About Me
If you’re feeling out of alignment and struggling to get in touch with your authentic self, I’ve been there.
If you’re feeling out of alignment and struggling to get in touch with your authentic self,
I’ve been there.
I’m Shohreh Davoodi, and my
pronouns are she/her/hers.
I’m Shohreh Davoodi, and my pronouns are she/her/hers.
I live, work, and play on land in Austin, Texas, that is the unceded territory of the Tonkawa and Comanche tribes.
I’m a self-trust coach, a bit of a mind witch (at least according to my clients), a former lawyer, and the host of the Conjuring Up Courage podcast. For over five years, I’ve provided guidance and encouragement to a variety of smart, badass humans to help them figure out who they are and what they value.
Even though being headstrong is in my nature, I was raised in the same culture of injustice that we all are. Growing up, I was reprimanded and punished whenever I rebelled against the rules of my parents, the expectations of their religion, or society’s beliefs about how “good little girls” should speak and behave. As a result, it didn’t take me long to learn that my worth in other people’s eyes was connected to my achievements and productivity, as well as how attractive men found me.
Over time, I became an expert at being more palatable in order to fit in.
This showed up as:
Playing down my mixed-race identity and smiling through microaggressions, such as comments about how “exotic” I looked and the constant mispronunciation and misspelling of my name.
Learning how to perform sexiness and femininity for the male gaze to gain attention and power (destroying my relationship with food and my body in the process).
Assuming that when my mental health took a turn for the worse due to undiagnosed ADHD, it was a personal failing that required me to keep pushing through so no one would view me as “lazy” or “weak.”
The external pressure to be someone I’m not came to a head when I was working as an attorney at a large law firm. In the office, I dutifully played the part of Work Shohreh and filtered my every move. Was I dressed “appropriately”? Did I come off as too "aggressive" or arrogant? Would my colleagues be embarrassed by me or judge me? In Work Shohreh mode, I was focused on surviving.
Meanwhile, the real Shohreh—complex, vibrant, creative, funny, thoughtful, driven Shohreh—was screaming to be heard. I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling inside that I deserved a life where my authentic self would be respected and celebrated (and that this was not it).
So I took a terrifying leap and left the legal career I’d worked so hard for to start my own coaching business. I risked a lot to follow my inner compass and build a life where I had the freedom to thrive, not just survive, and now I help others do the same.
If you’ve been catering to everyone else’s wants and needs while stuffing down your own, if you’ve been contorting yourself to fit into too-tight boxes because other people have convinced you that you’re “too much” or “not enough,” I want to teach you how to lay down some of the heavy burden you’ve been carrying that you never should have had to shoulder in the first place.
It is possible to shed other people’s expectations, get more grounded
in yourself, and create the kind of life you’ve been dreaming of.
I’d love the opportunity to show you how.
More About Me
Credentials:
- 5+ years of coaching experience
- Juris Doctor Summa Cum Laude (my law license is in good standing and on inactive status)
- Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor
- ACSM Certified Personal Trainer
Continuing Education:
- Mindful Self-Compassion Core Skills Training with Kristin Neff and Chris Germer
- Motivational Interviewing Training for Weight-Inclusive Providers course
- How to Write About Gender webinar – McKensie Mack
- Whiteness At Work webinar – The Adaway Group
Teachers & Influences:
- Kelly Diels
- Evelyn Tribole
- Sonya Renee Taylor
- Ijeoma Oluo
- Christy Harrison
- Ilya Parker
- Dr. Kristin Neff
- Alex Locust
- Megan Rapinoe
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg
- All of my incredible clients
Love Languages:
- Glitter and rainbows
- Thoughtful gifts
- Afternoon naps
- Cuddling with doggos
- Drinking hot tea
- Hiking in beautiful places
- Eating sweets
- Getting new tattoos
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IDENTITY
I am a mixed-race, lesbian/queer, and neurodivergent woman. I have olive skin, dark features, and a non-white name, so I both experience racial discrimination and benefit from proximity to whiteness due to colorism. I also benefit from thin and pretty privilege. I don't have any physical disabilities at this time and my ADHD is not visible. I grew up in a majority-white suburb in an upper-middle-class family with stable access to food, housing, and healthcare. I have an advanced degree, and I have lived in liberal cities with dense populations since the age of eighteen.
I name these things because they have affected how I interact with the world and how the world interacts with me. I am committed to the ongoing work of interrogating my biases and owning my various privileges in an effort to do the least amount of harm possible. I believe that accountability is a necessary part of social justice, and I promise to listen to those who have been harmed by my mistakes and integrate their feedback so I can do better in the future.
VALUES
As a coach and business owner, my core values are:
Curiosity
Openness
Thoughtfulness
Compassion
Intentionality
Additionally, I believe in and am aligned with:
- Radical queerness and seeing beyond the restrictive binaries of gender identity and sexual orientation.
- Fat liberation, equal access to healthcare, and the downfall of diet and wellness culture.
- Disability justice and accessibility as the standard, not an afterthought.
- Anti-racism, reparations, the landback movement, the elimination of the prison-industrial complex, and dismantling white supremacy.
- Intersectional feminism that is specifically inclusive of trans folks, creating a culture of consent, and the destruction of the patriarchy.
BUSINESS PRACTICES
We each hold power and influence that can be used to make the world a better place, no matter the size of our platform or bank account. Here are some of the ways that I’m committed to wielding the power and influence that I have at my disposal through my business practices:
- I commit to treating my clients as whole, complex people and helping them navigate the real-world barriers and effects of marginalization that may be holding them back, rather than shaming or blaming them and insisting on a narrative of personal responsibility.
- I commit to being a lifelong learner, both personally and professionally, with an emphasis on listening to and learning from BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, and/or women educators.
- I commit to going beyond listening and learning to taking intentional action that will bring us closer to a more just and equitable society.
- I commit to collaborating with and investing in business owners, writers, creators, coaches, and activists from diverse backgrounds, races, gender identities, abilities, and experiences, and providing fair wages for paid opportunities.
- I commit to offering transcriptions of every podcast episode, providing captions for video content, adding alt text to images, and capitalizing hashtags so that my work is accessible to as many people as possible.
- I commit to offering free and low-cost options for learning from and working with me, including my email newsletter, The Queer Agenda, my podcast, Conjuring Up Courage, my blog, my Instagram, my TikTok.
- I commit to providing at least 10% of all of my group coaching services pro bono to marginalized individuals with less financial privilege. Currently, that means for every ten full-price Follow Your Arrow members, I can offer one person a full scholarship.
- I commit to offering payment plans and payment plan extensions that do not require additional fees or interest in order to increase financial accessibility.