Eventually, pushing through stopped working.  I was depressed, burnt out, and using very unhealthy coping strategies that were just making things worse.

I realized I didn’t want to keep living in a cycle of giving everything I had to my work, recovering just enough (I’m not even sure I’d call it “recovering”…) to do it all over again, and calling that success.

That was my turning point.

For the first time, I started asking myself a different question: What would it actually look like to thrive—not just survive—in my career and my life?

I didn’t want to walk away from the career I had worked so hard to build. I wanted to care deeply about my work without allowing it to consume everything else. I wanted energy again. I wanted to be present with the people I loved. And I wanted to feel like a whole person—not just the lawyer who could always handle one more thing.

So I stopped treating exhaustion and disengagement as something I had to numb using unhealthy coping mechanisms.

I started looking at what was actually driving it.

I learned to recognize the patterns keeping me stuck in stress and overwork. I began uncovering the beliefs, habits, and pressures underneath them. I changed the way I cared for my energy and wellbeing. I learned to approach my work, responsibilities, and boundaries differently. And, most importantly, I began creating changes I could actually sustain in real life—not just when things slowed down.

That journey led me to study the science and psychology behind energy, stress, behavior, wellbeing, and resilience. Between 2020 and 2022, I trained and certified through iPEC in Core Energy Coaching, COR.E Wellbeing, Transitions, and Leadership Dynamics, as well as transformational nutrition and the psychology of eating.

Over time, those lessons—and the changes I was making in my own life—became the foundation of what is now The Zoesana Method: a five-step process for becoming aware of what’s really happening, uncovering the roots of chronic stress, rebuilding your energy, leading your life differently, and creating changes that last.

And I used it on myself first.

I discovered that I didn’t have to choose between being successful at work and being fully present in my life. I could still be ambitious, capable, and committed to the work that mattered to me—without spending my entire life running on empty.

That’s what I now want other women lawyers to know is possible for them, too.