About
Hey there! I’m Sonja,
Leadership Specialist & Creator of The Expansion Practice.
Travel enthusiast, dog lover, fanatic for all the books (on all the subjects),
and an advocate for intuition.
as seen in:
ONCE UPON A TIME
I was a management consultant supporting mission-driven leaders and organizations to scale their operations. It was my dream career. Until it... wasn't.
It had all the hallmarks of the elusive dream job I had been striving for. After a few too many years at an unrelenting pace, however, I was exhausted and begrudgingly coming to the realization that I was no longer happy.
At the time, I didn't have the capacity to entertain these inconvenient feelings (I was, after all, very busy). So, I threw myself into more work, as we do when we're not ready to acknowledge our truth, and I burned out epically. It was a massive wake-up call. It was also exactly what I needed to finally listen to what both my body and my intuition had been trying to alert me to for years.
By not listening, I had been unintentionally and unconsciously perpetuating the push-through-at-all-costs paradigm of leadership that I was also trying to change. These dynamics deplete, exhaust, and make us sick. They keep us separated from parts of ourselves and each other, feeling isolated and alone, angry and confused.
Then we show up to work.
This is why so many of our leaders exhibit counterproductive, destructive and toxic behaviors. But it doesn't have to be this way.
That's when I realized we needed a better way forward... and I sought out to create it.
I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside both visionary and textbook toxic leaders, as well as many others who fall somewhere in between. It hasn’t always been an easy journey. Attempting to grow and lead early in my career, I struggled to find examples of the leader I wanted to become. More importantly, perhaps, I struggled to find the leader I needed. In many ways, that was the exact medicine required for me to create my own path, and now, Practice.
The Expansion Practice reflects the integration and evolution of my two-plus decades of work in leadership, the challenges I encountered by not listening to my intuition, and how they led to my study of somatic practices and spiritual direction post-grad work with the Institute for Intuitive Intelligence®. It's an embodied blend – an alchemy – of what it means to lead from a deeply rooted and aligned place, for the greater good. Not from ego, fear, or in reaction to the times. It's about how we lead from our center, bringing all of who we are into how we show up in the world.
Top: Our very spoiled pup, Rocky (yup, that's his drool on his nose). Left, my fave human, Glen. Both are integral to my alchemy.
So we can transform the way we lead.
MY REALLY OFFICIAL BIO, the TL:DR VERSION
Sonja is a leadership specialist and creator of The Expansion Practice. She brings a unique alchemy to her clients from her twenty-plus years of leadership and organizational development experience, along with her realization that she – like each of you – is also deeply intuitive.
In her own journey, she’s had the opportunity to work with both visionary and textbook toxic leaders and many others who fall somewhere in between. After a decade of supporting leaders to scale their organization’s impact, Sonja has unique insight into the leadership required to successfully navigate and sustain that course. As a result, she is committed to bringing forth a new paradigm of leadership, where we are living and leading from our most sophisticated form of intelligence - our intuitive intelligence® - and creating transformational change in our sectors.
Our Team of Collaborators
Community and collaboration are key values of ours at The Expansion Practice. This incredible group of colleagues are all experts in their respective fields, all bringing something different to the table, and are all grounded in our shared foundation of intuitive intelligence®. When you work with us, we connect you to the practitioner who is best suited to support you based on your specific needs. You can learn more about each of them by connecting to their websites below.
Alison Rackley
Caswell
Stacey Webb
self-mastery mentor
Intuitive Somatic Mentor
Krista Hammerbacher Haapala
consciousness design guide
Nila Matthews
neuroscience & intuitive flow expert
Join our community of mission-driven, embodied leaders who are expanding beyond their subconscious fears and limiting beliefs. Those who are ready to expand their impact in a healthy and sustainable way and transform the way we lead. By signing up and joining the community, you’ll be first to learn about what we’re creating to support you on that path, along with special offerings only you can access.
Follow along and stay up to date on all the things we're creating for you.