Hi! I’m Tess

But before I was any of these things, I was a twentysomething with no idea what I really wanted. 

I had graduated with flying colors, moved to a glamorous city, landed my dream job. I made connections with a few of Hollywood’s most powerful and talented people, had a calendar full of dinner dates, premiere nights and celebrity birthday parties.

Cut to a few years later. Everyone thought I had it all… but I was absolutely miserable. (Know that feeling?)

The glamorous, competitive job I thought was my ideal plan had me dreading every Monday like it was the first day of school. I couldn’t stop asking myself if this was “it.” I compared myself to everyone I knew. I obsessed over whether I was “on the right path.” Surely, I thought, I’d made a terrible mistake somewhere; nobody who’s on the right path could be this unhappy, right?

So I made a lot of the usual changes twenty-somethings make when they’re unhappy: I quit my job. I moved back home. I had a few dead-end jobs, took a few classes.

I was healing, but inside still spinning, asking myself, why had I thrown it all away?

One day I realized the answer was incredibly simple: I hadn’t thrown it away. I just hadn’t been on the right path for me.

When I stopped worrying (so much) about the future, and paid attention to what felt right, in the moment, I quickly recognized that what I liked most—what I’d liked about my time in Hollywood, and every odd job I’d held since— was helping young and motivated people find their way.

So I took action. I enrolled back in school and in time became a licensed therapist. It felt like a natural next step, and led me to begin my therapy practice. As a licensed therapist (now also a board-certified coach), I focus on the unique pressures people under forty face.

I’ve found that a lot of what I learned in Hollywood applies to my young adult clients. What makes the difference isn’t their drive or talent, but their coping strategies and the people they have in their corner, cheering them on.

Over my 15 years in practice, I’ve developed and honed tactics, thinking, and guidance that really work for people—and found that sometimes facing big, scary, complicated changes can be simpler than we think.

Whether in working with clients; my talks and workshops about millennial burnout; my articles on the perils and perks of online dating, toxic friends, you name it, I call my approach “radically practical” because it’s based on the idea that small, intentional actions can add up to major change.

I’ve gathered my best practice exercises and rituals into a guidebook (“Like Now”) and a series of courses (“True You”), designed especially for quarter-lifers. The concepts are timeless, and in a unique format that can work for anyone, especially people who miss having homework! (I was definitely one of those.)

Finding your true path might not be easy, but it’ll always be worth it. I’ve been there, and I’ll guide you through it.