MEET CHELSEA
MEET CHELSEA
Growing up, I was a pressure cooker of emotions with no release valve.
Just ask my parents.
Why was I a pressure cooker? I grew up in a high-demand religion, one that requires a lot of time, energy, and money from its members. Their main goal was compliance.
Both sides of my family have been part of this religion for generations. The result of generations of compliance? A strong generational pattern of emotional suppression, where only light emotions are allowed to be expressed. All of the heavy emotions? Those were meant to be bottled up and forgotten.
And these beliefs weren’t just taught and modeled by my immediate and extended family. I was also seeing members of the community do the same thing.
I became an expert at plastering on a smile while doing mental gymnastics to suppress anything heavy, then unleashing “The Hulk” in the comfort of my own home.
After years of this emotional rollercoaster, I became an adult with workaholic tendencies, pedestalling myself against others, creating co-dependent relationships, and connecting with others primarily through suffering. Sounds like a dream, right?
I also developed a pattern of throwing myself into situations just to prove I could do things people said I couldn’t. Building things out of spite was my go-to.
It all came to a head when I was 26. Two major friendship fallouts and a high-stress job (creating Pumpkin Nights) pushed me to my breaking point.
To "fix" myself, I became certified in the Integrated Processing Technique (IPT). This technique uses guided visualizations to go back to traumatic events to rewrite our perceptions and beliefs around the event.
During this program, I tried overanalyzing my way to healing.
I dove headfirst into trying to rewrite every single perception and experience from my past. I truly thought that if I could understand why I was the way I was, I’d finally feel whole. And, I’d finally feel the elusive “inner peace” all of the meditation gurus talked about.
IPT sessions provided a temporary release, but weeks later, I’d still feel shitty. Sometimes even more shitty than before.
At the end of the certification program, we went to a ropes course. I’ll never forget standing on top of a 30-foot Pamper Pole (I’m incredibly scared of heights, but was determined to do this).
When everyone in the class climbed to the top of the pole, and before jumping off the pole as a “leap of faith,” we had to scream out what we wanted.
“I just want inner peace!”
Even at the end of a year-long course designed to help me feel more balanced, healed, and whole, I still felt like shit on the inside.
After graduating, I started working with more and more people. This is when I noticed my clients were becoming dependent on me for their emotional processing.
It felt icky and was so far from what I thought would happen when someone took healing seriously. So, I was determined to find what was missing for me and my clients.
Why were we so disconnected, more victimized, and inflating our sense of self the more we revisited traumatic events and tried rewriting our perceptions of the past?
The breakthrough came when I finally learned this truth: Our bodies want to be whole and complete, AND they already know what we need.
All we have to do is listen and learn how to label how emotions feel in our bodies.
And, I realized you can learn how to do this through intuitive coloring.
The more I colored with myself and others, the more I realized why coloring works: It bypasses your analytical mind and helps you see things with clarity. You start noticing how you actually feel emotions in your body (interoception) and uncover what mental models (beliefs about how the world works and your role in the world) are keeping you stuck without years of therapy or blaming everyone else for your problems.
Coloring isn't about shaming yourself or pointing fingers. It's about getting to know yourself on such a deep level that no matter what you feel, you can find your way back to balance and inner peace.
After 6 years of testing and iterating with over 250 people of all ages, Color Mending was born.
Whether you're struggling with burnout, feeling stuck in patterns, or just ready to understand yourself better, I'm here to show you how all emotions—even the heavy, big, and scary ones—can be your greatest teacher.
Trust me, if this former emotional pressure cooker who spent years overanalyzing everything can learn to identify emotions, understand the stories I'm telling myself, and find regulation strategies through coloring, anyone can.