About Whitney
Whitney is a woman of European-American and Lakota/Dakota heritage, as a proud member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, with roots deep in the Great Plains of South Dakota, where she was born and raised in the world of ranching and horse racing. In 2011, she became a first-generation college graduate and earned a B.S. in Sociology and American Indian Studies from Black Hills State University. That degree led her into the Native American community development field where she has been coaching, mentoring, and providing technical assistance to individuals and a wide-variety of Native American led non-profits and programs for over a decade. She has worked with many communities in the areas of mental health, economic development, community based health promotion, program planning/implementation, and more.
In 2014, Whitney found her life feeling stagnant and stuck. While searching for ways to care for and return to herself, she was introduced to a health and fitness coach that helped her get physically stronger and healthier, leading to emotional and spiritual transformation as well. Friends and family started to reach out and ask for support with their own health, which organically birthed a life-coaching practice supporting women to overcome the emotional and spiritual barriers that kept them from taking care of themselves. Over the years, she continued to coach and learn all that she could about personal development and holistic health. In January of 2022, she achieved a long time goal and became a certified coach through Lifeforming Leadership Coaching trained by the Christian Coaching School. In October 2022, she graduated from the Historical Trauma Master Class trained by Dr. Ruby Gibson and Freedom Lodge staff, certifying her in a body based trauma healing modality called Somatic Archeology©.
Whitney considers herself a life-long student and loves to invest her time and energy in learning all there is to learn about trauma recovery and spiritual/physical/emotional health. She is a student in the Master of Social Work program at the University of South Dakota. On a more personal note, in addition to raising her three sons and three daughters with her rodeo cowboy, entrepreneurial husband, she enjoys being an active member of River Center Church, taking care of her 30+ house plants, spending time with her dog (Parrott), walking/hiking, gardening, visiting new places, identifying and learning about medicinal plants, and spending time with her large extended family.
