Author, Counselor, Speaker, Life & Wellness Coach
I am a social worker, Therapist and Life Coach with over 35 years of experience. I have also lived a life of many adversities but none of those experiences could have prepared me for this. On April 18, 2021, my second child and first son died suddenly at age 42. To say I was devasted is an understatement. I felt a grief so deep, I was in despair, wanting to give up. I had to dig deep spiritually and came to terms with a power greater than myself.
My son's deep spiritual beliefs and him embracing life inspired me to change my life. He was diagnosed with mental illness at 19 years old and struggled with his disability because it robbed him of his dream to attend college. It was not until his late twenties, early thirties that he found his spiritual center and accepted that a power greater than himself was in charge. From that point on, he happily embraced his life and had a strong belief and faith that there is life after death. He became the happiest man that I knew; when I think of him, I feel hopeful.
I wanted to honor my son's life by continuing to live my own. He was my inspiration to finding hope. I went on a spiritual and personal development journey to find my meaning and purpose. I invested in myself by hiring a mindset coach, attended workshops, read books and attended seminars. After the first four months, I was energized to achieve greatness. I formed many new habits and developed a new lifestyle.
I found my purpose to focus on health and wellness that ignited my passion to serve others. My new direction became clear and my memoir Determined Not to Quit was born, written and published within one year. I founded and developed a Counselling/Coaching Program, named after my maternal grandmother, Mertella Life and Wellness Coaching to help individuals and families conquer life's struggles and to find solutions to life unexpected events.
On this journey, I learned many lessons, among them: it is not what life throws at you that matters, it is how you chose to feel, view, and manage it that determine its outcome and impact on your life.
A bit about my background that will hopefully give you some perspective to my story. I grew up in Jamaica, WI in poverty. I dropped out of school at 15 years old and became a mom at 16. I accepted a job offer in Canada to be a Nanny at 19. I went on to get married, divorced and became a single parent of two children while a full-time college student by age 24. Throughout all these adversities, I stayed true to my dream of having a better life by becoming educated. I earned two degrees, built a successful career, rising to the highest level in my field. I experienced and persevered through many adversities including having breast cancer twice, as mentioned above my son was diagnosed with schizophrenia at 19, another of my children sustained a brain injury at 6 years and my other child had to have a cornea transplant in one eye at 8 years old. Those and many other unexpected events in my life have made me into the strong, insightful deeply spiritual woman that I am today.
My wealth of experiences, training, and wisdom have prepared me to serve and help Clients to step out of the history and experiences that is holding them back and impacting their health, mental health and wellness. At Mertella Life and Wellness Coaching we can help you to create a new life story and to achieve your goals.