Hi, I’m Krista.
My life has been a strange, beautiful, brutal, extraordinary crash course in what it actually means to be human.
I’ve walked through trauma, illness, grief, addiction within my family, massive physical transformation, motherhood, marriage, business, spiritual awakening, and more reinventions than I can count. I’ve also studied the human body, trained in healing modalities, sat in ceremony with Indigenous healers, built businesses, worked with hundreds of clients and program participants, and experienced things I still don’t have logical explanations for.
Somewhere inside all of that, I became fascinated with one question: What actually helps people change? Not what sounds good on Instagram or makes a great quote. What actually helps a human being heal, trust themselves, change their life, and become someone they once couldn’t imagine being?
That question has shaped nearly a decade of my work.
What actually helps people change?
I didn’t create this work because I figured out how everyone else should heal. I created it because I needed it first.
I grew up in Alaska as the oldest of three girls, in a childhood filled with constant change, significant trauma, and a lot of responsibility. I learned young how to adapt, take care of people, achieve, and keep going. Long before I had language for it, I had become incredibly good at carrying a lot while looking like I was doing just fine.
Life kept giving me opportunities to test that skill. Autoimmune illness. Chronic pain. Multiple surgeries. Losing more than 100 pounds. Being told I couldn’t become a mother, then becoming one three times through birth and adoption. More than two decades of marriage. Walking alongside people I love through addiction, cancer, and loss. Building businesses, losing versions of myself I thought were permanent, and starting over more times than I planned.
My background in biology and biochemistry taught me to ask questions and want evidence. My relationship with God, nature, spirituality, and eventually energy work, Reiki, somatic practices, ceremony, shamanic traditions, and Indigenous teachings showed me that not everything meaningful about being human fits neatly under a microscope.
I never wanted to choose between science and spirit. So I didn’t.
And then there was the Amazon.
Deep in the Peruvian Amazon, I sat in a kambo ceremony with the Matses people. I became dangerously ill after fighting what my body was trying to do, and when I finally surrendered, I saw a Phoenix rise.
What followed were seven steps I somehow knew I needed to remember. I didn’t understand then that they would eventually become The Phoenix Path, the framework behind years of my work.
That experience didn’t magically heal my life or make the fires stop coming. It changed how I understood healing. Maybe healing isn’t about reaching some perfectly healed version of ourselves. Maybe it’s learning how to meet the fire differently every time it comes.
Rise with the fire within you. You are the Phoenix.
Experience + expertise
My life is extraordinary. The expertise behind the work is real.
Science
Collegiate study in biology, biochemistry + physics
Energy Healing
Master in Traditional Usui Reiki, Holy Fire + Karuna Reiki
Shamanic Practice
Over a decade of training, practice, ceremony + study with teachers and healers throughout North, Central + South America
Body + Movement
Certified Personal Trainer + Kickboxing Instructor
Real-World Practice
Many years in the healing industry, thousands served + hundreds of clients and program participants
Business + Practitioner Development
Business owner + mentor helping healing and wellness practitioners strengthen trust, client experience, systems + growth
Author · Speaker · Talk Show Host · Ceremonialist · Founder of The Phoenix Path Collective · Creator of The Phoenix Integrity Standard
As Seen / Heard On
Everything led here.
Everything I’ve lived eventually became something I could give back. Stop Pretending You’re Fine came first because I was that person. Capable, driven, responsible, and really freaking good at carrying a lot while looking like I was doing just fine. The Phoenix Path grew out of my own healing and became the framework behind my programs, writing, speaking, and now Stop Pretending You’re Fine with Krista Rooney, my nationally distributed television talk show.
Years inside the healing industry revealed another place where change was needed. Incredible practitioners were being taught how to heal, coach, and serve without always being taught how to build professional, trustworthy, thriving businesses around that work. Today those missions live side by side: helping people stop pretending they’re fine and consciously choose what comes next, while helping the practitioners serving them build businesses worthy of their clients’ trust.
Where do we start?
TV Show
Stop Pretending You're Fine with Krista Rooney
Explore the show and the conversations we're bringing to television.
Speaking + Media
Bring Krista to Your Audience
Bring Krista and these conversations to your stage, show, podcast, event, or audience.
For Practitioners
Build Something People Trust
Build a practice people trust and a business that can grow.
Personal Growth
Stop Pretending You're Fine
Stop pretending you're fine and consciously choose what comes next.