Today we’d like to introduce you to Christa Coppin.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
The story I’m choosing to tell here is the overarching story which greatly defined the last two decades of my life. Like many more out there, I have been the victim – and now survivor- of a narcissistic abusive relationship. The life I intended to live and planned to live with the person I poured all my heart into, sacrificed for, did not turn out how I had imagined. This will be the story of how I came to realize my situation and the healing journey up to present day. I am many years removed, and am still rebuilding my life, my identity, my heart, my mind and my dreams. I will take you through my experience with hope that my story will resonate to someone wondering if they can do the same. And the answer is: yes. You absolutely can.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not even close to a smooth road. Many inside and outside factors that have defined the last ~ 8 years of discovering myself again.
Some struggles included lack of resources, family crisis, dealing with depression and anxiety and learning after years of therapy that I had been chronically suffering with Complex PTSD. Getting that diagnoses connected MANY dots for me and allowed me to fully begin the intensive therapies with The Refuge Center in Franklin to recover. Otherwise, I would have been stuck in and out of cycles of depression and near-manic highs, consequentially creating massive instability in my life and thwarting progress on any area of my life to slow crawl. Prior to my diagnoses, living with C-PTSD interfered with my ability to have meaningful relationships, maintain stable employment, and physically had me stressed resulting in weight gain, skin issues, sleep problems, etc. this has also caused significant financial strain along the way. The C-PTSD is a result of the decade+ I spent in an abusive relationship/marriage. Coming out of that relationship and wanting to continue to break that abusive and traumatic cycle for my daughter is what has motivated me to have my own personal training business and chase my dreams. The dreams that were squashed and dumbed down are now coming to life again. My business has been relatively successful for the past 2.5 years. Now that I am through treatment for C-PTSD, I am aiming to pivot to full time work that will allow me to prioritize my own athletic abilities and train to one day compete as a CrossFit Masters athlete.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
For my entire adult life, I have been involved in health, wellness and fitness as a coach and personal trainer. After being an athlete all of my life, it was the thing that made the most sense to me, especially when things were tough. I have weaved in and out of corporate desk jobs when it was necessary to pay bills, but ultimately I circle back to fitness. I am primarily known as a CrossFit junkie- I was blessed to be in Southern California when CrossFit was absolutely booming and at the time, competed in local competitions nonstop. The year I was prepped to train for regionals on a team was the year I found out I was pregnant, which changed my trajectory to where I am now.
I’ve coached hundreds of clients over the years. What I am most proud of is the work I’ve done guiding pregnant and postpartum women through the incredible transition that happens with motherhood. Teaching them to reconnect with their body postpartum and be able to maintain and even improve their fitness after having children. The time I spent in the pre/postnatal space was extremely healing for me as well.
What sets me apart from others may be my stubborn tenacity to not give up. I somehow always find a reason to pick myself up and go again, go harder, do better. Maybe it’s my background in athletics, but I believe it’s my family bloodline. I come from a family who has endured massive trauma in past generations and am proud to say my parents are the cycle breakers, which my siblings and I carry forward. We’re all on a continuous path of peeling the layers and healing as many as we can during our time on this earth, undoubtedly leaving it a better place, even one person or interaction at a time.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was much like I am now! Fierce, focused, driven. I have been told I am intimidating my entire life, and finally, it doesn’t bother me anymore. I assume people think I’m intimidating because I am physically strong and my aesthetics show it. Also because I am direct and don’t take any shit from anyone unapologetically —out of respect for myself.
I’m like wildfire when I am lit up about something, I throw my all into everything I do. I’ve been an athlete since about 5 years old, my primary sport was track and field since 7 years old which I carried through to college. I was a collegiate pole vaulter and conference champion at Belmont!
Alongside track, I also did various sports including softball, volleyball, competitive cheerleading and cheered for the sports team in middle and high school. I’ve always loved good high energy pop music and loved to dance and sing to it in any spare time (that hasn’t changed), but I hold a deep rooted love for country music as well. I love to paint as well, tapping into artsy creativity, reading about spiritual self improvement and I used to want to be a makeup artist when I was younger. I could see myself doing that as a retirement job 🙂
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @coachedbychrista
