About Dr. Larson

I’m a PhD-level Behavioral Scientist and Board-Certified Health Coach (NBC-HWC).  I specialize in evidence-based health behavior change.  I received my PhD in Behavioral Science with a focus on health psychology (research) at the University of Rhode Island, “the home of The Transtheoretical Model.”  We were trained to design programs that help people change behaviors and live longer, better lives – based on their stage of change, or level of readiness.  Now, I use my training to coach individuals by co-developing personalized behavior change plans–grounded in science—and tailored to their lived experience and unique motivators & barriers to change.

I arrived at coaching via a natural progression from my work on the intersection of risk, stigma, and health.  I have 20+ years of experience studying complex, hard-to-change behaviors across public health, academic medicine, nonprofits, and the private sector.  I’ve worked on smoking cessation, harm reduction, vaccine uptake, work & wellbeing.

I started my career at a syringe exchange, listening to the stories of people who use drugs as I provided free HIV testing & counseling services.  That formative, human-centered experience shaped my perspective as a PhD student, then as an applied public health researcher, and now as a coach.  A consistent theme across my work is “meeting people where they are at” to help people move toward change – at their own pace, on their own terms – and without judgment or stigma.

I approach public health differently, and that makes my coaching practice different.  There are no pictures of green juice, yoga mats, or workout gear here–just big cats.  The cats represent fierceness: your inner fierceness for change, and my fierce dedication to you as your coach.  I welcome people who feel alienated from today’s vapid influencer-based “wellness” culture that prioritizes ideals of beauty and thinness, expensive products, and quick fixes over true transformational change and self-acceptance.  If you don’t make perfect choices all the time, have failed in the past, or feel like none of the available options work for you, reach out to me for a free chat.

Credentials: I received my coach training through the College of Executive Coaching’s post-graduate Positive Psychology Health & Well-Being Coaching program.  I hold the gold standard board certification from the National Board of Health & Wellness Coaching (NBC-HWC).  I am an active member of the International Coaching Federation, complying with their ethics and guidelines. To continue my coaching education, I have completed Module 1 of Wellcoaches.