• Mother • Wife • Registered Nurse • Friend •
• Advocate • Storyteller • Lifelong Learner •
Meet Michelle Messner
🌱 Who I am at my core:
A mother who loves deeply.
A nurse who leads with heart.
A wife and friend who values connection.
A caregiver learning to care for herself, too.
A woman rebuilding her sense of wholeness.
🌱 What I bring to this work:
Compassion for the exhausted and overwhelmed.
Creativity in how healing unfolds.
Integrity and presence in every interaction.
Determination to rise after falling.
A grounded belief in growth — yours and mine.
A Journey of Compassion, Challenge, and Renewal
Welcome to my story — a story woven with overwhelm, uncertainty, and a gradual loss of self. A journey that demanded self-compassion, honesty, and space to shed what was no longer serving me. A journey that eventually opened the door to transformation, purpose, and a new way of being.
For fifteen years, I worked as a bedside nurse, privileged to care for people during some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. I witnessed resilience, heartbreak, healing, and the profound power of presence. I poured my heart into supporting others, and for many years, it felt meaningful and aligned.
But slowly, almost quietly, something began to shift.
When the environment began to take more than it gave.
The healthcare environment I loved was slowly becoming increasingly difficult to navigate — long busy shifts, short staffing, mental, emotional and physical demands,
and a growing heaviness that was getting harder to shake.
Then came the COVID-19 pandemic.
Like so many others, I continued to step into the ICU with determination and a deep sense of duty. We supported each other through the fear, exhaustion, and unknowns, doing everything we could to care for patients and one another.
But the experience changed me. It changed all of us.
The pressure seeped into my nervous system, and the stories of
suffering stayed long after my shifts ended.
I didn’t notice right away, but I was drifting from the passion that once fueled me. I felt myself becoming more reactive, more drained, more disconnected from the nurse — and human — I used to be.
My nervous system absorbed more stress than it could hold.
During that same period, I faced two early pregnancy losses — heartbreak layered onto heartbreak — and without awareness and tools to actually process life,
I numbed, shut down, and disconnected.
I know now this was an unconscious, biological, self-protection mechanism.
Motherhood revealed what I could no longer ignore.
After the birth of my son, returning to work made everything unmistakably clear:
My nervous system was overwhelmed.
My emotional regulation was fragile.
My sense of balance had completely eroded.
I pushed forward with determination, trying to be everything — the competent nurse, the present mother, the supportive friend — but internally I was unravelling. I was constantly on edge. Every small stress felt enormous. Every shift felt like too much. And beneath it all was shame — shame for not being able to “handle it,” shame for feeling so disconnected, shame for not being who I once was.
Attempts to seek support only deepened the loneliness. Instead of feeling understood, I felt alone. Instead of relief, I felt like a failure.
My body finally spoke the truth I had been avoiding.
Eventually, my body forced me to stop.
I took a leave from work — not because I wanted to, but because I couldn’t keep going.
Deep down, I knew that staying in that dysregulated, overwhelmed state was making me physically sick. Admitting this felt both devastating and strangely relieving. It was the moment everything began to shift.
My healing began not with immediate answers,
but with allowing myself to unravel.
How did I get here?
What needs to change?
What does healing look like?
It has been a vulnerable, humbling, uncomfortable journey.
But it was also the beginning of coming home to myself.
The rebuilding
Through therapy, integrative practices, nervous system work, grief processing, and honest reflection, I started to reconnect. I learned how trauma and chronic stress had shaped my body and beliefs. I learned what safety feels like — truly feels like — again.
Most importantly, I learned that healing is not linear, quick, or performative.
It is gentle. It is embodied.
It is the slow remembering of who you are underneath the exhaustion.
And little by little, I began to feel grounded again.
A New Purpose Emerged
Today, I am committed to using every lesson from my journey to support others who find themselves overwhelmed, disconnected, or silently struggling behind their caregiving roles.
I understand the courage it takes to admit you’re not okay.
I understand the guilt, the shame, the fear of being seen as “not strong enough.”
I understand the toll that chronic stress takes on a nervous system — and on a soul.
That’s why my desire to support others in this way was born.
Not to fix people.
Not to offer quick solutions.
But to provide a safe, compassionate, evidence-informed space where caregivers can reconnect to themselves, restore their nervous systems, and reclaim their purpose and energy.
My passion is helping nurses and care providers rediscover their wholeness — because you deserve to feel rooted, balanced, and alive in your own life.
This isn’t just my story.
It’s my mission.
And if any part of this resonates with you…
you’re not alone, and you’re in the right place.
You don’t have to keep holding everything alone.
Your restoration begins here.
Ready to start your Journey?
Michelle Messner, BsN.
Operated by Grounded Roots Integrative Health
Disclaimer:
The information provided on this website and by Michelle Messner, BScN is for educational and informational purposes only.
Coaching is not a substitute for medical, psychological, or therapeutic care. No guarantees of specific results are made or implied.
By using this website or participating in coaching, you acknowledge and accept that you are responsible for your own choices, actions, and well-being.