I am Melissa Arthur, National Board Certified Health & Wellness and Executive Leadership Coach, and Founder of Illuminate Guidance, LLC. I help purpose-driven leaders to experience more joy and balance in their lives and health while developing their capacity to lead and succeed as executives and entrepreneurs. I believe each of us has the power to create a healthy, joyful, purpose-driven life. For most of us, there’s a gap between our current experience of life and our highest aspirations. When we are supported and open to exploring this gap, new resources and possibilities emerge.​ My approach is empathetic and action-oriented. Friends and strangers alike are drawn to my ability to lovingly listen to and accept them for exactly who they are, while challenging them to become more of who they are meant to be. My clients often say that my zest for life, joyful presence, and infectious laughter help them feel at ease, with a sense that something wonderful is about to happen.​ What led you to become a Coach? Freedom to experience all that life has to offer is core value of mine. I draw wisdom, empathy, gratitude and inspiration from the joy, love, and pain of my own life experiences. I arrived at my current experience of abundant joy, health and freedom only after navigating through a period of intense stress and a health crisis of my own. As is the case for so many of my clients, I experienced a series of stressful life events that eventually took a toll on my body and began to manifest as physical symptoms. My condition became debilitating, and after extensive testing, my Doctor presented a grim prognosis. When she recommended taking prescription drugs and doing my best to accept and manage a disease that would continue to progress, something deep within me knew I had to find another way to heal myself. My Doctor agreed to partner with me as I sought the help of a functional medicine clinic. With the guidance of a health coach, I made changes to improve my stress response, diet and lifestyle that addressed the root cause of the disease. Within 6 months I was completely healed, and experiencing more energy and vitality than I had before. This personal experience with the healing power of lifestyle changes and the support of a skilled and caring coach opened my heart and mind to coaching. Yoga, Mindfulness, and Ayurveda (an ancient healing art and sister science to yoga) were essential to my healing. Through Yoga, I became part of a joyful and loving circle of women who shared my passion for conscious creation and physical, psychological and spiritual transformation. To my great surprise, a friend invited me to partner on creating a new yoga studio, and I said yes to becoming a yoga studio owner! I delighted in this opportunity to share the life-transforming practices of Yoga, Mindfulness and Ayurveda with my community and continue to learn so much as both a teacher and student of these ancient traditions. As I continued to practice and research lifestyle medicine, I was inspired to find that the evidence-based medical recommendations for healthy eating, activity, sleep, and stress management supported what I had been learning and practicing through the 5000 year old art and science of Ayurveda. Teaching a workshop about aligning with Dharma (life purpose) at our studio challenged me to re-examine my career path. As I engaged with my students in the work of Dharma discovery, the words nourish, connect, and transform came up for me again and again. It hit me like a ton of bricks that my innate ability to help others honor their inner wisdom, cultivate balance & strength and align with joy is the most important work of my life. This has always been my nature, but I had been pursuing other professional interests while quietly supporting those in my inner circle to transform their lives. As a director in a non-profit organization and owner of a yoga studio, I was providing leadership and holding space for some really important work, but I began to feel pulled to spend more time supporting clients one on one. Not long after, The Kansas Leadership Center, where I was engaged in leadership development, started an ICF approved leadership coach training program, and I was off and running toward an exciting career shift. I healed my heart and body, aligned with my true life purpose, owned my inner authority to create a life I love, then started supporting clients to do the same. I have since become an International Coaching Federation (ICF), Kansas Leadership Center (KLC), and National Board of Health and Wellness Coaches (NB-HWC) Certified Coach, and founded Illuminate Guidance, LLC to help even more clients to explore the possibility of a purpose-driven life while feeling emotionally, spiritually and physically balanced. As a Certified Coach, I have worked with many private clients and led workshops and group experiences that have helped clients transform their lives and communities. My private practice includes life, health/wellness, and executive leadership coaching as well as peer learning groups for entrepreneurs in the health and wellness space. I also serve part time as an integrated member of a clinical care team, serving as a leader in the areas of coaching and behavior change at a primary care clinic in Kansas City. Through this work, I get to live my dream and learn from so many amazing clients who are being and doing so much to make our world a better place. When I help them to come more fully into their power and move past what is holding them back, they create the kind of community and world that I want to live in.