Listen to Noomii's interview with Jack A Ori

About Me

I am a writer and life coach who uses stories — fictional and otherwise — to help support young adults as they move forward into living independent, fulfilling and (most importantly) authentic lives. The work I do is the end result of a long and sometimes confusing effort to explore and express my identity that started when I went away to college and followed me through a ton of different jobs and educational opportunities.

I work with young adults who are finding it difficult to find their place in the world or establish themselves as independent adults, especially those on the autism spectrum, those who identify as transgender, or those who feel like they don’t belong for a myriad of other reasons. I also work with parents of young people to help them learn how to develop supportive relationships with the young adults in their lives while giving them the space to make their own decisions and live life on their own terms.

In addition to helping others, I am the author of Reinventing Hannah, a young adult novel-in-progress about a sixteen-year-old girl’s determination to rebuild an authentic identity and life after being sexually assaulted.

Hannah is struggling to do the same three things I help young people who are trying to figure out this whole adulthood thing to be able to do:

* EXPLORE who you are. Try on different identities in ways that aren’t going to cost you too much in terms of either money or self-respect and figure out what fits you and what doesn’t.
* EMBRACE who you are. I push my clients to take that next step and not only accept themselves, but take pride in those things about them that they used to hide from themselves and from others.
* EXPRESS WHO YOU ARE. there are lots of ways to express yourself, some big, some small. If it’s not safe for you to fully express who you are right now, my hope for you is to find some small way you can express more of yourself while you’re working towards leaving your situation behind you.