.jpg)
The Full Story:
How I came to work in web design & what came before along the spiral...
I AM GEORGIA
I am a multifaceted human, on a life path that has been anything but linear… I’m a seeker, a thinker, and passionately curious. I love travel and art, and engaging with the creative flow in all aspects of my life. I’m deeply inspired by nature: the changing seasons, the cycles of life, and how all parts of the system feed and nourish each other. One could say I’m a multidisciplinary systems-thinker, who happens to also be passionate about travel, gardening, event curation, healing with food medicine, performing rituals with fellow Goddesses, critiquing social structures, and sharing a good story. I’m also an avid bibliophile and have a deep connection with the written word.
Fun Fact: I used to want to be a therapist. And still do, and probably will be, one day. How I got into marketing and web design along the way is an incredibly spiralic story, which I’m honored to share with you here…
YOUTH
My relationship with mental health and healing truly starts from birth. Youth consisted of conflict in the home, poverty in the community, mental health struggles, pathologization, more mental health struggles due to being pathologized. Changing schools, experimenting with multiple identities, masking. Real relief found through self-driven rites of passage, and from the aid of plant medicines. I truly thank plant and fungi allies for re-revealing my real self to myself, and showing me that life is magical when I share my true self with the world. Connection and authenticity are not at odds, and everything else that gets in the way is the work we’re here to sort out in this lifetime.
YOUNG ADULTHOOD
A few years in Hawaii, taking classes on everything interesting under the sun: exploring diverse topics ranging from Sociology, Psychology, Religion, Spiritual Ecology, Hawaiian Studies, Geography, and Mythology. Learning from the School of Life, in connection with the people of O’ahu, and in relation with the land. Nature and the spirit of the island as the greatest teacher. Strengthening a sense of independence through living thousands of miles away from home. Backpacking trips to Asia, followed by a year in India and Nepal, to study, explore, and further expand my perspective.
BACK TO SAN DIEGO
The possibility of therapy as a profession first entered my consciousness the summer I moved back to San Diego. It was a very directionless time: I had NO idea what I was doing - where to focus - or what was next. I couldn’t justify continuing to pay for school with no clear career goals, and with a new wave of conflict in my family system, I figured it was a good time to spend a stepping-stone stretching back at home, to sort things out.
Not knowing what to do, and seeking some stability, I signed up for a few classes at San Diego City College (SDCC). One which really grabbed my attention was Pharmacology of Psychoactive Substances, a course in the Alcohol and Other Drug Studies (AODS) Program. Immediately, I signed up for the course, for psychoactive substances had played a pivotal role in my life journey thus far. I began looking into the AODS program as a whole, and started thinking: I want to learn more about all of THIS.
Addiction is a FASCINATING subject, located at the intersection of trauma, mental health struggles, and substance abuse. All very familiar, all going right to the core of some of the biggest challenges we face in our human condition.
The SDCC AODS program was one of the best things I’ve ever done. I really can’t speak highly enough about the content of the program and the quality of the teaching we received. I loved learning about the many theories of addition, and found myself gravitating towards exploring the role of family dynamics and social factors in driving people towards a disordered relationship with substances.
It was right around this time that I realized that I wanted to pursue a path to becoming a licensed therapist. SO MANY people in my life struggled with addiction, trauma, and family conflict. If I could hone my skills as a therapist, I could really help people find peace in themselves, and live healthier lives. I could support people as they navigated the process of saving their own life. And I could get paid to do it. Life seemed to have put me into the epicenter of these challenges from birth, perhaps for a reason... A path forward was becoming more clear.
PROFESSIONAL GROWTH
The clinical aspect of the AODS program really bridged the gap between theory and practice. As the program was geared towards entering the chemical dependency counseling field, there was a huge practicum component, inclusive of running real process groups and doing an internship at the end of the program. I was able to practice actual person-centered counseling skills, such as motivational interviewing, facilitating psycho-education groups, and honing the skill of case notes. Having yet to complete a bachelor's degree at the time, I found my education in drug counseling, paired with my work as a case manager at a local homeless shelter, to be a great place to expand my psychology knowledge and person-centered counseling skills, as I continued on working towards the degrees needed to become a licensed therapist.
