HELLo, beautiful HUMAN
I'm Nicole Torres - a certified, trauma-informed somatic leadership coach who helps mission-driven first-gen and BIPOC leaders and teams build sustainable success, without the burnout.
The tower moment
HI :) I'm Nicole Torres, a certified, trauma-informed somatic leadership coach who helps mission-driven BIPOC leaders and teams create sustainable success - without the burnout!
I knew I needed a different path forward.
As a first-gen Latina, I chased the “American Dream” hard.
I made it to NETFLIX.... and I burned out on my way there - TWICE.
For years, I thought the answer was working "harder" and doing "better." That just kept me on the burnout train. The truth? I didn't know how to rest.
Everything shifted when I started seeing life through the lens of my nervous system - our very own personal operating system.
Picture the hundreds of open tabs slowing down your computer. That's what life's stressors do to us: the mental, emotional, and physical load we carry every day.
The computer isn't broken - it's just bogged down. Same goes for you, friend.
Our parents often didn't have the chance to learn this, let alone teach us about it. They did the best they could with the tools they had.
We're the generation that gets to heal our survival patterns and build success that lasts without running ourselves into the ground. In doing so, we honor their sacrifices and create a better future for ourselves, the community we impact, and the generations to come.
Even though I managed to climb the corporate ladder and work at the best billion dollar streaming media companies in the world, I never felt truly accomplished or "successful".
HOW I GOT HERE
Over a 13-year career, I landed my dream jobs at top billion-dollar media and streaming companies. On paper, I was crushing it - educated, experienced, hitting goals, climbing the ladder.
On the inside? I was a hot mess. Exhausted, frustrated, and misunderstood.
At the time, I didn’t know what I was carrying - or how much: first-gen trauma, navigating systemic oppression, sexism, and imposter phenomenon - all while cycling through burnout: over-achieving, stress, anxiety, overwhelm, crash, shame - repeat.
I was raised to believe that if I worked harder, I'd succeed. I'd be seen, appreciated, rewarded. That's what my papi told me. But once I got inside those companies, I was usually one of the only women on the team - and almost always the only Latina.
I shrugged off microaggressions as misunderstandings. "Did they just say that?" They assured me they were "just joking."
Add in perfectionism, neurodiversity, and a nervous system that froze under pressure - and my confidence slowly started to crumble. As skilled as I was, I had no idea my unresolved trauma was quietly sabotaging my performance.
I didn't know how to regulate my nervous system.
I didn't even know that was a thing!
There were times I didn't feel safe - some were valid and others was just my body being in survival mode for too long.
I pushed through for 10 years, suppressing my needs and working overtime (often unpaid) trying to "make it." Once I hit my next milestone - success didn't feel the way I thought it would. It couldn't feed good when I was moving from one burnout cycle to the next.
Eventually, I realized no one was coming to save me, I couldn't save me because I didn't know what was "wrong". I just knew something had to change.
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So I asked for help and hired my first coach. We worked together for 3 years. Best money I ever spent. Was I scared? 100%Did I put it on a payment plan? Yes and yes. #noregrets
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SERVING WOMEN OF COLOR
My approach honors a hard truth: systemic oppression affects women of color differently and disproportionately.
Meanwhile, a lot of mainstream coaching and spirituality "gurus" gloss right over it - bypassing real pain with "love and light" or "how bad do you want to change" rhetoric, only to cause more harm.
That's why it became so important to me to create spaces where women of color can talk about what actually affects them - without being spiritually bypassed, and without carrying the burden of shrinking their own pain to make others comfortable.
Here, you get judgment-free empathy, sisterhood, amigahood, and real support from someone who gets it.
MY APPROACH
My own healing led me to dive into - and then become trained in - the healing modalities that supported the biggest shifts of alignment in my life. Reclaiming the connection to my body and intuition has been the most important - and the foundation of my coaching.
I gently guide clients through the somatic experience - which is simply connecting with their bodies - to trust what they're feeling and bring intuitive, emotional, and physical awareness to the ways extreme stress and trauma affect us.
My work is grounded in nervous system regulation, polyvagal theory, and cognitive behavioral coaching, inner child healing, and internal parts work - using both "top-down" and "bottom-up" approaches to move through the emotions and triggers that come up.
As we unravel the internal knots, I weave in energy work when necessary to help release what you've been carrying from past hurts. Energy healing is gentle and non-invasive - and unlike some talk therapy, it often doesn't require you to re-live the hard stuff.
Being trauma-informed means I move forward gently and meet you exactly where you are. I know there's more to real change than "positive thinking." My role is to hold space for the weight that systemic harm has placed on first-gen and women-of-color clients - and to remind you that none of it was your fault. I hold that weight with you, and I help you keep going.
My vision is a world that normalizes healing - one that no longer shames us for having feelings, being vulnerable, or choosing a different way. We're not "too much," and there's nothing wrong with us for wanting better. Let's build lives so full of joy that we get to live our ancestors' wildest dreams.
Truly healing burnout - at the root - reveals a tapestry of survival patterns woven together, sheltering our fragile egos, low self-worth, neurodiversities, and essential human need for connection, appreciation, and belonging.
EDUCATION & TRAINING
HARMONY:
When our thoughts, actions, and words all align.
But first, we must feel safe.
My deepest love and gratitude to the teachers, healers and brujas who came before me - especially my mamma - my greatest teacher, my mamma Leticia Torres, LCSW.
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Dec 2023 - Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy Certification, The Embody Lab (60-hr training with leaders in the somatic field: Peter Levine, Deb Dana, Dr. Ruby Gibson, Manuela Mischke-Reeds, Nkem Ndefo, Dr. Arielle Schwartz, Dr. Scott Lyons, and more)
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May 2023 - The Art of Healing Relationships: Resolving Trauma & Restoring Connection, Trauma Solutions (Dr. Diane Poole Heller & Terry Real)
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Feb 2021 - Left film/TV career to pursue Ouroboros Healing full time
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Oct 2019 - Certified Advanced Akashic Records Reader
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2019-2020 - Transpersonal Spiritual Coaching
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July 2019 - Certified Emotion Code Practitioner
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June 2018 - "The Warrior Within"
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Jan 2017 - Certified Usui Reiki, Level 1
HEALING IS NOT LINEAR IT'S CYCLICAL.
The Ouroboros [or-UH-bor-uhs] is one of the oldest known symbols, with roots tracing back to Egyptian iconography - even found in the tombs of King Tutankhamun and Cleopatra. It represents transformation and the cyclical nature of life, death, and rebirth.
When left with nothing to eat, the serpent feeds on its own tail. It can sustain itself and become its own source of life - or it can consume itself too quickly and cause its own destruction.
I chose the Ouroboros because it reflects a choice point. We all have to decide: be our own source of power, or be consumed by our circumstances. We face that choice again and again, because healing, growth, and evolution aren't linear. They're cyclical.
The Ouroboros
[or-UH-bor-uhs]