On a scale of 1 - bad, 6 - fine, to 10 - rad – how would things rate?
We've experienced all points of the scale over the 20+ years Nathan and I have been partnered up.
In fact, we were just thinking of our "origin story" with neuroemotional work today while we walked to the river.
We were showing up.
We were trying hard.
But underneath it all… something was off.
We weren't where we dreamed of being.
We made it through each day – and though there were highlights, like nature-time, or adorable kid-time, we did not have the sense of having arrived in our true life. It was good-enough. But definitely not the fully vibrant, abundant, and embodied version we all hope for.
We see this with our clients as well. When they come to us, they are:
Snapping at the people they love most.
Longing for deep connection but pushing it away when it shows up.
Watching time pass in a blur of shoulds, obligations, and Survival Mode.
Dreaming of a life that feels just out of reach because, somehow, they keep repeating the same old patterns.
We know just what that's like.
The turning point for us came one night at home after watching some shows together. As the escape into someone else's gripping narrative faded, I felt the discontent, disappointment, and despair come pouring back in.
I didn't like anything I saw. Every spot my eyes landed on seemed to glare back as blatant evidence that this. wasn't. it.
We were not doing it right.
We were not living our one precious life well enough.
Have you ever felt that way?
That night on the couch, what would later become our signature support method (the one that has now helped hundreds of people across the world), was in beta, only being used on kid squabbles, but Nathan pulled it out anyway. Recognizing the brain state that I was in, Nathan offered support that was aligned with that specific state. And though we had not remodeled our living room, quadrupled our bank accounts, or made any other real-world changes (all of that would come a little later), by the end of that conversation I felt different.
It was like a veil had been lifted from my eyes.
I turned to Nathan and said: "I want everyone in the world to have that."
Because it was more than just feeling better (which is plenty, am I right?), it was like getting passed the key to the realm I'd always wanted to live in. I felt alive, empowered, powerful, and like my true self. The future, my ideal life, came into view and I could see the path to making it a reality.
And so we brought it to the world.
While changing our own at the same time.
We kept offering ourselves this same signature method every time the feelings poured in, or the automatic reactions kicked on.
And eventually we changed the way our brains function.
Now we aren't living on auto-pilot, just making it through the day. We are truly living, connecting, and designing (almost) every action.
And our brains, our history, our circumstances are no different than anyone else's, we just learned what to do at each neurochemical crossroad.
Because it's not that you’re doing something wrong.
It’s that your nervous system is still doing what it learned to do long ago: Protect. Cope. Repeat.
But protecting and coping isn't good enough, right?
At the Center for Emotional Education, we specialize in helping high-functioning humans unhook from Survival Mode patterns that are silently shaping their lives, so they can finally create what they actually want:
💛 Less anxiety, overwhelm, and stress
💛 More joy, ease, and meaning
💛 A relationship that feels like home
💛 A life that fits who they really are
💛 A nervous system that doesn’t sabotage their best intentions
We provide a practical, neuroscience-backed, emotionally intelligent path toward authentic, connected living.
Not just healing, but rewiring.
Not just knowing better, but living differently.
Because the biggest heartbreak isn’t a single moment. It’s the slow erosion of the life you meant to live.
And you don’t have to keep missing it. There's a new path when you're ready.
Much love,
Natalie (and Nathan)