KIM
LAVERE
Hey, I'm Kim -
Certified Coach, Ayurveda Lifestyle Consultant & Natural Foods Chef
my story
Once upon a time (not so long ago), I was suffering from some serious corporate burnout. For ten years, I found every excuse not to leave my job as a director of corporate retail in New York City. But as time went by, the thoughts got louder and more frequent. They sounded a little something like this:
"I worked so hard to get here.. I can't just quit!"
or
"Maybe there’s a chance it will get better once x,y,z happens"
or (my favorite)
"What if the grass isn’t always greener once I leave?"
And with the amount of stress that continued to pile on in my work life, my body started to break down: I was getting frequent urinary tract infections; I had terrible digestion issues; From the stress and lack of sleep, I developed psoriasis on my legs and chest; I had extreme pain in my neck and shoulders; One day, I lost circulation in my right hand. Let's just say my body was screaming for help, but instead of getting to the root cause of the problem, I spent months trying to treat the symptoms instead; but once I treated one problem, a new symptom would pop up somewhere else in my body. As Brene Brown says, "Life isn't short on wake-up calls. We are just quick to hit the snooze button."
So I kept hitting snooze... until the button broke. When my ex-boyfriend passed away in March of 2015, everything changed. I realized how precious my life was and how misaligned I was living in connection to my bigger purpose in this world. In that moment, I also realized that I could either choose to take the "why me" belief route, or use his passing as a gift for me to finally take a chance and make some changes to pursue a more fulfilling life. After struggling for months with the decision on whether or not to leave everything I knew, I finally realized that the fear of nothing changing scared me more than the fear of everything changing. So I took a leap. I gave myself permission to not know in search of something more - I quit my job, moved out of my apartment, and booked a one-way ticket to Copenhagen. At the time I had no plan on where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do; all I wanted was to have NO plan for once.
Ten months and ten countries later, I realized how much my journey was about deviating from what society deems as a successful & fulfilling life and re-learning what it really meant to live well and feel good both physically and emotionally. Without much thought (and normally I was very calculated & meticulous with my decision making process), I started following the voice of my intuition, fought off the "why's" and "but's" from my inner critic and took some chances. I called it my spaghetti phase of just throwing ideas against the wall to see what would stick. And the more I listened to that intuitive voice, the louder it became and the happier and healthier I felt. I attended health supportive culinary school in NYC at the Natural Gourmet Institute, studied Ayurveda in Kerala, India, completed my co-active coaching training at The Coaches Training Institute in LA, London, and SF, and did countless personal research to understand what I was going through and how to take better care of myself. I came away from my trip with the belief that many of us are just surviving out there, but we all deserve to thrive.
As I returned from my trip and digested all my learnings, I realized how little we are taught in today's society on what it truly means to live well, how to follow our gut, and how to live the life we want. And yet, these are the necessary tools to help us achieve a fulfilling, happy, and nourishing life. So in 2016, I started my own coaching business, empowering individuals & groups to create lasting change in their personal lives and in their businesses. I'm passionate about translating this world of self-care to a wider audience, especially for those of you who feel life you've checked off all the boxes society said would lead to a fulfilling life, but somehow you feel like you're still coming up short.
I was born and raised in Los Angeles and now live up in beautiful West Sonoma County, California. When I am not coaching and talking wellness & ayurveda, I can be found in the kitchen creating herbal infused culinary products and prepping for private events for my company, LAND + LOCAL.
Thanks so much!
xx Kim
To learn more about working with me, please click here
my qualifications
Certified Professional Co-Active Coach, 2017
Certified Ayurveda Lifestyle Consultant: Greens Ayurveda, Kerala, India, 2016
Chef's Training Program, Natural Gourmet Institute: New York, NY 2015
Co-Active Coaching, Coaches Training Institute : Los Angeles, London, San Francisco, 2015 - 2017
Honors BA, Organizational Theory, Brown University: Providence, RI, 2002 - 2006
Product Director, Macy's Merchandising Group: New York, NY 2007-2015
Owner, Land + Local Culinary Wellness, 2018- present