—grandmother, teacher

I first met Hunter at a family constellation session in November 2019.  While it is difficult to capture the breadth and depth of our shared journey, these words, penned in December 2020, capture the essence of our work together:

Hunter, my heart is filled with the deepest gratitude for your warm heart, your wise heart, your warrior heart, your tender heart.  You love really big.  Really big and out loud.  You listen like few with whom I have ever journeyed.  You lean in closely and share what is coming to you.  You encourage and support and invite.  Your patience is such a gift.  You wait until I can find the words or name what is happening inside me.  You gently repeat, rephrase, challenge, and, ask for more.  You are always the curious one.  The “let’s consider” one.  You are a steward of the earth.  You give of your time, your talents, and, your treasures.  You remember.  You educate. You are indeed a midwife of hearts and souls.  Thank you for holding my hand and heart during some long laboring and birthings, for unwavering faith in me, for trusting me when I couldn’t trust myself, for being so gentle when my heart felt fragile, for serving Love in so many beautiful ways.  You teach by example.

Now, as we approach the end of yet another year, I would add these words:

I came to you, Hunter, at probably the hardest time in my life.  I was holding deep grief.  Deep fears.  I was facing health issues and life challenges.  The landscape of my life was changing rapidly.  I was lost on so many fronts.  You offered my heart a respite place.  You helped me lean into healing and hope, and, to celebrate and notice the graces and abundant goodness in my daily life.

Your guidance continues to help me find my grounding, my True North.  You help me excavate my own gifts and talents and wisdom.  You help me go to the mountaintop and be curious.  You help me bring my little one out of hiding.  You teach me how to hold her and how to love her.  You help me to trust and to connect to myself and others in healthy and loving ways.  

Hunter, you guide with an elder heart.  I am deeply grateful for every step of our journey, and, I look forward to walking whatever unfolds next. 

—wife, grandmother, writer

I was drowning in my own depression. I called them ‘my trips down the rabbit hole.’ My episodes, which started in my 20s, were few and far between but in the last year or so in the time of Covid, with social isolation, division in our country, and the myriad of devastating news each evening, my trips down the rabbit hole were getting more frequent. The trips rendered me incapable of functioning other than to force myself to eat or drink then go back to bed. The sadness and hopelessness were almost more than I could take. The episodes could last 2 or 3 days, and I simply wanted to go to sleep and never wake up. Hunter was recommended to me by a friend, but I had heard from several people of her unique skills as a life coach for a few years. I initially felt that at 72 there wasn’t much anyone could do to help me at this stage of life but I was wrong. Hunter slowly, carefully, and lovingly walked me into a light I could not see before. She saved my life.

—wife, writer

I started an inner journey about 3 years ago to look deep and find what would make me happy in my current life. I started working with my dreams, talking with a counselor, looking at my diet, and taking control of my day-to-day schedule. I was in an emotionally dark place, a place where I felt criticized constantly by myself and others. Hunter Purdy was an invaluable part in my work to shift that inner voice to my companion and champion rather than further discouragement. My light shines bright and has filled that dark place. And now there is so much more to see. I am still on a journey of shedding light in the dark spaces of my inner self but it is not so scary or hard because I have real skills, like connection with and trust of my inner voice, detachment from outcomes, the ability to take an outsiders perspective, trusted health advice, and financial budgeting.

I do not have adequate words to describe how helpful my sessions with Hunter have been. I reached out to her for help when my Dad was very ill, facing death and she helped me tremendously through that period of time. I was my Dad's primary caregiver and I did not have a lot of extra support. She guided me to bring in Hospice for help. I literally don’t know what I would have done without her. After his death, she was tremendously helpful in guiding me through my grief and anger. Before Hunter, I had been to countless therapists, as well as been trained and practiced as a Marriage and Family Therapist, and no other therapy experience comes close to the kind of transformation I feel inwardly and also in my life after working with Hunter. Through inner child work, I have been able to process through some major personal and family traumas. Hunter’s deep heart guided work has radically changed the way I see and love myself. I could not recommend her enough!!

—homeschooling mother, wife, marriage and family therapist

I am grateful that I was led to Hunter. Hunter gave me the flashlight to see in my darkness! I was an avid workaholic and a people pleaser. I didn’t know any other way to survive. I had never heard of infinite possibilities until I met Hunter and now it is how I plan my life. I now know that a “No” to something can be a “Yes” to myself! Thank you, Hunter, for giving me the tools for my journey to be the best version of myself.

— single mother, hair and makeup artist