ABOUT:
Growing up in the woods of Wisconsin my “back to the lander” parents were early adopters of the wellness trends of today and taught me the connection between everyday lifestyle choices and health and vitality. In college, I fell hard for biology and decided to pursue a medical career. This led me to work at the Mayo Clinic Transplant Center where I researched stress and mindfulness-based approaches. Through this experience, I discovered that while Western medicine is invaluable for acute and interventional care, it was limited in its ability to help patients create nutrition and lifestyle changes that support overall well-being. This led me to discover health coaching, an emerging field that facilitates health-related behavior change.
I got my start as a health coach by working at two innovative primary care start-ups, Iora Health, and Sherpaa Health, both in New York City. I learned how to collaborate with a team of clinicians in order to facilitate greater well-being for our patients.
Along the way, I also pursued an education in nutrition, yoga & meditation, and behavior change theory. I recently completed my master’s degree in nutrition with a concentration in biochemical and functional nutrition from the University of Texas at Austin. I am currently working as a behavior designer where I apply behavior change theory to public health, digital health, and healthcare settings.
A forever generalist and enthusiastic lifelong learner, I enjoy writing about topics related to health, nutrition, and behavioral science on my blog. My goal is to help cut through the noise of ineffective wellness fads and give practical, evidence-based tips for improving health and happiness.
Education:
The University of Texas at Austin, M.S. in Nutritional Sciences, concentration: biochemical and functional nutrition (graduated summer 2023)
Macalester College, B.A. Biology
Health Coach with almost 10 years of clinical practice. I received training from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition + Wellcoaches and gained clinical experience working with patients at Collective Primary Care and Sherpaa Health in New York City and Next Level Concierge Care, a functional medicine practice.
Certified Yoga Teacher. Amanda Harding and Lesley Desaulniers led my Prema Yoga 200-Hour Teacher Training. I also completed the Ma Yoga Prenatal Teacher Training and Restorative Training Level 1 with Essential Oils and Yoga Nidra led by Gina Menza and Mona Anand and The Modern Yogi: Teacher Development Course with Brea Johnson - focused on combining traditional yoga with the latest biomechanics and exercise science principles.
Herbal Training- completed an herbal apprenticeship at Heartstone Herbal School in Ithaca, NY.
I participated in the six-month training program Attention and Interpretation with Dr. Amit Sood, Mayo Clinic physician and stress management researcher.
KIND WORDS:
“Tara is just amazing. When I’ve worked with her, she really listens to me and dials in to the specifics of my situation. She has an amazing intuitive ability to really hone in on the important issues. She’s accepting, empathic, gracious, and knowledgable. She’s great at the true meaning of wholistic—assessing my life and health as a whole person and helping me find solutions.”
— Josie Lewis, Artist, Minneapolis
“I had four coaching sessions with Tara over the course of 2 months. Tara listened to what I had to say, read between the lines, and asked the right questions to help me get to the bottom of what I really wanted. She helped me create achievable goals. These goals are now habits that I continue to do almost a year later. She dreams up creative approaches/solutions to situations and seems to have an endless amount of resources up her sleeve. I felt comfortable and at home in her presence. Ultimately, Tara inspired me to take the health coaching path myself!”
— Alison Mailander, MPH, Minneapolis, MN
“Tara has an incredible gift for combining her intuitive skills with her depth of knowledge about health and wellness. She’s able to quickly assess what’s keeping you stuck, so you can begin to make immediate progress toward your goals. Her insights and the ongoing resources she’s provided have been tremendously beneficial for my healing journey, and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to work with her!”
— Jennifer C., Boulder, Colorado
“Tara is a wealth of knowledge and able to adapt to any problem thrown at her. If she doesn’t know she will find out. Through working with her I was able to improve how I felt about both my diet but also myself and the path I was on. There was very little pressure and I felt good about all the different things to try.”
— Chris V. , Minneapolis, MN
“I’ve had four separate sessions with Tara over the course of the last 6 months. She is a pleasure to work with. she assessed everything I brought to her with obvious thought and preparation, working both with the tools she has learned over many years of education and her natural intuition. I left each session with a multitude of information and heading as well. I’ve since recommended her to many friends and all have had the same experience. I highly recommend Tara to anyone!”
— Leah M, Minneapolis, MN