THE PANDEMIC ERA
Things were all going well and on a linear-ish path until WHAM! A global pandemic struck. And due to my mistrust of the flimsiness of social systems, I decided to move out to the country with my partner, to work a farming gig until the whole situation blew over. You know, just in case there were crazy riots and the city got destroyed, or if this was actually a black-death level plague situation. We loved farming, and I learned so much working with plants and learning from the biological systems that support life. We didn’t get COVID the entire time we were out there.
Unfortunately, it was here that my deciptively linear career trajectory took a major left turn. Upon returning to the city, I faced barriers to enter my old line of work in the mental health / social service space. My values of body autonomy and consent to medical treatment clashed with vaccine mandates at the time. I did not want to compromise my body in the name of a political shit-storm, so I paused the vaccination, and paused a return to the work I loved doing.
Honestly, I had a bit of a breakdown at this time, returning to the service industry and just not knowing WTF I was doing with my life. The limitless possibilities of the unknown in the early twenties now felt more constricting as I inched closer to thirty.
ANOTHER TRANSITION
In order to regain SOME connection with mental health work and to continue to feed my head, I decided to go back to school. I was blessed to be able to find the undergraduate Psychology degree completion program at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). I completed my bachelors in just one year in their online program, and was privileged to be in one of the most brilliant, motivated, heart-led cohorts of fellow returning students, all passionate about healing and mental health. I was back on track!
OK, so if you’re still reading, you might now be thinking, “what does ANY of this have to do with marketing and web design??”
We’re getting there, I promise!
ENTER THE DIGITAL MARKETING WORLD
This is where marketing comes in: when I started my online program, I was lucky enough to be offered a job at my friend’s digital marketing company. My first tasks included email marketing, blog writing, and updating clients’ Shopify stores. The work was part time and meshed extremely well with my school schedule. It was dynamic, creative work, and a HUGE step up from the service industry!
It wasn’t long before I moved into the role of account manager, meeting regularly with clients and serving as the liaison between our team and our client’s goals. I served as a translator of sorts: converting client’s goals into actionable tasks for our team. My background as a case manager did much to prepare me for working face-to-face with a range of businesses. It was easy to shift from case plans to marketing strategy documents.
About a year into my marketing work, I started gaining greater experience on Shopify and Squarespace. By the end of my time at the agency, I was building websites on Webflow, and project managing web development projects. I realized that I LOVED creating the visual layouts of websites and emails, and saw first-hand the value that can come from conversion-optimized layouts and intentional design. I loved working face to face with clients, to helping them actualize their digital goals.
THE CRAFT DESIGN PORTAL IS BORN
In 2023, I graduated from CIIS with my Bachelors of Science in Psychology. Many of my classmates were looking at master’s programs, with the goal of starting their own private practice eventually. It was THEN that the idea for the The Craft Design Portal was born!
I saw a huge need in the therapy and holistic health community for support with branding and website creation. Many people are doing paradigm-shifting work in healing spaces, and they want to share that with the world, without having to learn a bunch of tech stuff. I realized that my technical skills in web design and marketing could be a huge asset to supporting emerging therapists launching their practices.
By the start of 2025, I was fully DONE with working with ecommerce businesses. I was ready to make a change towards more meaningful work: work that was aligned with my values of supporting transformative change towards wholeness and healing. So I took the leap: I turned in my thirty days notice, and started sketching out my ideas for The Craft Design Portal.
CONCLUSION
And here we are today! Thank YOU for the incredible, supportive, vitally necessary healing work that you do. I’m honored to have you witness my journey so far, and would be thrilled to serve as a collaborative partner to help you actualize your digital business goals.
Want to meet me face-to-face? Book a free Discovery Call, and we’ll get talking! A discovery call is an obligation-free way to see if The Craft Design Portal is a good fit for your current business trajectory, and a great way for you to feel out what it’s like to work with me.
With lots of love & gratitude,
Georgia ✨
