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My Story

I’ve loved every minute of my journey, despite every twist, turn, and detour I've encountered along the way!

Hi, I’m Tanya North-Shymko and I am a Life Empowerment Coach. I have studied with the Health Coach Institute (Health, Life, Transformational, and Life Mastery certifications),  the Grief to Gratitude Institute (Grief Coaching certification), and Unyte Institute (SSP Listening Therapy). I am also a proud member of the Canadian Health Coach Alliance. 


I w​ould​ like to share a bit about my story and how I became a Coach.


Years ago, I had a clear map of my journey, and what I wanted to be when I ‘grew up’. I was going to be a mom, a wife, an artist, and a teacher. I was also going to happy! But, along my path I encountered many detours, bumps in the road, steep hills, and skinned knees. As I moved along my journey, I achieved all that I had hoped for, but I didn’t seem to have the happiness that I expected to have with it. Instead, I had stress, overwhelm, over-busy-ness, and adrenal fatigue. In 2014, I found myself on the verge of a breakdown with a risk of losing my children, a failing marriage, and a job that I hated - but could not afford to quit - for a boss that treated me and my time as nothing more than disposable.


It took vast amounts of courage to make BIG changes in my life! I quit my job, rebuilt my relationship with my kids, reconciled my marriage, and became self-employed with my own art studio and classes. For the first time, in a really long time, I felt HAPPY again!! And for the first time, ever, I had found myself and learned who I truly was!


I gained the proper tools I needed to manage my stress. I learned how to set proper boundaries and to say NO when it is warranted. I learned how to recognize habits that keep me falling into unhealthy patterns - and how to break them. I have learned to understand beliefs about who I am, and have learned to see my own value.


Was it easy? Absolutely not! It has taken self-discipline, self-exploration, self-motivation blood, sweat, and tears! 


Fast forward to today... Since my time of near-breakdown, and happiness resurrection, I have experienced other bumps and detours along my path of life. Losing both my Mom and Husband to cancer only months apart of one another in 2017 was one of the biggest obstacles I have ever had to deal with. My journey took a detour that I never had expected. I didn’t think it would be possible to ever be happy again after so much strife, but I learned to keep moving forward. I learned that the journey continues and can lead to some beautiful scenery ahead, so long as we are open to it. I don’t think I ever would have made it through without knowing the tools that I have learned.


My mission is to share these tools with as many individuals as possible, so they can also learn to overcome their own struggles along their own life’s journey, so that they may experience what happiness truly feels like!


I look forward to working with you!


- Coach Tanya


PS: What else do I do besides Coaching? I am a full-time Mom to 2 wonderful, creative, happy kids. I am an Artist and an Art Instructor with my business Spectrum Art Studios. I am also a contributor and Author in Volume 2 of the International Best Selling book "Pay It Forward Series - Notes to My Younger Self", and am a Canadian Ambassador of 'Women of Contribution'. 

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