Hi! My name is Giselle Marzo Segura.
 
I am a life coach, group facilitator, healer, mentor, designer, and Wayfinder.
 
I work with individuals, families, and groups, who seek to create a richly expressive, authentic, connected and meaningful life. 

A bit about my story...

The challenges experienced while navigating the conventional world of labels and deficits to address my daughter’s learning differences became the inspiration, the guiding force towards a relentless pursuit of a strengths-driven life. Little did I know, while in the muck of confusion and difficulty, that these moments would become the stepping stones connecting me to a larger purpose.

The journey began the moment I gathered the courage to ask a different question... 

My husband and I sat in multi-color chairs around a round table. Across from us, the psychologist flipped through the 22-page report, detailing the results of what was at the time, the fourth diagnostic evaluation of our 11-year-old. As I heard each recommendation, my mind checked off everything we had done over the past six years. Therapy; check. Intervention; check. Special schooling; check. Check. Check...

Sitting there listening, inside this four-walled office space, I noticed the closed door in front of us and the matching feeling we were running out of options. Up until that moment, our lives had been moving in the opposite direction of healing and wellbeing. My stomach ached with the feeling of a question I felt I had to ask. 

“Where are the strengths in this evaluation?”  

With a puzzled look, the psychologist responded. 

“Strengths? We don’t look at strengths.”

Her answer marked a moment of sudden revelation. It brought to my awareness of how, we, as a society, are often educated to look for ‘what’s wrong,’ ‘missing,’ or ‘broken’. Do you remember a time during your childhood completing a worksheet titled, “Find What’s Wrong with this Picture?” or “Find the Mistakes?”. I do. This is the deficit-based lens in training. I also noticed how we have plenty of support systems that train the deficit approach towards ourselves and others.

The deficit lens is often so embedded in our culture, so automatic; we don’t even notice its presence, nor its consequences.

This new awareness led to a relentless pursuit of a radically different path — a path that seeks, not fixing, but one that cultivates an appreciative, strength-based, wholeness approach to life. This shift marked the turning point of healing and transformation for myself, my daughter, and our family.

The journey led to synchronous encounters with teachers and mentors in Diné (Navajo) healing traditions, Indian philosophy, yoga, meditation, Reiki and sacred plant medicine of the Amazon. Their guidance helped me see the power of the appreciative lens, to recognize the inherent role of nature, and understand there is a gift in every tear.

I learned how the challenges of our life’s journey could become places of great insight and growth. Challenges are callings to new learning and transformation — a compass showing the way to our soul’s expression. They are stepping stones to discovering and remembering our unique medicine — our gifts, our strengths, our innate intelligence, and our true nature.

Our disposition to look within, to our inner work, and our commitment to action, has a direct impact on everything we create and experience.

The way we see, hear, and appreciate has an immense power to heal — it is a key we currently hold in our hands that, if we decide to use it, is a key to increased life-satisfaction, to wellbeing, to meaning, to connection, to authenticity, to harmony.

Living from this appreciative space takes awareness, conscious practice, choice, and often, someone who walks alongside us in the learning process.

I now put everything I learned over the past 20 years into service through coaching, workshops, retreats, and ceremony to help individuals, families, and groups who seek to create a richly expressive, authentic, connected and meaningful life.

About my background and training…

I was born in the Dominican Republic. Between the age of five and seventeen, I had lived in four cities in three different countries, Venezuela, the United States, and the Dominican Republic. I am, most definitely, a Third Culture Kid. The experiences in my life nurtured my fascination for traveling, for cultural learning and appreciation, and the process of connection and reconnection with our gifts, our values, and our strengths.

Some say, I was a samurai warrior in my previous life, which may explain the intense discipline, relentless practice, and love of learning through which I approach my life and work. In this life, I came in contact with the martial arts by chance as an adult, while enrolling my children in a martial arts school. I am currently a 2nd Degree Black Belt in JKA Shotokan (Nidan) and 2nd Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do. During my competitive years, I earned multiple world titles in the NASKA circuit and represented the USA as part of the JKA/AF Women’s Kata Team competing at the 2014 JKA World Karate-do Championship in Tokyo, Japan.

I am a graduate in Science Communication (BSC) from the University of Miami, a graduate of the Certificate in Positive Psychology (CiPP) program with Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar and Wholebeing Institute, and completed studies in Reiki Healing (2nd Degree) in the traditional Usui Method. Currently, I am finalizing my credentialing for Certified Newfield Coach (NCC) designation with Newfield Network, which specializes in training in Ontological Coaching methodology. 

As the founder and creator of the innovative Strength Clusters® Visual Map & Experience, which is a one-of-a-kind whole person representation of the VIA Classification of Character Strengths and Virtues, my tools and group dynamics are now used by psychologists, therapists, educators, and coaches in over 11 countries from around the world.

Our story has been featured on the Tilt Parenting Podcast and in the recently released book "The Strength Switch: How the New Science of Strength-Based Parenting Can Help Your Child and Teen to Flourish" by Dr. Lea Waters. Mentioned in the new book, “Differently Wired: Raising an Exceptional Child in a Conventional World” by Deborah Reber and Action Explorations: Using Psychodramatic Methods in Non-Therapeutic Settings, by Adam Blatner, MD. I have collaborated with the VIA Institute on Character, and my writing has been featured on their blog.

I live in Miami, Florida with my husband of 22 years, Luis Gabriel, and our two teenagers, Gabriel and Valeria.

Life, nature, and the human experience is my passion.