Kelly Tisdel, CLC

Inspired Teacher, Mentor, Coach

I grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan, where the waves were a refuge, the forests medicine, and the night skies stirred my imagination. Nature has been my saving grace time and again, offering guidance, perspective, and renewal. From a young age, I found myself drawn toward places of need, guided by enduring questions:

How can I serve? What is my truth? What is mine to do?

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These questions carried me from Northland College in Wisconsin—where I earned a degree in Elementary Education with a minor in Environmental Education—to Ashland, Oregon, where I helped co-found The HeartLight School, a learning environment rooted in freedom, relationship, and curiosity. When life invited another turning, I answered it by sailing on a 39-foot boat from Fiji to New Zealand—an unplanned and profound rite of passage that asked me to trust the unknown and listen more deeply to life itself.

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Travel awakened dormant parts of me and ushered in an era of deep listening. After a year away, I returned to Ashland and stepped into my role as a Waldorf class teacher, a vocation I held for sixteen years. In Waldorf education, teachers journey with their students across multiple grades, allowing for deep bonds and meaningful relationship to form. I guided my first class from third through eighth grade and later taught throughout the middle school years. During this time, I came to understand adolescents at a cellular level—what they long for, how deeply they want to be seen, and how essential authentic relationship is for their becoming. My work with parents grew naturally from these years of classroom life, mentorship, and close partnership with families.

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Within this larger journey, I co-created Inner Guide Expeditions in 2012, a program devoted to serving middle and high school youth through transformational wilderness experiences, international expeditions, mentoring, and ongoing circles. For seven years, I actively mentored and guided young people on 15–21 day journeys in places such as the Northern Cascades, the Tour du Mont Blanc, and the southern reaches of Iceland. These experiences invited self-awareness, emotional literacy, resilience, and reflection. The work continued long after the expeditions ended, through one-on-one mentoring and community circles—support I continue to offer today.

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I am also a trained life coach through Life Coaching Academy, where I deepened my commitment to an inquiry-based, presence-centered approach. This work taught me how to get out of the way, trust the larger field, and allow curiosity to lead. I believe questions are portals—gateways into greater awareness, truth, and inner authority. I bring these skills into my work with teens, helping them access who they truly are, and with parents, supporting them in finding their own intuition and inner resource as they parent the individuating young person before them.

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At the heart of my work is the creation of a safe, steady space where healing and true wellness can unfold. I hold a deep trust that when someone is genuinely seen—without agenda, urgency, or fixing—their own wisdom emerges naturally. My gift lies in sensing people deeply, reflecting them back to themselves, and offering the time and presence required for authentic unfoldment.

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I am honored to walk alongside each individual and family who finds their way to me.