About Marissa

I became a voice reclamation specialist

because I needed one.

"There were times when I was so hungry," my grandmother, Babci in Polish, used to tell me, "that I would sneak onto a farm, lay down under a cow, and milk the cow into my mouth to get food."


I am the granddaughter of immigrants. (And yes, that's me wearing the traditional Krakow dress!) I grew up with stories of adventure, old worlds leading to new ones, and, yes, of hardship.


She Ran and Never Looked Back


Babci grew up outside of Krakow, Poland, raised by her grandmother while her father worked in America so he could send for the rest of his family. War came, and Babci's village was burnt to the ground. As the flames consumed everything she knew, her grandmother called out to her: "Run, child, and don't look back!"


So she ran. She never saw her grandmother again, and from the age of six she fended for herself, living sometimes in the forest, going from farm to farm offering to work in exchange for food.


Sometimes people were kind to her. And sometimes they weren't.


When Babci was 18 she made her way to America. My mom is the youngest of her five children.



The Stories I Inherited

I grew up not just hearing these stories, stories of near starvation, of burnt homes, of safety lost and the absolute need to be strong and clever to survive, but feeling them. In my bones. In the cells of my body.


And as I forged my own way through life, I began to see some patterns. Patterns like eating more than I needed to, or allowing myself to settle for being talked over, dismissed, "put in my place."


What I Found When I Looked Back


It wasn't until I started doing my own voice reclamation work that I recognized that, along with the heroic resilience, quiet humor, and the utter reverence for life and family and the sacred that defined Babci, I also inherited her fear of there being a time when food ran out. When there wouldn't be enough. That I inherited her acceptance of harsh or demeaning treatment because at least it meant she belonged someplace for even just a short time. That I was reliving her survival mechanism of swallowing her words because she was so desperate for real physical and emotional nourishment.


I am a voice reclamation specialist because I needed one. I needed to excavate these stories, reach back in my lineage to the women before me with understanding and love, and heal those generational wounds so I could become the answer to the prayers my matriarchs whispered to themselves and shouted to the heavens.


Only then did I claim my place as a pattern breaker and liberator. Only then did I step into my role as their Legacy, honoring them by keeping the medicine I am meant to carry forward and laying down the burdens they carried long enough.

Your Story Lives in You, Too


We all have these stories. Whether our mothers and grandmothers are still with us, or have transitioned. Whether we know a lot about our ancestry or next to nothing. Whether the relationships in the matriarchal line are complicated, or painful, or tender. It's in all of us, and so is the calling.


I started my business a decade ago, after 18 years of being silenced in a male-dominated educational system, on a love for words and the way my heart expands when a woman finally gets to tell her story.



Since then, it has evolved from a mere business to a movement.


Women Who Break the Pattern

That movement is called Women Who Break the Pattern. It is for women who are ready to stop living by the inherited rules of survival and start living by the truth of who they are.


Soul Story is where that work begins. It is my signature voice reclamation program, where women trace the roots of their silence back through their matriarchal line, release what was handed to them that no longer serves, and reclaim full, unapologetic expression.


It's not about becoming someone new, or learning confidence tips. It's about becoming yourself, finally and fully, to the rejoicing of a chorus of women who are cheering you on across the generations. You are their chance to mend what was broken and say what they couldn't, planting a stake in the ground for those who will come after you.

If any part of this story felt like your own, that recognition is not an accident.


You already know what it feels like to carry something that was never meant to be yours. You already sense, somewhere, that there is more of you waiting to be heard.


I hear you. And I am so glad you're here.


Be at peace, Sister.


We can rewrite the story together.


“Meeting all of my matriarchal heritage at the same time was meaningful for me. Some of them I've never met, and some of them have never met each other, but seeing them all together and thinking about what they'd have in common with me at different stages in my life and their lives was really meaningful.”


- Malia Martin | Travel Industry Specialist


The Story Behind Wordtree

My love affair with words began before I can even remember...


It has roots in the earliest days of my life, when stories of impossible lands and adventures seemed possible to me, and its branches have extended through every day since. Even now, in each second, some new bud unfurls, and because of the magic of words, I have never been far off from enchanted shores or high adventure.


Like all loves, this one needed to be expressed; I started my business to share my enchantment with words and help others find their own voice.  But I needed an official name that would embody all of that magic and power and potential--and so, Wordtree was born.


A “wordtree” is a grounded thing, roots deep and intertwined with rich, cool earth, anchored and anchoring. It is a living thing, growing, needing and being needed by the plants and creatures around it, vital with sap and vernal promise even when its world sleeps gently under snow. It is a forger of paths, both downward into the soil and upward into the sky, where its branches long to embrace the clouds. It is a place of sanctuary: in its trunk and in its limbs, beings – wild, and not – find shelter.


May the words we find together be just so: grounded in source, brushing the heavens, alive with purpose, offering cool shade, and a place to be still with the magic of it all.